Pro Photo Gallery: A Scorcher at IRONMAN 70.3 Louisville
Jason West wins IRONMAN 70.3 Louisville.
We had to come out east for a couple of other races, so we took the chance to swing on into Louisville, KY for the second year of the IRONMAN 70.3 race. (This is the first year IRONMAN included a professional race in Louisville.) Just under 1300 athletes registered for the event with 628 men and 268 women completing the course. There were also some relays as well.
There were 34 men and 18 women who started the pro race, and all but two finished. This was my first time to Louisville for the race. I stayed with Ben Kanute and Jason West just over the river in New Albany, IN. At first, when I booked our Airbnb, I was a little worried we were going to be in CST instead EST like the race. Luckily a little google search taught me we were going to be just fine. I think it took Ben until Sunday to figure out we were staying in another state.
Leading up to the race it was HOT, and the forecast didn’t show anything but HOT. Heat prep was the talk of the town and I have to give credit to IRONMAN on this one they took it very seriously with their friends at the Louisville commission and they seemed to have all their boxes checked.
We all learned about the “cooling stations” at the pro meeting. These included buses running air conditioning where people could hop in, get their shi@#$ together, then hop back out on the course without any penalty. Jason mentioned after the race he really thought about taking advantage of one of them on the run.
Anyways onto some photos
Let’s dive into the women’s gallery first.
Jackie Hering would excites the 86-degree water just behind 3 others.
Meghan Dirito was all smiles at the start of the bike
Chloe Coronado Winn would slowly move her way up to ninth overall on the day, then staying pretty steady on the run.
Dominikia Jamnikcy would have the second fastest swim of the day and stay in the mix with the leaders until the end.
Jeanni Metzler was fastest in the swim and rode with the lead group of four all day.
Jackie Hering would end up with the 2nd fastest bike split, clocking a 2:21:12.
Posting the fastest bike split (2:20:56), Gabrielle Lumkes would start the run just behind a group of three.
The leaders early in the run.
Once past the mile 1 aid station, Jackie Hering went to work on the group and started hunting down the men.
Jackie Hering Wins in 4:16:26
Swim: 24:28
Bike: 2:21:12
Run: 1:24:05
Gabrielle Lumkes Takes Second in 4:24:15
Swim: 24:25
Bike: 2:20:56
Run: 1:31:56
Jeanni Metzler Finishes Third in 4:25:07
Swim: 24:17
Bike: 2:21:27
Run: 1:32:53
On to the mens race
Because of the nature of this course I wasn’t able to get as many shots of the men as with the women because I waited on the women and then moved through the field.
Ben Kanute would lead from the swim until about mile three of the run.
Jason West was right behind him out of the water.
Trevor Foley exits the swim and wants to forget that 86 degree water bath.
Matt Kerr would power his way from ninth out of the water to third off the bike. He would end up sixth on the day.
Jason West would come into T2 about 6:41 down from the lead. He said later in the day that he was dealing with some odd pains in his left leg when he was pushing on the pedals. He held higher watts at IRONMAN Lake Placid than he did today.
In good old “Trevor Foley fashion” he road hard, putting a lot of time on the rest of the field by posting the fastest bike time of 2:00:05
Ben Kanute played the game of “smash” from the start. He would end up paying for it a little later on the run.
Big Metz (Justin Metzler) would have a very frustrating day, finishing 13th, 17mins behind the lead.
Mile five, just after being passed by Jason West, Ben Kanute would go through a couple of rough miles before bouncing back a little and holding on to third place.
Trevor Foley looking back to see if anyone was coming for him sitting in 2nd place.
Jason West would end up running a 1:11:21 on a hilly, hot and somewhat disorganized run course,. proving once again that it’s never over until it’s over.
Jason West wins in 3:46:03
Swim: 21:39
Bike: 2:07:20
Run: 1:11:21
Trevor Foley finishes second in 3:47:39
Swim: 24:12
Bike: 2:00:05
Run: 1:17:45
Ben Kanute finishes third in 3:49:24
Swim: 21:33
Bike: 2:00:40
Run: 1:21:22
Fighting ‘Till the End
She was in the mix all day but, in the end, Dominika Jamnicky would be unable to close the three second gap to third place after Jeanni Metzler would rebound in the last mile.
Matt Mcwilliams would end up having the third fastest bike (2:04:14) and second fastest run (1:14:58), just missing the podium by 22 seconds.
Tags:
Ben KanuteIRONMAN 70.3 LouisvilleJackie HeringJason WestNotable Replies
Continue the discussion at forum.slowtwitch.com
Participants
Couple of things.
1,300 people that registered… I dont even think 1200 actually started the race…
It was a ghost town…
If they want it to grow, they have to stick it out. IM needs to figure out how to retool their costs and expectations for a race with less participants so they aren’t losing their shirt for a small race and are willing to stick it out and let it grow. Triathlon is doomed if the expectation is we can’t grow race participation anymore, and can only have races in the places where there is already a lot of established demand.
It’s a tough date for them. The heat is an issue for lots of people and school is just starting back up.
At 500+ USD entry fee for a 70.3 I don’t really worry about IM making losses at an event.
The date is definitely an issue. Hot and humid as hell here in the south at that time. Can’t say I want to gamble on whether I get typical 95* and sunny August, or the rare 85* with clouds.
I raced last year and also thought the bike was pretty poorly organized. There were many cars on the course at times. None necessarily driving dangerously, but it did cause a clusterf— with bikers getting backed up behind at times.
Last year was a fun race, but there’s room for improvement in many areas.
If you want IM to keep holding races you should. If they put on the race for just a handful of people they’d have to charge tens of thousands. You can say, “for a ten thousand dollar entry fee I should get treated like a king” all you want, but in that hypothetical scenario, they’d still find it more profitable to TURN DOWN your money, fire you as a customer, and go do business elsewhere.
I’d prefer not to be fired as a customer
Very true… I have an article in my head about this whole thing…
Expo prices need to come way down… Exclusivities for sponsorships need to be removed and athletes and less races need to be on the map around the WORLD Championships.
1300 people even at $500 they lost money for sure on this one…
I grew up in Louisville. I flew home from California to do the race. I very was disappointed to hear how low the turn out was. The race was very well done compared to other Ironmans I’ve done. The course was solid, the volunteers were great. As the story said, they were very prepared for the heat. I had no issues grabbing multiple cups of ice at every aid station and plenty of water. Most aid stations they were handing out cold towels and 3 or 4 had someone spraying you down with a hose. The pre race and post race experience were more than fine. I have nothing negative to say about this race. Obviously it’s hot. I’m not sure why the turnout was so low.
Ya, on closer inspection… from the looks of it, there were 1000 finishers this year and 2200 last year.
That is a pretty shocking decrease. I think Ironman needs to be careful, as they can’t expect every new race to be like Salem, can they?
The only idea I can have about why the turnout is slow low this year compared to last is that area of the US has been hit with some pretty severe weather issues over the last year, which would likely get residents thinking about other things. We’ve also got the issues with the economy and declining discretionary spending.
I’d hate to see these new races on the chopping block so quickly and hope Ironman can figure out a way to get lean and grow. But a 50+% decline in attendance is probably not looking positive for them.
Well you said it yourself that they need to watch more their expenses. IM is charging these prices nowadays (also in Europe) when a Non-branded IM event in Europe stands at 100-200 EUR, so more than half, so to me it seems like very much a spending problem on their side if 650k USD revenue (+ all the extra things they may have charged) is not enough to at least break even.
As for the future of triathlon, at least here in Europe every year new Non-IM races spring up and newer ones become serial, and they oftentimes have better support due to local triclubs & families than what I see in the nice image videos of 70.3
I am happy to race those, too, if I should be fired as a customer. 
I haven’t been to one of these I quite awhile, but as I recall there was a good amount of International competition that showed up. We know that this type of tourism is way down, almost gone from some countries, maybe this accounts for some 100’s of entires that are MIA??
For the rest it is probably the obvious, it is just too dam hot for most people, and once is enough to suffer through. Without the prestige of Kona, overly hot races have a limited shelf life, especially when it is almost a certainty of hot weather…
I totally agree these organic races are great. I think the reality is, they are more often than not, unsustainable over the long term precisely because there is not a large profit incentive. At some point, “for the love of it” and “for my kids” no longer applies. But if it’s “for my mortgage payment and trip to the Maldives”? Well… there’s always a need for that
Generally, and I’m sure there are exceptions, but I find that in Europe the various sporting federations have a little more support to give these kinds of grass roots organizations to help make it possible. To say nothing of the easier insurance issues.
I wish we could see those $100-200 races in the USA. But I fear that even where they are offered, the race director is likely sticking their neck under the guillotine if there is a serious incident and the lawyers come hunting.
That’s a great point. Definitely the airbnb community is feeling it from the rentals I know and am involved with. So I presume the same goes for races. A lot of craziness and foot shooting seems to be happening in the USA this go around.