Preparing for Ironman Louisville put us through a Metric Ironman. Take all the Ironman distance numbers and make them kms instead of miles. Then to can convert those back to miles so you can relate to the distances. We staged out of Long Beach, near Belmont Shore.

Swim 2.4 km (1.5 mi)

Bike: 112 km (69.6 mi, or 2,624 yds)

Run: 26.2 km (16.3 mi)

Those were the targets for the day.

Swim: At dawn on a beautiful LA morning, we started at Naples Island in Long Beach. We swam an out and back. Water temp 61-65F. Fairly clear water. I could see the seaweed and sand under water. I took it easy on the first 500 yds. One short coughing fit.

Bike: We rinsed off and used the Sprinter van as T1. We rode over to the San Gabriel River Trail and rode up 35 miles and back down. Weather was nice. Tailwind on the way up, not too hot, then head winds on the way down. Tunnel of Doom. Rider shot out of the tunnel while we were headed in. Scared the crap out me. He was going so fast, I had zero reaction time. Underpass under the 10 fwy, some crazy rider pulled out of nowhere in the dark, riding across the trail. Lynda and I almost hit the freak in the dark. Turn around mile was on the trail after the underpass for the 210 fwy. We didn’t see Bob or Mike flip it, and called Bob. No answer. We ended up finding Bob and Mike near Washington Blvd. Mike had a side wall blow out. Since neither had a phone, a called an Lyft and sent Mike down to Long Beach. The rest of the ride was less eventful.

Run: I didn’t have much run in my legs. I was very thirsty and managing my GI tract. Drank lots of gatorade and water. I walked most of the run.

Post-Event: We had dinner near by at Mimi’s Cafe and ice cream sundaes at Baskin-Robbins.

George, Mike, Julie, Lynda, GT, Danny, Bob, Steve, Joe, Scott, Peter. Trevor: Swim and Run. Julie: Swim and Bike.