An Ironman and The Midwest

Sad to say that yet again I’m dreadfully behind on getting this posted, in no small part because we’ve been busy, but also because I wasn’t sure whether it was worth putting these posts together… Still, in my efforts to document our fight for 50 states, I couldn’t leave these adventures unchronicled! Thus, I’m here to recount how, in October, James became an Ironman and we ticked off the remaining states of the Midwest! If you’ve been following along on our journey so far, you’d know that since moving to the US in June 2016, we’ve been trying to visit all 50 US states. With only 10 left to go, we were eager to get to the Midwest and tick a few off before James completed his first ever Ironman. And, as per usual, we had some great adventures (and great food!) along the way.

The MidWest Day 1 — Wednesday 10 October

We decided early on that we weren’t keen on driving to the Midwest, especially with James’s Ironman looming, a course of action with some positives… and some negatives. Chief amongst the cons was the sheer number of flights we took in October (the joys of living in Oklahoma). Having an early flight on Wednesday, we decided to stay in OKC overnight, which ended up being a wise decision—a text from United on Tuesday said the first leg to Louisville would be delayed due to maintenance requirements. Sigh. With a narrow layover window in Houston, we decided to change flights, and ended up on a red-eye from OKC that saw us up well before the sparrows.

This meant we were due for breakky while hanging out in Houston and had the chance to experience something that felt strangely futuristic: namely, the overwhelming number of iPads scattered throughout Houston airport. We couldn’t even order breakfast at a restaurant through a human as, like the rest of the terminal, iPad was king. It felt alienating and disconcerting—we ended up placing us face down on the table so we could have our breakfast without having an iPad in our faces. Still, despite the futuristic creepiness of Houston airport, we were grateful to get fed and then make our connection to Louisville… After all, that was where the adventure was really scheduled to begin!

Of course, by the time we got into Louisville, we were champing at the bit to get on the road and tick off West Virginia. We picked up our hire car (having been ‘upgraded’ regardless of our wishes, to a minivan) and hit the road for a very late lunch in Lexington at a sweet little spot called Stella’s Kentucky Deli. The food was pretty great, and the cake selection looked wonderful—though we looked longingly at them, we managed to leave without buying any, and I’m still unsure if that was a triumph or a tragedy.

West Virginia — Done!

All’s well that ends well, however, for we motored our little tookuses on to Huntington—stopping on the way for a West Virginia photo—to seek out Austin’s at The Market. The  humongous serving of ice cream we got was phenomenally good, and we took advantage of the lovely weather to wander around Huntington while we ate. There is a possibility that one of us got ice cream smeared all over their face & jumper, but that could just be a rumour. With a quick duck into a nice little bookstore to round out our West Viriginia experience, we jumped back in our minivan for the trek back to Louisville. 

At about 3 hours, it’s not exactly a short drive. By the time we got back into town, it was dark and we were tired. And it was also getting cold. We’d rented a great little Airbnb apartment in a quiet part of Louisville for the week and we headed back there. Once we’d dropped off our bags & James’s trusty steed, we ducked across the road for a low-key dinner at The Butchertown Social over the road (more booze available than food, really & thus not really our jam) before collapsing into bed. 

The MidWest Day 2 —Thursday 11 October

We started our first full day in the Midwest with a casual amble around the neighbourhood to take advantage of the sunny (though crisp!) weather and for breakfast at North End Cafe. It was probably the best (and certainly the most wholesome!) breakfast we had on the trip, which is a story that’ll become apparent as this post progresses. North End Cafe is a nice little spot with a tasty menu and friendly service, which inadvertently provided us a means for a trip back in time. Having ordered myself an English Breakfast tea to pretend at adulthood next to James’s coffee, it was a bit of a shock when the waitress, returning to refill James’s cup, inadvertently topped off my tea as well. Oops! Luckily, James said he had recently read about a beverage phenomenon called ‘switch’ from the early 1900s, which consisted of half tea and half coffee… which, upon attempting to research, I discovered may in fact just be a figment of his imagination. We still have no clue where he got this fact from, but the internet thinks he’s lying. Interesting. 

Post-breakfast, we’d intended to tick off both Indiana and Ohio so we could have a more relaxed Friday, but (as it will rapidly become apparent was a bit of a theme for the trip), things didn’t quite go to plan. For one, the weather had rapidly turned far, far colder than we’d planned on, and the wind was biting. The prospect of a 6 hour ride on Sunday wasn’t looking very appealing, considering James hadn’t packed a jacket for the Ironman. We decided to swing past Louisville Waterfront Park to check out the lay of the land and maybe find a jacket for James—two hours later, James had collected his packet, bought a jacket, a bike pump, some snacks and some CO2 canisters, received his athlete briefing… and fitting both Ohio and Indiana in on the same day wasn’t looking realistic. Instead, we went with the flow and decided Indianapolis was the order of the day. 

Helllooooo Indiana!

Tucked into our overly spacious minivan, we headed north. Unlike some of our other trips earlier during our US stints, this one wasn’t exactly meticulously planned, and we were happy to just go with the flow to tick off our remaining US states. So we had a relaxed lunch at Cafe Mansion—James had some incredible avocado toast, while I devoured an ‘Indiana bowl’—before heading out to investigate the Indiana Medical History Museum.

I’ll concede: this seems like a strange thing to go and do. But being the strange little nerds we are, we figured that if we had to do anything in Indiana, this was as good a place to check out as any. Probably the most annoying thing about the museum is that the only way to see it is to do a tour, but other than that, it was a fun little jaunt. We saw some brains in jars (I’d have liked more comparative diagrams to direct my brain-viewing efforts), a toddler-sized iron lung, a really incredible laboratory, and a fascinating insight into 20th century medicine. 

A bit worn out from a long day of driving and sightseeing, we trundled back into Louisville late that afternoon, sustained on the drive with a pretty great Oreo doughnut and mini banana bread loaf from Cafe mansion. Then, to round out our healthy habits, we headed to the Butchertown Pizza Hall for some (you guessed it!) pizza. It was pretty good really, though the cold weather on the walk there and back continued to be a rude shock! By this stage, I had more than a small niggling fear about what the weather would be like for James’s big event on Sunday.

The MidWest Day 3 — Friday 12 October

One of the best things about this trip was spending most of it sleeping in until whatever time in the morning (normally about 7) with no great urgency to get anywhere. Well, except the gym. We headed to Crossfit The Ville for me to lift some weights and James to casually turn his legs over on the bike before deciding to get a start on our day. A quick scan of the area turned up a small cafe nearby called Please and Thank You, and bereft of many other options (or the desire to find them), we headed there for some breakfast. Their cheese and egg bagels are pretty amazing, and their beverage selections were great too (as we had cause to rediscover in the days to come). Then it was off to Cincinnati to get our fourth state done for the trip! 

Well, Hey There Ohio

Yet again, our plans for the day were pretty fluid, and we decided to head to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Centre for some culture. (We like culture).Like many of the US museums that specifically examine racism and race relations, it was enthralling and enraging at the same time. It also could have easily consumed our whole day, and it was a shame that we had to power through it a bit. Still, we did our best! As well as the very informative and confronting Rosa Parks experience, we took the time to look through the museum’s special attractions, including the Nelson Mandela exhibition. As per usual—I learnt SO much! It’s always humbling to admit your own ignorance, but I will openly confess that in the time we have lived in America, I have learnt a mind-boggling amount about racism and race relations, and about American history. It was fascinating to learn about the context of Rosa Parks’s historic refusal to surrender her bus seat, as I hadn’t known that she was an activist and the protest was planned. We also had the opportunity to see a preserved slave hut that had been transported to the museum and reassembled, and provided a chilling insight into another aspect of the slave trade I’d been unfamiliar with.

Afterwards, we found our way to Taste of Belgium the Banks Bistro to treat ourselves to a rather late but delicious lunch. Day trips & spending only a short period of time in both Indiana and Ohio meant that our sightseeing options were a bit limited, and after lunch was done, we headed back to Kentucky again. Keen for something lowkey, we made our way to Trader Joes and WholeFoods to get some more race snacks for James and procure some dinner supplies from the WF hotbar. Along the way, I had a wonderful chat with an editor for advice on my grandfather’s biography… hopefully there will be more interesting and exciting news on that front in the next few months as I go through the process to move the book forward more formally!

It was a pyjamas, TV and WholeFoods dinner in the Airbnb for us!. Content that we’d hit all the states we needed to for the trip, we could now turn our undivided attention to the epic yet to come—James’s first Ironman. 

The MidWest Day 4 — Saturday 13 October

Saturday could arguably, in light of the task looming before James the following day, go down in our travelling history as one of the most frustrating we’d ever had. It started pretty well. James headed down to the waterfront to check out the lay of the land—well, not the land per se, but the Ironman swim course, while I slept in before making my way to the gym. That waiting was a rookie error, as it turned out. James couldn’t really do much swimming, since the current in the river was so strong that people were simply staying in the one spot despite working their hardest. And by the time he showed up at the gym, hungry and ready for breakfast, I really wasn’t anywhere near done. Oops. Of course, that meant by the time we were both ready to find breakfast, we were starving.

Here’s where it got a bit hairy. We’d failed to take into account that the horde of Sunday’s competitors had descended upon Louisville and everywhere we might want to go to breakfast was packed. An hour’s wait for breakfast when it’s already 10 am is hardly an appealing thought! And everywhere we went, it was the same story. To rub salt in the wound, it was cold and overcast, and walking around Louisville left us chilly and pretty pissed off. After numerous failed attempts to find somewhere, we ended up back at Please and Thank You (though a different location)… only to find out they didn’t have the only thing James wanted for breakfast. A less than auspicious start to the day, and since he only ended up having a black coffee, hardly great preparation for a forecast 12 hours of exercise the next day. 

Back to the Airbnb we went, for a big lunch of leftover food from the night before, then back into gear to ensure James’s final prep was complete. After a nap, we spent the afternoon getting James’s bike into the transition area and ensuring his ‘special needs’ bags were ready to go. A special needs bag is a plastic bag which is made available to the athletes with snacks, extra clothes. It basically contains anything ‘special’ that athletes may need that they can’t/don’t want to carry with them. They can access one at roughly the halfway through the bike and then another at halfway through the run… So James’s were full of snacks. Yay for snacks! Afterwards it was back to the Airbnb for a quiet night in of TV and chicken & rice for dinner before getting an early night in prep for the big day. 

The MidWest Day 5 — Sunday 14 October

For anyone who has never completed an Ironman or supported an endurance athlete, let me just say: an Ironman is a long-ass way. It comprises a 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bicycle ride and a marathon 26.22-mile (42.20 km) run to round it all off. 

Not surprisingly, you need a fair bit of time to do all of that. Knowing that James’s swim was slated to start at around 8ish, we were up at 5 to head to the transition area and make all of his stuff was good to go. Why so early? Well, transition shut at 6am, and we’d decided to walk down to the event. Why? I honestly don’t know, especially considering James had so damn far to go that day. But we did. With our little backpacks on (James’s with his swimming kit, me wiht my laptop & snacks), we set off. The weather was gross, and we huddled together under the umbrella on the walk down with me thinking the whole way, ‘why didn’t we just bloody drive?’ It felt like such. a. long. way.

We paused on the journey so I could get a photo with this bizarre house frontage that’s just in the middle of the road in Louisville. Turns out that it’s Heigold House, a preserved 19th Century mansion facade of a wealthy German immigrant who moved to America in the mid-1800s and was a successful stonecutter. There’s actually some pretty fascinating history about him & the house at the link above. The things you learn, huh?

The Swim

Anyway, we finally got there (after some very nice people stopped to offer us a ride). Once we were down at the Waterfront, my shoulders aching from the weight of my damned backpack, James got body-marked. His race number were written on his arm and his age inked on his calf in permanent marker, and then we waited for the swim. 

And waited. 

And waited. 

We waited for that swim to start for what felt like forever. It was wet, it was cold, it was dark and the intended start time came and went with no clue about what the delay was. Finally, we were enlightened: the current was so strong they’d had to cut the swim course. From 2.4 miles, the new course was now 0.9 miles (1.5km). The delay had been moving the buoys, and the race could now begin. Luckily, there were a LOT of dogs, and I kept us busy by taking a stack of selfies at different stages.

The only problem was, I now had to get my butt from the swim entry point to the swim exit point… and the path to get there was windy. With James’s backpack on my front and mine digging into my shoulders, I walked/jogged/trotted toward the swim exit—and still managed to miss James finishing the swim. Oops. But hey, 16 minutes is quick. 

The Ride

The 112 mile/180 km bike ride went through a small nearby town called LaGrange. I drove out there with the intent of catching James just after the halfway mark of the ride… then almost had a heart attack thinking that I’d missed him ride through. My toes almost fell off with the cold, BUT I managed to see him pass through LaGrange in all his glory. 

I might have had cold toes, but James had bigger problems. The glasses he wore for the ride were too dark considering the overcast skies. Taking them off meant the perpetual drizzle lashed him in the face pretty much the whole time.  By the time he got in for the transition from bike to run, ‘everything was blurry’… a great start to the next four hour slog!  

The Run

There’s no better time to do your first marathon than at the end of an Ironman… Right? Right! 2 legs under his belt (get it?), and a supermarket’s worth of salami and cheese on his ride in, James set off on his run. (Some of his first words to me as he finished the ride/started the run, were: ‘I never want to eat salami again’.) 

And at 2125, James crossed the finish line at a sprint and finished his first ever Ironman with a time of 12:04:15.

Despite the cold day and the rain, and having travelled about a million miles, he felt ‘pretty good’. HOW, I ask you?! Anyway, it was amazing. And after a rub down, some free post-race food and a quick change into dry clothes, it was back to the Airbnb for us, and to bed.

Monday, 15 October

I’m sure no one would be surprised to hear that we decided to sleep in on Monday morning. It was a long, slow, lazy start to the day. But other than some sore joints, James still felt pretty good… Mind-boggling. 

The weather remained horrific, especially for someone who decided to go out on the hunt for food in their beloved Earthrunners… Both of us were soaked in about a minute flat, despite our best efforts in plying the umbrella. That also made us a little cranky, but we ended up back at Please and Thank You for breakfast. James ordered approximately ten of everything, as well as a bag of chocolate chip cookies. Cookies that Please and Thank You claim are the best in Louisville: gotta be honest, I don’t think they’re wrong. 

We enjoyed a low-key day in, napping and watching a movie, before heading to Brazieros for dinner. There, we ate all the meats. And I mean all of them. Well, and two huge desserts, of course!

That really rounded out Louisville for us, and finished our stint in America’s Midwest. The following day we had an early start for two flights back to the humdrum of Oklahoma… For less than a day. Why? Because on Wednesday, we kicked off our final push for the ultimate goal while living in the USA: visiting all 50 states!

Tune in next weekend to hear about our final triumphant US trip to the Northeast.

— Ana