A return to racing! Ironman Tulsa this weekend was absolutely incredible. Getting back to the starting line with around 1900 people felt like a re-awakening after a long dormant year. I am so thankful to have been able to have taken part in this event, it has been an experience I will never forget.

About 5 weeks before Ironman Tulsa, I injured my foot doing some sprints or possibly trail running, hard to say as they both were about the same time. The doc thought it was a stress fracture, so I cut out almost all running from then on in to race day. Heading to a race while injured is a very strange experience. I knew I could bike and swim without a problem, and so the plan was to go after those with everything I had, knowing I’d still have time to finish, even if I walked the marathon.

Ironman Tulsa was also my first big race out the state, which provided a new set of unique logistical challenges. We drove down in a company van and when we were a little ways into Illinois I realized I had forgotten my cycling shoes back at home! Thankfully the president of our company (Rocket Industrial) was coming to town for the race and work, and I was able to have him swing by the house and pick them up before his flight, whew.

On to Race Day

This was the first point to point Ironman I’ve done, and while it’s rather fun to cover the distance like that, logistically, it becomes much harder. There were shuttle buses from T2 (OSU) to T1 (Keystone State Park) running from 4a to 5a. While I’ve gotten used to getting up this early, it still sucks to set an alarm for 3:30a and is quite an early start to 140 mile adventure. There was some pretty good conversation to have with the other nervous athletes in the back of the bus though, made for a good start to the day.

Delivered to T1, I had a little time to setup my bike for the day, then they started calling estimated swim times to group up for the 1+ mile walk to the swim start. While everyone was all lined up in the correct order, things were looking good. As soon as we hit the swim start area, chaos ensued. People went every direction to change into wetsuits, and all measure of swim times went right out the window. I figured there would be signs with swim time estimations for lining up in the corrals, but there was nothing, a complete free for all. Honestly this was the one let down from the event organizers for the race.

The swim was fantastic! I’ve never been more comfortable in the water during a race. Water temps were comfortable, the rolling start left space between all of the swimmers and the water was smooth. This was the first Ironman event I’ve done where I was able to jump right into the swim, without needing to pause to clam my nerves in the first few yards. I felt good the whole time, but ended up entering the water with a slower group than I should have. Which resulted in trying to pass people for the first half of the swim. Thankfully I only got blocked in by a tight group a couple of times.

For the most part I was able to pull a pretty straight line and only ended up a little off track twice. On the way back in I also counted out my turns wrong, so when I saw what I thought was the last red buoy, which would be 200 or so yards to go, I started hammering, pushing as hard as I could maintain for about a 400. Turns out I actually was about 800 yards out, so after clearing that red buoy and seeing another red one past it, I figured we’ll just keep trucking and see if I could hold onto that pace. Finished up with a new swim PR!

On to the bike, I didn’t expect much rain in the morning, but that was about all we had, for 4+ hours of riding. It was a great temperature, just slippery on the roads, especially with the clay soil in Tulsa, any ‘dirt’ on the road was like an oil slick. At one point, a race support car had me boxed in on a decent, on very dirty roads, while I needed to pass, got pretty close to going down then, but was able to sneak through. The road conditions were similar to Wisconsin, a lot of bumps, which lead to a lot of water bottles on the road. I lost one full of nutrition (400 calories) about 20 miles in, which changed my game plan a bit. The craziest thing though, was how many bottle cages, tube change kits and helmet visors there were all over the road. Bikes were literally falling apart!

I felt just great on the bike, I made sure to start out a little slow and try to ease into the harder effort. The ride started with a really cool section over a bridge / dam which had some incredible views. That dropped us into a hard decent, one of 2 on the course that, due to the conditions, needed to be ridden hard on the brakes the whole way through.

From there, the first half of the bike is most of the climbs, what I didn’t expect was just how quick this section was going to ride, despite the hills. Riders were a bit bunched up near the start here, so there was a lot of passing, which was quite motivating. There was also a course official on a bike riding with our group and taking bike numbers, so I attempted to play it a bit safe. If they were really being picky, I’m sure they could have tagged me with a penalty, it was almost impossible not to get into draft zones when everyone was riding at such different speeds.

I pushed on, got into a good rhythm and found a couple other people to keep pace with. The rain continued, the climbs continued and I felt great pushing on through to the halfway special needs stop. As I was down a bottle of nutrition from it falling off the bike, I had to stop to reload. Rolling in the volunteers were great, getting my bag almost before I stopped. I had more tailwind for another nutrition bottle ready to go, but didn’t have any water to mix it with, so I knew I’d need to stop again at the next aid station to actually fill it up. Grabbed some Pringles, and a Snickers & Gatorade blocks for the bike and back onto the road!

The next aid station I came to then I needed to stop at to fill the nutrition bottle, which let me refill all the bottles properly, instead of just grabbing a bottle chugging and chucking it. Picked up a bottle of Gatorade as well, just for access to some extra calories if I lost another bottle along the way.

Pushing on my legs started to fade around mile 70, then bounced back for 80-100, and faded again. I feel I went out a little too hard too early, but, that was the idea, see just how long I could push that hard. Found it.

The course was absolutely beautiful. A lot like Madison’s course, with rolling hills and wonderful views over farmland. In fact seeing the cows and the farms just off the road, it felt like being back home. Then, as we got closer to town, we were actually riding on a shut down highway, which was a really cool thing to experience. This section though turned into a bit of a slog, long up hills and a short jaunt back onto some of the worst roads, with a 2 tiered steep climb. Having this section in the last 12 miles was quite difficult. Tired legs just do not want to climb any longer.

For about 30 miles leading up to the highway section I was a part of a little group of 4 to 8 who kept together quite well, each taking turns ‘pulling’ from the front. We would continue to add people to our group and drop some out out the back, but throughout I stuck with one particular rider (Ron Murders, yes, that’s actually his name). We got to talking, and had a really good time pulling each other through the back half of the course. When we got to the climbs on the highway though, it was my turn to get dropped from the group.

From those climbs, back onto the highway, through some rollers and back into downtown. Just before taking the off ramp I saw a biker laying on her back on the side of the road, with her bike in a very strange position laying near her. As I got closer I yelled to see if she needed help, and just heard her crying. I knew she was injured and thought the best thing I could do was to make sure a qualified person was there to help, as I don’t even know the basics of first aid. Being right below the offramp I could see the flashing lights of a squad car up top, they would know what to do. As I climbed closer, I noticed there were a few spectators up by the squad car as well, one with binoculars. I shouted ahead to make sure she had help coming and thankfully there was a motorcycle pulling up to her at that point. I felt relieved knowing she wasn’t alone down there anymore. I’m not certain what happened to her after that though.

I gave it everything I had and was super happy to turn in an personal best on an Ironman ride!

The ‘run’ stated with a slow walk. My legs, which haven’t had any training running in 4 weeks, and zero runs off of a bike ride in 6 months, did not take the transition well. Immediately my quads started to cramp. I’d try and run a little, it got worse, I’d walk, it’d get worse. Stopping to stretch helped for a short bit. Within the first 1/2 mile I met up with Kelly and Ryan who had just watched Patrick Lange run through to an amazing finish of about 7:45!

Finally after about 3 miles I was able to run / walk pretty consistently. I was in great spirits at this point, putting on the smile and cheering on all those coming back on either their first or second loop of the run course. I continued to walk through each of the aid stations, making sure to take in Gatorade, Base Salt and bananas to attempt to alleviate the cramping.

The first turn around is about 8 miles in, and at this point I knew I was in trouble. My left quad was still consistently cramping while jogging and my right knee was on fire while walking. It seems as though I couldn’t do either. On top of that I was having to stop to pee every 2 miles, (over 12 times through the race!), which meant I wasn’t processing water correctly, it was running right through me, not helping alleviate the cramping at all.

I did what I could to get to the next turn around, 13 miles in and saw Kel for the last time before the finish. This stretch was my lowest mentally. I was starting to doubt I’d even be able to walk the distance to get in. In addition to my right knee, my toes were blistering on that foot, making walking even more painful. I told Kel I’d be about 3 hours to make the last 13 miles and limped on. She was fantastic, never letting me know how bad I was looking, just giving me encouragement to keep moving. I know this had to be extremely difficult, but had she let any indication that quitting was an option, the rest of the race would have been in even more trouble.

Transitioning from the walk to the run was by far the most painful part, so I made up my mind to jog as far as I could, even through aid stations (while still drinking and eating bananas). While jogging at around 9:50 minute miles still hurt as the cramping continued, it hurt far less than walking. So on I pushed, 12 miles to go, back out towards that final turn around.

At the turn around point there’s about 8 miles to go, and I was starting to do some math. Knowing that I entered the water at 7am and that it was currently 5:30p I was completely surprised to find sub 12 hours was still a possibility! This seemed unbelievable, so I tried to not think of that at all, and focused completely on each mile. All I had to do was hit 10 minutes per mile and I’d be under my goal.

So, I pressed on, more bananas, more Gatorade, more ice and water, even a little Red Bull. I decided on no more bathroom breaks, that I was just going to attempt to ignore that along with the pain and continue to move forward. Mile by mile ticked by, 6 to go, 5 to go 4 to go. When I got to that final 5k, it was only 6:20, I was sticking right on target.

Finally the turn off from the loops back towards the finish line was in sight, and so was a familiar race kit. I was closing on Ron, the same guy I was riding so much of the 1/2 of the bike course with! He was walking at the time, but when I approached and called out, he started jogging it in with me. Then the opposite of the bike happened, I was feeling good on the up hills and I pulled away from him, then he’d catch me on the downhills. Ultimately it would have been great to finish with him, but I continued on with my jogging strategy when he slowed to walk for a little be within a mile of the finish.

Only 2 turns remained, I could hear the crowd now, then see them. The runners were spaced out by a block each at this point, so you knew all eyes were on you, and all the cheers were for you. It’s enough to give you goose bumps! And while it was far smaller than Ironman Madison due to Covid restrictions, it was still a beautiful sight. Then I saw the most beautiful sight, Kelly was there waving me in and cheering like crazy. I started to tear up as I ran over to hug her, finally able to have that finishing chute moment with her after missing in Madison in 2019. Sadly it couldn’t last long however as I was starting to get choked up, I knew if I didn’t continue now, I’d be a sobbing mess before the line. So on I scampered, with Kel running along with me on the outside of the chute! As I closed in on the finish line, I relished in hearing Mike Reilly shouting ‘Rob Hoehn you are an Ironman’. (I’ll never get tired of hearing him announce these races!) While this was perhaps the slowest marathon I’ve run, I’m super happy to say the total time of 11:49:28 was a new personal best at the Ironman Distance!!

Ironman Tulsa far exceeded my expectations! I knew going in this was going to be a swim / bike focused day, and both of those disciplines did not disappoint. The swim conditions were amazing and I set a new personal best. The bike conditions weren’t great, but they were far better than I thought they’d be. The elevation wasn’t nearly as much as Madison and course was far less technical. There were many sections to take advantage of the downhills and the free speed they provide. The uphill’s were long and gradual, leaving a lot left in the tank. Obviously the run didn’t go as planned, but all things considered, I am very proud of the day. That was the deepest I’ve ever had to dig and I’m happy to find out more about myself in doing so.

The focus now is recovery. I’ve been to the doctor about the foot and it doesn’t look like I’ve made anything worse. The fatigue in my legs has taken over a week to subside. But they’re not feeling almost back to normal and I’m looking forward to getting back on the bike. In fact it was as soon as the day after, on the drive home, where I could hardly walk, that I was regretting not signing up for Ironman Wisconsin this year! I’m excited to push myself on the next adventure after keeping a clean bill of health through training and into the event.

Huge thank you goes out to my employer, Rocket Industrial. Without them, this race would not have happened for me. I’m exceeding grateful for the opportunity to represent them and race with another employee’s daughter, Breonna, who had an amazing day of her own shaving off 4 hours from her previous Ironman time!!

Breonna, her husband Mitch and I also had the unique opportunity to be interviewed by the local news a couple days before the race! Such a fun and random experience.

Two other athletes joined me from Wausau Wisconsin. Nick Schremp went on to have a fantastic race, with a 10:29 finish, and while that didn’t meet his goal of a Kona slot, it was still a PB by over 8 minutes. Rebecca Tuley also raced her first Ironman in Tulsa. She was incredible out there, smashing her goals and finishing at 14:51. She had a great day on the course and every time I saw her, she was all smiles. The surefire sign that she belongs in this sport.