After failing to sign up in time for the Boston Marathon this year, I figured I'd just sign up for Ironman Coeur d'Alene instead back in the winter. I had big plans of perfect training plans where I'd be faster than ever on the swim, bike and run. Those plans faded at first slowly as I started to train more Crossfit than any of those sports then quickly when we booked a 3 week trip to Italy in May and I started to focus solely on running for the Reno Tahoe Odyssey. So while I was confident I could finish an Ironman, I had no idea how long it would take me. It ended up being one of my favorite races and in a time I'm happy with: 11:18.
Here's my (long) race report.
Pre race:
Got up just after 4AM. Had ¾ yam, 1 bottle of Ensure. 20 min before the race I had raspberry hammer gel, 3 endurolyte tabs and Pre-race drink.
Swim: After keeping my warmup clothes on as long as possible and dropping them off in transition with only 20 minutes to go until the cannon, I started to worry that I might not make it to the beach in time. We all had to go over a timing mat to get on the beach and the line was long and moving pretty slowly. But I made it with about 3 minutes to spare. I lined up close to the water, 10 feet behind the starting row and with about 40 feet of people lined up behind me.The cannon went off and we all shuffled into the water.The first few minutes were very crowded with people swimming over me and me swimming over others. The water felt great, not so cold that it stung my face but cool enough so that I didn’t overheat in my full length wetsuit. Swimming out was against a steady wind and waves big enough to feel being moved up and down. But the waves on the way back to shore felt big enough to body surf on. I’d find myself swimming harder to catch them. I came out of the water in 804th place (58th in my division).
My transition was pretty slow.I probably wasted time having sunscreen put on me and putting on gloves.I dropped one in the changing tent and ran back to get it.
Bike: After riding out and seeing Megan cheering for me, I had to stop about 20 yards out of transition to put on my watch after realizing that I would certainly crash trying to put it on while riding. I felt really excited and fresh starting the bike. Driving the course beforehand gave me an idea of what to look forward to. My favorite part of the course was probably the first 14 miles along the shoreline. There were flat sections broken up with enough hills so I could coast or change position often.
The middle section of the loop (out near Hayden lake) was pretty and definitely seemed hillier on the second loop. There were several hills where standing in my smallest gear felt like the only way up the hill. I finished the first of two laps in a time of around 2:47 (avg watts: 185), meaning that if I did the same speed for the second loop, I’d come in with a bike split of 5:34. I did stop for some Pringles at my special needs bag around mile 70 and to go to the bathroom around mile 80. Besides some fatigue in my legs, my bike position contributed a lot to me slowing down on the second lap. At the beginning of the lap, my neck started to hurt in aero, but by the end, I could barely hold the position for 15 seconds at a time. This was no fun for the last 10 miles, which, unlike the earlier sections that are broken up with hills to sit up on, were nearly all flat or downhill. It felt like the wind had picked up a bit, too, making aero position even more important. I nearly finished my 2 bottles of perpetuem (1000 calories each), 64 oz Gatorade, 32 oz of water, about 10 endurolyte salt tabs, and a bite of a zone bar on the bike. Though my neck hurt, my legs felt fresh coming into T2. My bike time was 5:48, moving up to 502 overall (48 in my division).
And if you’re really bored, my power file. Probably could have paced a little better but I hit 201 watts for my normalized power, which was right where I was trying to be.
Run: Just a mile into the run I heard commotion behind me, which I soon found out was Kate Major, in 2nd place, beginning her second lap, she soon caught up to me and then passed me. Although my plan was to run 9:00/mile at least until the stiffness from the bike ride had worn off, I found myself running an 8:25/mile pace after 3 miles.
The run course was pretty, with most of it being along the water. I even found myself not realizing I had run up a hill because of all the motivational signs posted in the grass next to the trail. There were plenty of aid stations (nearly every mile, I think) so I wouldn’t have needed my fuel belt but it drank nearly all the 16 oz of gu20 and 16 oz of Perpetuem. I had one gu at the beginning of the run, but that combined with all the Perpetuem on the bike had me feeling really full. The number of people on the course really helped make it go by quickly. From the aid stations workers to other runners to people sitting on their lawn looking up your hometown and age to shout it out as you ran by, so many people were supportive. I hadn’t seen Nate all day and was hoping he was having a better race than me and would see him on the way out to the turn around. I finally saw him on my way back into town about 4 miles behind me. He looked pretty good but had obviously had some struggles to be that far behind me. It was great to see Megan and Greta as I was running back out of town at the beginning my second loop. They later told me I looked pretty bad at that point, which makes sense because I really started to slow down. I dropped from sub 9 minute miles to 10 minute miles around mile 15. My legs were starting to feel really fatigued. Up until this point I had really been comfortable racing at this pace and had even done the calculations for how fast I’d have to run to go under 11 hours. But I now knew I would clearly finish but it looked like the last 10 miles could easily take me 2 hours. Not wanting to just shuffle along slower and slower, I started to run for 4 minutes and walk for 1. The first mile I did this felt slow. The walk breaks didn’t seem long enough and 4 minutes of running felt like forever. But after a few miles I started getting faster. Some people claim to hallucinate on long runs, but I felt fine, even though you probably won’t believe me when I tell you I saw Spiderman on a bike. And one other time lying down in the grass. I kept up the run/walk pattern until I had about a mile left and knew I had plenty of adrenaline to run in. My pace for the last 5 miles averaged around a 9:15 pace and I sped up to a 7:30/mile pace for the last half mile. Running down Sherman to the finish had me filled with emotions. It had started to rain and was getting cold on an otherwise perfect day for racing. The streets were lined with a cheering crowd that got louder as I got closer to the finish line. I struggled to hold a smile on my face because I could feel tears coming on as I smiled. And as excited as I was to be finishing, I really tried to take it all in and lock in the feeling of racing in an Ironman, not knowing when I’ll ever do one again and enjoying my first one so much. The downhill finish could have been dangerous had it not been for the line of volunteers with blankets ready to catch athletes as they flew across the line.
I finished in 11:18:32, 421 overall and 39th in M25-29.
After I finished and was caught, I was held tightly and walked to the massage tent, being handed off to at least 4 more people, each gripping me just as tight, before I got a massage. I spent another 10 minutes in there getting warmed up with some soup broth after getting the chills. It had really started to rain hard by the time I left the tent and went to grab pizza and find Megan to give her a big hug and kiss. It really meant a lot to have her there supporting me. We went back to the stands to cheer people on and watch for Nate to finish. He finished and then proceeded to get lost getting back to the car after picking up our gear bags. Megan finally found him leaning against a parking pole back by the finish line staring at the ground waiting in place like a lost child.
It was tough to get to sleep that night with just a dull aching in my legs, but it felt like the same amount of fatigue as a marathon. I’m thankful for no injuries aside from a few rub marks from the timing chip and my tri suit. Jeannie, Cliff and John were great hosts, picking us up, giving us a place to stay with lots of food and letting us use a car. We couldn’t have asked for any better accommodations.
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