Ironman Coeur d'Alene Race Report 2010

Well, I finished !! As I promised, I am going to give a race report to share the event with the reader and hopefully help someone else who is considering doing an Ironman. The night before departure, I packed the bike in a travel box I borrowed from my friend John. I was nervous about this, as I had never traveled with a bike on a plane; but it fit nicely with room to spare for my helmet, shoes, and air pump. I had made a checklist to make sure I did not forget any of the gear and this made packing a lot more stress free. I highly recommend this. Our flight on Thursday afternoon was delayed and we arrived in Spokane at 12:30 AM. On Friday AM, Blanca and I headed for Couer d’Alene lake to try out the water. I had been watching the lake temperature on line and the last few weeks, it finally started to climb into the low 60s F. There were several people gathered by the flagpole and I got my wetsuit, neoprene cap, and goggles on for a swim. It was definatly cold, and the wind was kicking up some sizeable waves. I swam for 30 minutes with the first 5 minutes the hardest getting used to the cold. At 10 AM, I attended the free “Four Keys to Ironman Execution” talk by Endurance Nation, the guys that helped me train, http://endurancenation.us . It was a good review and nice to meet Rich Strauss in person. After that I picked up my race stuff. I got transition bags, bibs, race chip, stickers for the bike/helmet and got a bracelet to allow me to access the facility. We then went to check in to the hotel and went to scout the bike course in the car. We mainly drove the hilly portions and I got on the bike for a small portion to make sure everything was working with the bike after the plane ride. The athlete banquet was Friday night and this was followed by the mandatory pre-race meeting. Saturday, slept in as planned and later in the day took the bike and transition bags to get them checked in. The rest of the day, rested and went to bed at 9 pm. I woke up a little after 0300 AM and went through a mental checklist of the race. Finally, got up at 0400 and had breakfast before heading out to transition. Got body marked and went put on my wetsuit and headed out to the beach to line up. It was an amazing site to see 2500 people along the beach lined up for the mass start . At 0700, the cannon went off ready or not….




The Swim (2.4 Miles: 1:36:49)

As I have done before, I started too fast on the swim and immediately found myself hyperventilating and probably had a heart rate up to 170. (not sure as my HR monitor does not work in the water). I did some backstroke, side stroke and after about 7 minutes was finally able to start on a rhythm. I noticed I was a little far from the buoys and started heading towards the first red turn buoy. The lake was choppy and I swallowed a little bit of water, specially as I was trying to sight. As we went away from the beach to the turn the waves got bigger, but on the way back the waves were pushing us back to shore. Finished the first 1.2 mile loop in 46 min and headed back for the second loop. Now I was able to navigate the course better and kept a good pace for the second loop. I got out of the water and headed out to T1, glad to have made it before getting too cold.

T1 15:36 ouch.

I went to transition and got my wet suit stripped off by two volunteers, got my bag with by biking gear and headed for the changing tent. I got my bandana, glasses, and helmet on and got sunblock from a volunteer. Went to the bike and ate a Powerbar I had left there, something I could have better done while I was riding. Then I walked to the mounting line to start the bike portion. I don’t know where all the time went, there is no excuse for such a long transition.

The Bike (112 miles 7:37:24 )

The plan for the bike was to go easy the first 30 miles and then steady for the next 82 miles. As expected, I was passed by several people in the beginning but I cought up to them later on in the hilly portions of the ride. I kept my HR below 120 and a cadence of 80. I don’t trust my power meter, so I did not look at that number as much. The first loop was nice and cool. I had arm warmers and some old gloves which I got rid of after 2 hours. The hills were short and some afforded the ability to go fast on the downhills. The crowd support was great in Coeur d’Alene and Hayden. The towns both come out in force to volunteer and cheer. The second loop was getting hotter and there was not as much shade as I had hoped. I tried to pace myself so I didn’t blow it on the run which is hard to know what the right amount of effort is, specially with the hills. I got Gatorade and water on the course and had several powerbars plus goo. I would have like to get more calories in me but the Powerbars were not tasting as good after the fourth one. I was glad that I had to make pit stops in the porto potty. This meant I was not getting dehydrated which was a priority to set up a good run.


T2 4:27

I returned my bike to a volunteer and headed to pick up the run gear before heading back to the changing tent. I put on my shoes, bottle carrier and hat and headed out to the run course.

The Run (26.2 miles 6:05:13 )

As I headed out to the run my goal as prescribed by the Endurance Nation guys was too go at a slower pace the first 6 miles. The goal was to run 12:30 miles and then try to increase it to 12:00 minute miles. I was going to do the same thing I have done for all 3 marathons I have run and that is to walk at every mile marker for a tenth of a mile. By the time I started on the run 4:30 pm, I was getting hotter and more humid. The first half was pretty smooth and I got to cool down with ice and sponges that were provided on the run course. By the second loop, things began to get harder. My main problem seemed to be my feet which were sore. My pace began to slow even more and I was walking for longer stretches of time. It doesn’t help that in an Ironman there are a lot of people walking significant portions of the run and you are tempted to do the same. After a particularly bad place I found myself on mile 14, I was able to resume running again. After it got dark around 9:30 pm it got hard again and then it got cold. I was taking goo, water and Gatoraide for the most part but by the end the best thing was the warm chicken broth. Most of the aid stations had it, and it really helped to drink it with some sugar cookies. The last 4 miles were the hardest of all as there was a bad hill that everyone was walking up and then down after the turnaround. They handed out glow necklaces which I had hoped I would not have to have but it was pretty dark by then. As I arrived at the last half mile down to the finish, I was so exhausted that I could not hear the announcer say my name. I passed the finish line and looked at the time…. 15:39:27

Post Race

After finishing, I was greeted by two volunteers, (Frank and Jose from Kileen, TX ) They wrapped me in a reflective blanket and was handed a finisher medal, hat, and T-shirt. Got a picture taken with Blanca and then went to get some food. I had a slice of pepperoni pizza that was the best tasting pizza I have had in a long time. Fortunately, Blanca was nice enough while I was running to put away my bike and gear bags in the car so, we were able to head straight to the car and back to the hotel. Next AM, I was a little sore but mostly hungry and a little sunburnt.