Ironman Coeur d'Alene - TriathlonFull Ironman

This swim was much rougher than I expected - I started 2 or 3 back in about the middle, figuring I wanted to take in the full IM experience for my first time, but I got more than I bargained for. I was fine with the water temperature, but otherwise the first half of the first outbound leg was brutal - I was getting pounded constantly. Some genius was backstroking with full intensity right in the middle of a huge pack. My goggles filled up a few times and my eyes started to bother me, this stuck with me the whole way. I eventually found clear water inside the buoy line, and the first lap was better after that, The turn buoys were a challenge, but not as bad as I expected. The inbound leg of the first lap and the outbound of the second were a little better, some contact but nothing brutal, a few more goggle fill ups. The inbound leg of the second lap was bad again, and just as I though it was almost over, I took a hard kick right in my face that knocked my goggles off again. Made it in OK after that.

Not sure - I think part of the problem with my eyes was not thoroughly rinsing them after applying some shampoo to prevent fogging, although that wasn't the whole story because my right eye is still sore 36 hours later. I think I would start further inside and spend more time inside the buoy line to find clear water - cutting back out around the turn buoys wasn't an issue at all - I did all four of them right at the inside and got through in decent shape.

My first clue that I had a significant vision problem was how hazy everything looked as soon as I got out of the water - this slowed me down quite a bit. Navigated through wetsuit stripping, got my gear bag and saw guys sitting on the grass rather than in the tent, so I did that too. I had predetermined that if I was shivering, I would wear a long sleeve bike jacket for the ride rather than just the soaked tri top that was under my wetsuit. I was definitely shivering, so putting the jacket on was a no brainer but took a little bit of time. Everything else went fine, really not sure why it took so long, probably just from moving slow because I could barely see.

Nothing, I feel like I had my bag set up right and had preset criteria for my one decision, so I did the best I could have in the circumstances.

Overall I was really happy with the bike. The three main things I wanted to do were ride strong at my wattage on the long flats (half the course), power over the top of the hills, and not overcook the climbs - I managed to do all 3 for pretty much the whole ride. I think my split would have been dead even if I didn't stop for a little bit early in the second lap for a potty break, combined with fixing my heart rate strap (knocked down to my belly button in the swim, didn't realize until my HR was 200+ for the whole first lap), and trying to get my right eye to stop killing me (hoped it had some debris in it that I could get out, but turned out to be something I couldn't fix - my left eye was mostly back to normal an hour after the swim). I loved the bike course, I'm not sure a six hour ride ever went by so fast, both loops felt the same.

I think I could have pushed a little harder at times, but I ride mostly by numbers and the combination of no HR data on the first lap and barely being able to read my Garmin due to vision issues, I played it a little safe. From a technical riding standpoint, I slow too much on turns at speed and need to develop that skill a lot better. Nutrition was right on, just like training - 300 cals per hour, 200 from EFS liquid shot and 100 from liquids. I also brought along a few honey stinger waffles and ate one around mile 60 because I felt hungry.

Was happy with the time here - my bag was right at the entrance to the tent, which was cool. Had a Snickers bar in the bag and ate half of it - too bad it was mostly melted in the sun. Took the bike jacket off, got set quickly and headed out after getting some sunscreen.

Freeze the Snickers bar so it doesnt't melt as much.

A bit of a letdown - when I saw the clock leaving T2, I thought I had a real good shot at sub 12, which I would have been ecstatic with for my first IM. But I also had no idea what would happen with this run - I missed all the long runs during my peak training period due to a hip problem, which was still present a week ago. In the end, my joints mostly cooperated, but I lost my legs after about 10 miles, then didn't have the energy to get going again once the legs came back, then developed huge blisters on my feet while walking before the energy came back (seemingly due to a steady diet of cola and water at each aid station). So I wound up walking most of miles 15 thru 21, plus the aid stations and the big uphills over the whole course past mile 10. At the long downhill going into the mile 21 turnaround, I found that I could run again if I fought off the blister pain. So I ran most of the way back in, and the whole last three miles, but my back was starting to tighten up. On the uphill run from the lake to Sherman, it locked completely with me hunched over, so after making the last left and seeing the finish line in the distance, all I could think about was avoiding a total body lock up and having to crawl to the finish, rather than all the cool things I envisioned it would be like. Such is the experience of Ironman.

I obviously need a lot more running base to be able to do this proficiently, that's the main thing. I also probably could have bought another 5-10 minutes with some more HTFU rather than walking, but given that last eight blocks, I pushed it pretty close to the edge. I also need to figure out how the blisters happened - so much for the "blister-proof guarantee" on the socks I used.

The catchers were awesome (like every volunteer out there) - they had a lot of concern, but after they held be up straight for a few minutes, things came around. I made sure to put on my finisher shirt and hat for the photo, so they could tell I had my mind together. After downing a couple of bottles of water and showing that I could walk OK, the sent me on my way to the food area, where I forced down a couple of slices of pizza and a soda. Then I met up with my wife and son, we got my stuff out of transition, and headed back to our rental townhouse. After eating some ice cream and cleaning up, I drove back to the finish line to see the last 1.5 hours, which was great.


Whatever happened to my vision on the swim probably cost me 15 minutes between T1 and the bike portion. Being a crappy runner cost me 15-30 minutes on the run, and the foot blisters cost me another 15-30. Otherwise, my physical/mental condition was solid all day until the last half mile.


This event was just fantastic. The town of CDA is a perfect host, the people are phenomenal (five different people shouted "congratulations Ironman" out their car window at me as I was walking back to our townhouse), and Ironman obviously has their game down pat. I had such a great day that I'll always remember fondly - going from no endurance background 16 months and 70lbs ago to this, I got everything I was looking from from the experience and more.