Ironman Coeur d'Alene - Triathlon

Good start I felt very comfortable considering I had only been in the water 3 times before the race and all the swims were probably a total 50 minutes combined. Rounding the buoys wasn't great.

After rounding the last turn buoy and heading back in I slowed it down some to conserve energy. I had been passing quite a bit of people and I was in a great rhythm and I didn't feel like I was working super hard.

Overall I exceeded what I thought I would swim by about 8 minutes so that is great for me.

Be better at rounding the buoys. I had to fight at times and start kicking more than I would like to do to keep people from swimming over me.

I would practice more sighting. I probably swam an extra 100 yards or so because I would go from the outer kayaks into the buoys and then back out.

Transition was slow getting my socks and shoes on. I also had to make sure I got all my food in my back pockets as well. It felt like I moved faster than I did but I know I can do better.

remember the damn towel to wipe my feet off. I had a small towel that was just not big enough. or not wear socks.

Briefly struggled to find my bike as well.

Bike was good. I struggle very hard in the beginning to get my HR down. It stayed high for the first 45 minutes. I just kept faith that it would start to drop down.

I had some issues with stomach problems. I kept having to stop and use the bathroom. I say my performance was average considering a while back I went on the course faster than I did on race day and I was able to control my HR better that day too.

I also started having right medial knee pain at about mile 30. Had to start taking ibuprofen every hour or so to help keep the pain down.

Figure out why my stomach was giving me the problem. And also figure out what is going on with my cleat position to cause pain in my right knee on the inner side.

had bike catchers so didn't need to rack my bike. Grabbed my bag and off I went.

Transition was a little bit slower than I expected but that is ok. i should have yelled out my number louder to find my bag. I spent extra 10-15 seconds finding my bag.

I have never ran a marathon before so I wasn't certain what to expect. I started out slow trying to keep my HR in check and made sure to keep my cadence high. I now actually understand those stride drills of making your cadence be faster. It makes a world of difference high cadence on tired legs. the course has some curved roads which makes it very hard to run on and if you IT band issues, that will almost definitely pop up. The angles are pretty steep. But there is parts where you can run on the gravel and I did to lessen the impact. I was hoping for closer to 3:45 run but figured I would be closer to 4 which I was right on there. If I wouldn't of stopped and gave my almost 3 year old daughter a quick kiss and a hug maybe I would have been under 4 hours. But her excitement was more important to me than my time.

I would have ran on the gravel both out and backs rather than on the out the second time.

Went through food in athlete area. Got 2 pieces of pizza, 2 chocolate milks and a bottle of water. Drank 1 milk, ate 1 piece of pizza.

Beyond that my overall HR was 148. That was pretty decent I think. I was able to control it for the most part and while a touch higher than what I trained (142) it was close enough overall.


I must not of eaten the right foods the days leading up. I tried to just eat normal like I always do as I have tried to carbo load etc and that does not work for me. But my normal for lack of better terms poop cycle was not right. I knew I was going to have issues before the race started so I just had to make plans to deal with it.

I stopped at the bathrooms probably 3 times more than I normally would have stopped. That added 3-5 minutes of time


The race itself has been going strong for 11 years. I hesitated signing up for it this last year after being a wetsuit peeler and seeing all the cold suffering people getting their suits peeled off. In the end I took the chance of good temps and weather and signed up for it. It is a local race for me so my family and friends were able to come out and cheer me on. I think the new swim start is a good thing even though that mass start is what some like. I imagine everyone had better swim times because they were able to swim rather than battle to stay above water.

I can't say I will do this race again though. I would like to do another one but think it would be fun to do one at a different venue and make it somewhat a vacation if possible