Ironman Coeur d'Alene - TriathlonFull Ironman

I got to the swim start and huddled in the back. There was no way that I was going to start off in the front and get run over by the other swimmers. When the cannon went off, I headed down the beach and into the water. I started off fine and when I peaked my head up to see how I was doing, that's when everything went horribly wrong. Around me people were screaming for help and that started a panic mode in me. My lungs started to close up and I started to lose my breath. A kayak came over and I hung out there until I was ready to go. I headed back out again and the same thing happened. Once I got to the second kayak, the person wave the boat over to pick me up. I honestly don't remember going from the water to the boat. It was such a blur but I do remember walking up towards the crowd with my wetsuit on. I was so disappointed in myself and how I worked so hard for this moment and to be shut down in such a short amount of time.

I don't know what I would differently. The conditions there didn't go my way.

Since the water conditions were bad, they did give the option for anyone to do the bike and run. When I initially got pulled out of the water, I didn't want to continue at all because in my mind I wasn't going to be an Ironman. After one of my friends saw me on the side when they were in transition, she encouraged me to go on and continue because I didn't come all this way for nothing. After thinking about it, I decided to give it a shot. It wasn't until after my first loop on the bike that even though I didn't do the swim, I at least needed to prove to myself that I deserved to be there and I trained for this event.

The bike course was awesome. I was a little concerned because I was starting at 9:30a and I only had 8 hours to continue. The course was hilly, but very scenic. Scott Rigsby and I were playing leap frog a bit on the bike, and each time we passed one another we shouted words of encouragement. As the clock started ticking down, I still had 10 miles to go and 45 minutes until 5:30p. I really needed to hustle to make the cutoff. My quads were killing me at this point, but what mattered the most was making the cutoff.

As I headed into the home stretch the volunteers were counting down. I had 90 seconds to make it and when I turned the corner, there was the mat into transition. The volunteers screamed at me to get off the bike and cross the mat and with a minute left, I made it.

I need to "ride lots" but overall I'm not too disappointed with my performance.

T2 was just T2. All I basically did was just change my shoes. Only spent a couple of minutes there.

Probably out of the whole race, this was where I was most comfortable. During the run I could tell that my training for the run portion was lacking, but mentally I knew I could get through this. The first half of the run was alright and the crowd support was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed running through the neighborhoods with all the spectators. Around mile 7 of the first loop, my feet started to kill me. It felt as if I was running barefoot and I had to slow down considerably and even walk a good portion. In all honesty, I probably walked most of the first lap.

The best thing that I probably did all race was pack a second pair of shoes in my special needs bag. Once I put those on I felt like I was on top of the world. I had more spring in my step and I was running much much better.

One of the things that I'm most happy about is that I started doing marathons before I ventured into triathlons. Throughout the run portion I had quite a few people yelling at me to get moving or I'll miss the cutoff, but in all honesty, I knew that I had plenty of time. I knew what I needed to do to get to the finish line.

There were a handful of us as the clock was ticking down and we were all trying to make sure we made the cutoff. I increased my pace slightly, but maintained my combined run/walk ration of 4:1.

I could start to hear Mike Reilly as I started to come into town. I was excited, but getting to the finish line was going to be bittersweet. I approached the straight away and crowds all around me were shouting that I was an Ironman. In fact, one guy said I was going to be a F@$CKING IRONMAN. In my head I knew that I wasn't and while many people celebrated their personal ironman victory when they crossed the finishline, I just crossed. The medal, shirt, and hat were all given to me, but I didn't want it. The medal was placed around my neck, but I took it off shortly thereafter. In my mind I'm not an Ironman, however, I would never ever, tell anyone that did the duathlon at CDA they are not an Ironman.

I would train better on my running.

June 24, 2007 just wasn't my day to be an Ironman. It's very frustrating to spend 6 months of training to have it go down like this, but you know what, you can't sit around and mope about it. I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason and I'm the type of person that if I get knocked down, I have to pick myself up and move on. So what if CDA didn't go the way I planned, believe me, I will be back to CDA and I'll be bringing along some unfinished business. For now, I'm picking myself up and looking at doing The Great Floridian Iron Distance Race on October 20, 2007.

The past six months have been an experience to say the least. If you would have seen me 2 years ago training for an Olympic Distance tri, the idea of me doing an Ironman was out of the question. I already had a hard enough time training for a .9 mile swim, 25 mile bike, and a 10K. In the past six months of training I was able to work up to a 3 mile continuous swim and a 105 mile bike even though it seemed impossible 2 years ago. I have come a long way!

BTW... I think I finished the du in 14:25 or something like that. Out of all the people that did the du I finished 31/32. Basically, it was just a really long brick workout for the day.