Ironman Coeur d'Alene - TriathlonFull Ironman

Gun went off and it was off to the races. I put my head in and sprinted the first 200 yards or so and was on an inside line. I thought things were going well and then I got destroyed. If the running of the bulls in Pamplona were to take place in water, this swim is what it would have felt like. I've never had a more physical and brutal swim experience in my life. Every stroke was fighting for position with someone on each side of you, and on top of you at times. I started swimming much more aggressively to protect my head and was making sure I was pulling back with hard elbows to create any room I could. The worst of it was through the first turn but still lasted mostly through the entire first lap. I did have drafting opportunities, and they improved at times. The problem, I think, is that people I was near weren't willing to work together. They were getting pissed if you hit their feet while drafting and I had one guy sit up and yell at me. I just kept going by. Anyway, I had a lot more clean water and decent drafts on the second lap and felt better coming in. The only downside was that I had to pee for the entire second lap and was basically holding it in for 40 minutes. I lack the ability to go while swimming. About 300 yards out you could start to hear the crowd and see the swim finish and all the fans. It really was cool to run out of the water to everyone cheering you through all the way to transition.

When my training started going sideways, the first thing that got cut back was the swimming. I'm not sure another 100,000 yards in the pool would have really helped, and I'm not sure there's a lot I could have done differently here. Nothing can really prepare you for that physical of a swim other than trying to stay collected through it all, knowing you'll get your clean water at some point.

Made my way into the tent and I had a small issue with my bib number that was pinned to the back of my jersey. I couldn't get it figured out and waited for a volunteer to help. He had to re-pin it and then I got going. By that time I had another volunteer helping with everything else and it was pretty good. I packed my transition bag for nearly every weather possibility and took some time sorting through what I really needed. Turned out I needed none of it but I took arm and leg warmers with just in case. I was also doing the "pee dance" so badly I could barely put on my shoes or anything else. Finally made it to the portapotty and it felt like half my transition was spent in there. Much better.

The stupidest thing I did in transition was to forget putting chamois cream on. I had plans of a nice layer cake of chamois cream in my shorts that would last as long as humanly possible and completely forgot. Not smart.

I knew the bike leg was all about pacing and holding back. My instructions from my coach were to go out and act like I'm the only one on the course for nearly the first hour and if people go by, let them. My problem wasn't with letting people go by, but was more of a concern for getting a drafting penalty since there were a lot of riders in not a lot of space. So my options were to continuously drop back or pass. I opted to pass. I basically paced the beginning like I would have done for a HIM, which just means not easy enough for long enough, followed by too hard. That was essentially the first lap, even though I felt good throughout all of it. Coming back into town I knew I had to bring it back some on the second lap so I did. I also stopped four times compared to zero times on the first lap. Once was for special needs to get additional nutrition, twice to pee, and once because I dropped a water bottle and stopped to get it.

I used Infinit the whole time and it worked really well. I had 3 bottles with 1.5 hours of nutrition in each. I stopped at special needs to get 2 more bottles with the same mix. The only hiccup was that I went through 2 bottles (3 hours) in the first two hours and kind of overloaded my stomach. I had to switch to water for about an hour or so to let my stomach clear, and in doing so, the slight calorie deficit came back to haunt me for a bit on the rollers on the second lap. I could tell when things were kicking in again, though, and started feeling better. In all, I went through 4 bottles of Infinit and 1 bottle of water, which was a total of about 1650-1700 calories on the bike. The two stops to pee were just dumb and I should have gone on the bike like I ended up doing near the end of the bike. The dropped bottle was also dumb, but not the end of the world. The point to all of this is that I had a silent goal of coming off the bike in under 6 hours and these 3 stops kept me from it. Not the end of the world in a race this long though.

Pace better on the first lap, piss myself like a newborn baby on the bike, and not drop my water bottle.

Volunteer took my bike and I stood there for about 15 seconds to make sure my legs were okay. Then a volunteer asked if I was going to go into transition. For some reason I thought I'd already gone over the timing mat.

Once in the tent, the volunteer was great. I was a bit of a mess, but the volunteer was great. I must have asked him to wait 4 or 5 times even though he kept reiterating he wasn't going anywhere until I was up and on my way. He really made this transition much better than it would have been for me. Once I was on my way, I got lathered up with sunscreen and was off.

Not think a metal folding chair could be so comfortable?

Once I exited the transition, my legs actually didn't feel all that terrible but it was really a side cramp that had me moving slowly. I had some gels in my back pocket but once I made my way through the first aid station I knew I could get rid of the gels and eliminate how annoying they were bouncing back there. I saw Desiree leading Heather Gollnick which was kind of cool. I later saw Heather fly by me. As I was settling into a good pace around 8:35s that felt effortless, I saw Jeff (Q) come by me like he was shot out of a rocket. I had passed him on the bike and expected to see him go by on the run, just not that quickly. Very impressive. The first 10 or so miles went really well for me and I'm pretty sure I was at a sub-9 pace. Somewhere soon thereafter my stomach started to shut down and nothing at the aid stations was good. I thought I was going to have to boot and rally but the boot never happened so it was just waiting to rally. The chicken broth was gross and I got one cup that was scalding hot. I was hoping the coke would make me start belching to relieve the pressure in my gut, but no luck. I tried holding on going in and out of town but my pace was quickly dwindling down to the 10:30-10:45 range. I walked through the aid stations, taking in what I could out of fear of bonking super hard, and then picked it up to run to the next. Somewhere in the middle of all this, it was nice to see familiar faces on the course, whether it was people I knew like the CO BTers, the BTers that I had just met, other D3 athletes that I've never met and just exchanged a simple wave on the course, etc. There was also some girl out there holding up a sign for a kissing booth so I ran slightly off course to get some all the while with her friends *coughwhizzswgtrietccough* shamelessly encouraging her.

Around mile 19 everything in my gut started to loosen up and the pressure was moving out. And just like that I went from my crappy 10:30+ miles back to about an 8:40 pace and felt good except my legs were ready to give out. The back of my right knee was starting to lock up, making it harder to start after each aid station.

Finally, I knew I had gone through the last aid station and the next stop was the finish. I made my way through the turns and then on to the turn for the final 6 blocks, zipped up my jersey and took it all in. There is really nothing like the site of staring at the Ironman finish quickly approaching with the lake right behind it. The streets were completely packed with fans and I was able to run without any more pain until I made my way down the chute to hear what I've been waiting a long time for and it was every bit as sweet as I'd imagined.

I did the best I could with what I had.

Heat blanket. Ground. Pizza. Hobble.


First IM without knowing what to expect. I didn't pace the bike correctly but it wasn't a disastrous mistake either. There's always room for improvement and it's really a matter of how and where I want to focus my energy inside the sport of triathlon and outside of it as well.


First, the fans and volunteers are what make this race an overwhelming success. I think this is probably the coolest and most difficult thing I've ever done. I was an emotional trainwreck leading up to the race and still am to some extent since it hasn't all quite sunk in yet. Also, the other BTers that we met were all great and easily the best cheerleaders on the course. The girl in short shorts with a cowboy hat and cowboy boots is a very close second though! Really, just the atmosphere of an Ironman is one of the most unique around. Walking around the expo in the days leading up to it I ran into Heather Fuhr, Paula Newby-Fraser, Heather Gollnick, Desiree Ficker, Viktor Zyemstev, Greg Welch, and others. At the end of the day, Adam (Gearwhore), Scott (sbreaux) and I went to watch the last 1.5 hours of finishers. There's just nothing else like it.