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Race Reports for 2009

[1]
Reported by:
Race rating (5)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities? Good
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: This was my second full ironman. I do a full every other year. I shaved 39 minutes off of my last ironman. Thanks to Mike Ricci and the Beginner Triathlete Team for an awesome training plan.
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[2]
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  • Organised?
  • Events on time?

  • Lots of volunteers to help?
  • Plenty of drink stations?

  • Post race activities?
  • Overall course based on my ability:

  • Comments: Coeur d’ Alene Ironman June 2009 2,153 eager triathletes gathered on the shores of Lake Coeur d’ Alene to participate in the 7th running of the Ford Ironman CDA ’09 edition. The road to my 5th Ironman was another very enjoyable ride, and one that I will certainly remember for the rest of my life; just like the other four. It will also put an end to my “once per year” Ironman races I have done since 2005. Much of this Ironman was about me (as usual), but in many ways it was very much about a rising endurance athletic star, Scott Callender. I work with Scott (affectionately known as “Scooter”), and I think it was my bright idea for him to get involved in triathlon in the first place. A constant at each of my Ironman events has been my sweetheart wife, Kim Marie. She has not been feeling so great the last few months, so for her to volunteer her entire day at Ironman and help out, was unbelievable. She is my rock when I race, and Lar Dog needs his rock. My training was
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[3]
Reported by:
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  • Organised?
  • Events on time?

  • Lots of volunteers to help?
  • Plenty of drink stations?

  • Post race activities?
  • Overall course based on my ability:

  • Comments: Very tough day, but my first Ironman!
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[4]
Reported by:
Race rating (5)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities?
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: Everything was great. I knew that Ironman was a big deal, but didn't know how big of a deal it really was until you are in the middle of it. I want to thank my family so much for their support. Stacie wanted to kill me because I left her with the kids so much. Without her support I couldn't have done it. Thank you Taylor, Alyssa, and Justin for the great signs you made and had mom bring with her. I also want to thank Stephen Bilby my oldest and best friend for asking me to do this with him. I want to thank my parents for watching the kids so Stacie could come and freeze her butt off waiting to catch me for a second on my many loops thru town. A big thank you to Jackie and Mark for letting us stay at their home and use their car our whole trip. We had a great time with them and their boys. I want to thank Joe, Bonnie, Rick, and all the guys that rode with me while I trained. I want to give a huge thank you to Ed for letting me borrow his wetsuit to start my day. I also want to
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[5]
Reported by:
Race rating (5)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities?
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: Sure, I'll give it a 5 - this was my first Ironman and I had a great experience. It may have been slower than I was hoping for (I wanted under 13 hours), but mentally I did well and hell, I FINISHED!!!! The city of Coeur d'Alene is beautiful and this race is well run. The weather this time was pretty terrible (wind on the bike course, wind and rain on the run), but the volunteers were absolutely fabulous and the people cheering on the side of the road made me smile so many times. I couldn't have asked for a better time :).
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[6]
Reported by:
Race rating (4)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities? Good
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: I remember my arms being very heavy as I approached the finish line but I managed to get them up high as I crossed. Unfortunately the camera people weren’t very good at timing the shot because my finishing pics look like I’m about ready to hit the deck. A volunteer grabbed me and held me up while I stumbled along. My hamstrings were very tight and my feet were kind of burning. We got to the grass and I wanted to take my shoes off and walk barefoot in the cool damp grass. That’s when I realized I had a nice slice on the inside of my little toe…no idea how I got it but my sock was bloody and there was a large chunk of skin hanging off my toe. Time to go visit medical. I sat down while they cleaned up my toe and I quickly got very cold. By this time it was raining and the temps had dropped to near 50. When I got up to walk away I was too cold to move and started to have uncontrollable convulsive shivers. They decided to take me to the warmer medical tent. I laid down and got a light massage
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[7]
Reported by:
Race rating (4)
User photo
  • Organised?
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities? Below average
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: Good race. I skipped almost all of the post-race activities. I'll knock NAS/WTC down a notch or two for the way special needs bags are handled. Would it be too hard to put them out in order like they do bike and run? Or possibly put all 4 bags together? It was a pain going through piles of randomly shuffled and sticky bags and many athletes won't bother. I could have lived without the stuff in the bags, but this last piece of the puzzle isn't that hard to solve.
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[8]
Reported by:
Race rating (5)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities? Good
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: I will never forget my first Ironman. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more. I would love to do IMCdA again. Maybe once my kids are old enough to drive!
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[9]
Reported by:
Race rating (4)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities? Average
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: The next day my legs didn't feel too bad at all. I guess a slow marathon will do that for you. I brought the rest of my gear to the tribiketransport booth. I didn't want to spend much money on this trip but I ended up buying a nice finishers jacket. As I walked around the venue several people commented to me that I was walking around like I wasn't hurting too much. Since I hadn't dipped into the well during the race I felt pretty good. I looked at the Kona qualification list and it looked like it would have taken about a 10:15 in my AG this year. I killed some time drinking coffee and eating breakfast in town before jumping into the rental car for the airport in Spokane. Unfortunately I had to fly to Washington, DC for a week of meetings. CDA is an awesome venue set in the mountains. I'll definitely be back in a couple years - hoping to get into IM Canada next year. I think I got everything out of this race I wanted. Some might wonder why pay all the money just for a "training race".
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[10]
Reported by:
Race rating (5)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities? Good
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: I had a blast all day! Thought maybe the lack of computer or butter or maybe the sore back or all the walking might get me down but I stayed positive and happy the whole way. I expected to be down some especially during the run but it just never happened. I have to say I would have had a really hard time if it hadn't been for my little sister, best friend and training partner Colleen (c-cic), we got each other out the door each hard training day and it was fun to see her out there smiling, ahead of me. It was a great day, I'm not going to enter next year, will volunteer again but plan to try it again in 2011.
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[11]
Reported by:
User photo
  • Organised?
  • Events on time?

  • Lots of volunteers to help?
  • Plenty of drink stations?

  • Post race activities?
  • Overall course based on my ability:

  • Comments: IMCDA is a great race. Clean water to swim in, scenic bike ride, a lakeside run, and a great race day crowd.
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[12]
Reported by:
Race rating (5)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities? Good
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: IMCdA is the best, most organized race I have ever done. Course was scenic and challenging, weather was cool (and for me about perfect). Volunteers and spectators were awesome.
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[13]
Reported by:
Race rating (5)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities? Good
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: As an M-dot race, it was very well organized. The CdA course is beautiful and challenging. I hope to come back and do this race again in a couple of years. For now, though, it's time to pay my family back for all the support they gave me over the last year.
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[14]
Reported by:
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities?
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: I think a race this size can only be described as controlled chaos. But everything is where its supposed to be when its supposed to be there. There are a thousand people telling you where to go. Its incredible.
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[15]
Reported by:
Race rating (5)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities?
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: SUMMARY: awesome day! hands down, one i'll remember forever! LONG VERSION: ironman truly is about the journey. i'm guessing i could've pushed myself to run more in that last 14 miles than i gave myself credit for, but it would've compromised my mood. i would've been miserable. i know it. as long as i knew i could finish, i went with being comfortable and i've got no regrets about it at all. my goal throughout this whole training process was to START, HAVE FUN, SMILE, FINISH. i accomplished every single one of those goals and for that, i'm elated. i wanted this to be an experience filled with pleasent memories, and every single memory i have from that day, including the weather issues, the mechanical issues, the soreness in my body during and after...is just that, pleasant. i made the most of every minute out there and am so happy with myself for doing just that! would i have liked a faster time? hell yeah, but am i disappointed? not even one iota! no way. i LOVED IT! this day would
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[16]
Reported by:
Race rating (5)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities? Good
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: I loved CDA although it didn't really suit my strengths. I'm still learning what does suit my strengths however.
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[17]
Reported by:
Race rating (5)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities? Good
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: What can I say about this race. Ironman knows how to do a race. The city of Coeur d'Alene comes out in droves to cheer and volunteer. There were people cheering all along the bike and run course. Those volunteers are amazing. For the run they were standing against the lake in pouring rain, high winds and cold helping us out. You couldn't ask for more. If you want to do an early Ironman, I would highly recommend you do IMCDA. I am happy that I went 3 hours and 9 seconds faster than Kentucky. I thought this was a much harder course than Kentucky. Although, you have to deal with the heat in Kentucky the bike course is more forgiving and the run course is flat in Kentucky. I trained a lot more and a lot smarter for this race and it showed. I want to do another one next year, but I think I am going to take it off, as I owe my wife some time. I will most likely do another one in 2011, maybe a destination one (Brazil, France, etc...).
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[18]
Reported by:
Race rating (4)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities?
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: A great race in all aspects. A beautiful area and a great course. The weather was cold and windy and rain started on the run so be prepared for anything but all in all it was a place where I will be returning because I have unfinished business here. I have no doubt that if i had not made a couple of important mistakes, I could have easily nailed a new PR by quite a bit. Lessons learned...
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[19]
Reported by:
Race rating (5)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities? Good
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: WOW! What an amazing weekend! I was worried about all that post-ironman blues stuff that I heard about, but I am not sure what people are talking about. I was in the state of euphoria starting from the day before the race, throughout the whole race pretty much and for 2 days after the race. It is such a long and interesting journey - all the training and races that I did in the last 6 months. All the mornings when I had to make myself get out of bed at 6am to come to the swim class or ride my bike to work leading up to this one day have finally paid off! The course is fantastic! The bike course, while challenging, definitely allows for some fast splits if you pace yourself right. The run, being out and backm is great to see other friends racing and cheer them on. Great spectator course given that we go by the transition area 6 times on the bike and 4 times on the run. The event is tremendously well organized. I guess you couldn't expect less from an Ironman brand race. Volunteers
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[20]
Reported by:
Race rating (5)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities? Average
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: I loved this race!!
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[21]
Reported by:
Race rating (4)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities? Good
  • Overall course based on my ability: Just right

  • Comments: Overall - Avg. HR - 148, max HR - 175 Temps from my Polar - Avg. 63, Hi - 74, Min - 53. 5700' elevation gain in bike and run I ran the entire marathon, except the aid stations I walked from 11-18. I stopped to go to bathroom 2 times. My HR monitor said I burned 6,098 calories (which doesn't include the portion of swim that watch stopped). Monday - my knee hurts, that's why I'm limping, but my muscle soreness is not bad at all. Tuesday - my knee is a little better, but now swollen. Muscles are just a little sore, nothing major.
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[22]
Reported by:
Race rating (4)
User photo
  • Organised?Yes
  • Events on time?Yes

  • Lots of volunteers to help?Yes
  • Plenty of drink stations?Yes

  • Post race activities? Good
  • Overall course based on my ability: Too hard

  • Comments: All in all, this was the most grueling, hardest, emotionally draining, exciting, uplifting, challenging thing I've ever done.  I have no idea how it compares to other big life events, or even to another Ironman on a different day, but I'm glad I did it, I'm glad I worked for it, and I'm elated I didn't quit!
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