Ironman Coeur d'Alene : Official Thread (Page 150)

Forgot my goal: finish the race alive 

Another beautiful day up here in the Spokane/CdA area!  Hope everybody is traveling safely and resting smartly!  I'll see you at the swim on friday morning.

For what it's worth, my name is Dave, and I'm #1166.  See you all out there!

Yes Ma'am!! 

SWIM UPDATE: Just got back from testing the water for about 15 mins of OWS.  While I may live in the same area s WaterDog, unlike him, I have an irrational fear of aquatic animals with large teeth (i.e. sharks)--likely because I'm entirely fascinated by them and have seen one too many shark weeks, sharkmen, etc. shows. (of which some show tagging of Great Whites less than 1/2 a mile off San Onofre--enough to keep my fears alive).  So, I have done most of my swimming in the pool (one hot--like 82-83 all the time; one cool- low 69-72).  When I first got in Lake CdA today, my feet said, that's a little chilly, and I just started swimming. Feet and hands were fine, for about the first 3-4 mins the face said COLD (no ice cream headache, was just wearing one normal swim cap). But, then once I got going I said not so bad. Got out and my feet and hands were were NOT blocks of ice, fingers still worked, and face was not frozen.  This is in contrast to a race I did in Pt. Mugu, CA in April that was 53-54 degrees. After less than 8 mins of swimming my feet and hands were totally frozen, and I didn't feel my feet again till near the end of the 5K run.  Now, part of that is probably cause the air was cold too and kept my feet cold, but nonetheless, this was NOT as bad as that was! Add warm thrashing bodies, and I think we're going to be okay!

See some of you tonight at Moon Time (6:30 if I recall properly!--look for the short red head!), and more of you tomorrow at Independence Point also known as the Moose also where the Flag is located near the lake! Those three identification points should make it easy to find.

Lastly, if someone is hurting for lodging space, needs a sofa bed to crash on, etc. The house I'm in has plenty of room, is one street over from Lakeside (so easy walk to the bike course) and only about a mile from transition, less than that to finish.  Shoot me a PM if you're in need of help there.

Good luck to you all!!! I'll be at the finishing chute catching.  Hope to see you all cross with a smile on your face.

What shift? I am also catching on the 6-9 shift.

And good luck to everyone... it's been an inspiration following this thread for the last few months.

Yet another Josh thank you!  I am so glad you stuck around and gave all those tips even when it became apparent you wouldn't be joining us this weekend. 

I am loving my new compact crankset, by the way.  We'll never know for sure, but I think you saved me some serious time on the run.

Josh,

I mentioned you in one of my blog updates (not sure if you saw it), but I am also thankful all the information you provided on this thread!!  It was very helpful!!  For me the big ones were the cassette and more frequency of running!  We will miss you in CDA!!

coxma22,

I can't believe we will be doing this in a few days also!!!  It is finally here!!

6-9 for me too so that's cool. My brother has a goal time of 14 hrs, so I'm hoping it will happen during that shift.  If not, I don't think anyone will have a problem with me hanging around for a bit.  See you there.  Any other BT finish line volunteers that you know of?

Theoretically... our condo is huge...

Aw shucks you guys... is this some sort of last minute conspiracy to make me slap down the plastic and get on that plane?!?!?!  Truth be told you guys did the hard work while I sat here and played arm-chair QB.  I guess that's allowed when you've actually been a semi-successful QB in a former life, so I'm glad most of you didn't mind (I seem to recall rufflin' a few feathers). 

It was 100% the right thing for me to drop out of this race and focus on some non-sports health issues, and my life is more balanced and I'm overall more healthy today because of it, despite being a few pounds heavier... plus seeing that shrink every week this whole year made even IM NYC look cheap!  But requesting that [partial] refund didn't exactly feel good (I'm told the right thing rarely does), and I've been living vicariously through the HB badazznezz in this thread so evidently displayed by you all.

In fact, I owe you guys some thanks because this was an experiment in "giving back" which I am trying to do in a number of areas of my life where in the past it had become dangerously overly self-involved (unofficial BT IMCdA coach, volunteering at a substance abuse recovery group, etc, driving someone to/from harrisburg/baltimore for an every-other-week appointment they otherwise couldn't make, etc)... and you guys made it easy and enjoyable.  So thanks for helping me along my own journey, even if lining up on the start line wasn't part of it this year.  I have little doubt that someday soon I'll be racing along side of a few of you somewhere.

Group hug (always dangerous with a bunch of HBs).