Ironman Coeur d'Alene : Official Thread (Page 157)

One special treat I forgot to mention.  I ran nearly 3 miles with Julie Dibens.  Literally right next to her.  It was mile 3-5 for me and 16-18 for her.  She looked beat on the run and was only doing a 8:40ish pace at that point.  She walked some too.

Craig Alexander looked fast on the run as he was going up the hill when I was going down. 

Desiree Ficker also looked like she was moving. 

So sorry to hear that!  Must have been pretty hard abandoning the race...  That water was freaking cold.  I too had to spend a good 20 min in the warming tent just to regain my body functionality as I was shivering so badly.

Thank you very much for posting those HB signs on the course.  They were "inspirational" to me

Bonnie, so sorry about your race.  Just know your HB signs gave me inspiration long the way.

Swim was good 1:20ish (started to get cold towards the end).  First bike loop was good, second suffered (not near enough hill training for this boy from FL).  The first 1/2 of the run was OK.  The third 1/4 was horrible.  I then was able to pull it together and finish the last 6.7 strong.

Saw Nerdjock (the tutu gave her away) on the run at one point and another BTers shouted out to me (did not see who it was).  Finished in 14:19 well below my goal of 15 hours for my first IM.

Running down Sherman is something I will never forget.

Congratulations to everyone that took on this challenge - incredibly insprirational!!!  That swim start was amazing to watch.

I was a finish line catcher and witnessed everything from exaltation to dejected disapointment and from energized euphoria to utter and complete exhaustion.

One thing I'll always remember was the guy that reached over the fence to grab his infant son as he came down the shoot. Reilly shouted out, "Don't do it John, don't do it".  But the guy went ahead and crossed the line holding his son - instant DQ!  He forfeited it all just to experience that moment.

Oh the ups and downs and smiles and frowns of the monday after Ironman!  I hope that as you hobble around town and gladly get robbed at the finisher's gear tent, you each begin to reflect on what you went through.  I hope you each find lessons, regardless of your outcome, in the events of the day.  It's okay to be frustrated or sad or angry at a DNF, unexpected mechanical, or freak injury... and it's okay to celebrate and boast about a smashed goal, huge PR, or busted IM cherry.  As gimp converts to gait in the coming days, I hope you all begin to see the parallels between yesterday and, however cliche, the larger journey you're taking... of which the race was just a blip (yes, a potentially amazing blip) on the radar. 

My hat's off to each of you, no matter how you feel about your day.  Regardless of what happened, you are not the first and there will be more that come after you (welcome to a new community).  The greatest joy of ironman, in my opinion, is the role it plays in the larger schemes of life.  In some ways it is an amplifier for parts of us that are not as easily quantified as a finish clock.  I hope you each find something valuable as you listen (or learn to listen) to (or through) the noise.  I know there are some of you tempted to define yourself by the numbers (positive or negative) today.  Within the larger scheme, I assure you that part is virtually irrelevant.

Group hug!

Josh

Nice job out there everyone...

Who did the Bee signs?  I loved those!  Also enjoyed the "don't care" signs.  Big hill don't care, so true!

IMCDA is my 'B' race for the year.  It was my 8th IM, I had a good day out there overall.  I don't set time goals, I set execution goals and see what time I get.

The swim I screwed up by thinking I'd get time at the beginning to get used to the water.  Didn't happen, so all I got was some splashing water on my face before the gun went off.  Totally insufficient, and thus a tough very slow swim (1:37 instead of typically 1:25-1:30).  I didn't get "normalized" until the first turnaround. T1 was slow - hands didn't work :-)

Bike was great, loved the course. I executed my plan well (even power on flats and downhills, watch HR on the hills).  My 6:30 time was fine.  I faded on the hills on the 2nd loop so clearly more time is needed on hill work before I do that course again.  My new cockpit setup with PD aerobottle, ski bend areobars, etc. worked really well.

The run was disappointing.  My lower back started hurting really badly up the big hill on the run, perhaps from a lot of aero on the bike or perhaps from the crappy mattress at the rental house or both together.  Each step was increasing torture from there back to special needs where I got some Advil. That fixed it by mile 17 and my pace was back up. I decided to not kill myself and just enjoy the run, wave at people, etc. on the way in for 4:45 run.  At T2 I was thinking a sub-4:30 was possible.  Total time was 13:11, which is totally in line with the training I did for this race. 

Awesome race for me.  My goal was 13:30.  Did a 12:43:55.

Sorry for those who did not enjoy as good of a day.

Thanks for the HB posters.  They made me grin while I was in a dark, dark place on the run.

Just want to brag on Jody (mrwrite) for a minute.  He killed it!  I leapfrogged with him on the run and every time he was smiling and had a positive attitude.  Amazing how far he's come.  I'm really proud of him!

I highly recommend wearing a rainbow tutu for the run portion. You get lots of energy from the crowd 

You guys are all wonderful.  So proud of EVERYONE!  Coming back in 2013...with my honey this time.  He has always thought doing an Ironman was insane but came to the athlete dinner with me and decided there that he wants to tri.  Awesome!