The water temp had to be in the 70's. I was surprised at how warm the water was and that should have been a sign of things to come.

I didn't care for the wetsuit. I wasn't getting a good roll and in hindsight, I wish I had not worn it at all.

In water this warm, not wear a wetsuit and spend some training time in the wetsuit. In the coming weeks I'm going to do some open water swims with the LA Tri Club wearing the wetsuit. If I just can't get a good feel, then I won't wear one in Coeur d'Alene.

I'm happy with this time. The two guys pros that took first and second from Australia were out in under 28 seconds. I could shave some time, but I don't see myself doing much different at Coeur d'Alene.

The heat and dry air got to me quickly. I only took half a bottle of Gatorade and I ended up picking up a waterbottle on the course. Coming out of the swim my chest was pounding and it took a bit for me to calm down on the bike. On the way back the course wasn't well marked and I had to stop and ask some firemen which way to go. I expected to go faster, but it wasn't meant to be. The climbs weren't tough, but they cut into my speed.

Not much, this is a pretty big improvement over Los Angeles Triathlon considering how much more difficult this bike course is.

Not sure why this one took so long. I put on socks and I'm glad I did. The two pros finished this in under 39 seconds.

This was the toughest course I have ever run. Bastard Hill and Hang Glider Hill lived up to their names. Walked to the peaks, yes, peaks. The course was quite technical and I hate trail running. I felt like a jack-rabbit hopping all over the place. What truly made the run difficult though was the heat and dry air. Weather.com says 87 degrees, but I don't believe it. The temperature of late has been in the low 70's, so this was a big change and I didn't adjust very well. At every aid station I drank two cups of water and poured another two on me. I normally don't drink as much as I did, but my body was crying out for it.

Grabbed three PowerAid drinks, downed them, grabbed a bottle of ice cold water, downed it. Grabbed a Mountain Dew, downed it. Grab a cola, downed it.


The technical nature of the run and the temperature. I also think I could have swam faster without the wetsuit.


Only water was handed out on the course, for an Olympic distance race I would have expected a sports drink.

Scott Tinley and Scott Molina ran this race in 1983 (as did my friend Pat) and they finished in 2:19 and at that time swim distance was 2k. As good as the two pros were that raced yesterday (2:27), it really puts into perspective how good the Scotts were.

I have to say that this course is the most difficult of all the races I have done. The word "flat" doesn't exist in the race director's vocabulary. Additionaly, all the racers of the olympic distance seemed to be hardbodies. It was as if only the dedicated showed up to this race.

In the end, this was a very fun race. I'm looking forward to going back to this race next year with knowledge of the course. The race was a confidence builder for CDA. Oh, and Pat beat me by five minutes. I guess over twenty years of racing and 10 Ironmans makes him better with LESS training.