A VERY late race report...Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2010

Goals-The number one goal for this race was to qualify for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. I trained to race a sub 9:40 as I felt that would guaranty me a spot in Kona. The biggest part of meeting that goal would be to run a sub 3:10 marathon off the bike. I had spent a ton of time and energy preparing to execute this. All my markers along the way showed me this was possible but I’d need to execute the run to perfection while coming in feeling good off the bike. I set the bar high for myself but felt confident I could accomplish all these goals. At the same time, I respect the distance and the competition so much that I was not going to take anything for granted. This also had the potential of being my last Ironman. Due to a variety of factors, if I didn’t qualify for Kona, this would be it. I didn’t want the last one to be a qualifier. I wanted the last one to be the big one. That was a serious motivation.

Race morning started off pretty normal. After a GREAT nights sleep, I woke up and got breakfast going. I threw the last remaining race items in the car and made the 25 minute trek from Spokane to Coeur d’Alene. Having done this race in the past, I knew of a little neighborhood right near the venue that people overlook when parking. I found a spot 2 minutes from transition and got going. I did a final check on the bike then dropped off my special needs bike bag. I went back to the car and just chilled out reading a book until 6:30.

The Swim

With the swim being my big limiter, I wanted to do something that kept me within reach of the people I would be competing against for a Kona spot. I lined up about 25 yards to the right of the buoys. I was in the first 5 rows of athletes. Most athletes were 50 yards to the right of the buoys so I was hoping this might help me avoid getting beat up. The gun went off and I immediately settled into a nice rhythm. The group I was swimming near wasn’t too big so I was able to swim without a lot of contact. There were plenty of drafting partners so I focused on that. I felt like I was swimming well. I was very comfortable and liked the speed the drafting was allowing me to maintain. I completed the first lap and went to check my Timex to see my split. The dang watch had reset itself so it didn’t take a split. Off I went to the second loop with most swimmers behind me. The water was pretty clear of swimmers. I had a difficult time finding someone with comparable speed the draft with. I felt this cost me some time but I focused on my stroke and came through the swim just fine for my standards. I finished 46th in my age group, 292nd overall for the swim.

Swim 1:07:00

The Bike

My goal for the bike was too ride a comfortable pace with a ride time of around 5:15. The beginning of the bike was a challenge. The race had so many more people entered since the last time that the course was extremely congested. I was focusing on not getting a penalty. The groups were so large the first 10 miles that it was challenging to pass them all at once but I managed to do it and get clear of them. Around the 17 mile mark, I came up on a sharp right hand turn. I was in the process of a gear shift when I came up quickly on 3 riders who were all hitting their brakes going into the turn. I got out of my aero bars the make sure I didn’t have an incident with them. As I made the turn, I stood up to get past them. Well, I had never completed my shift before the turn so when I got out of the saddle, I jacked up my drive train. I was now unable to move the chain up to my 53 on the front. I was stuck in my 39. The good news was that the bike still moved forward. The bad news was I had a decision to make. Manually put the chain on the 53 and ride the non-stop hills in a big gear or stay in the 39 losing precious time on the back side of the climbs? After 2 miles of consideration and 2 stops to see what exactly the problem was, I decided to go big. 53 tooth on the front for 95 miles. The bike was a pretty calm affair. I didn’t panic when I had the mechanical. I didn’t get excited when I passed people. I just tried to stay relaxed and businesslike. The first steep hill is preceded by a nice descent. Knowing I didn’t have the right gearing combo, I decided to push that descent so I could utilize the momentum of it up the hill. This worked very well. The hill wasn’t that bad. I did this whenever I could. I never coast a descent but I truly pushed it to gain that length up the hill. It seemed to work as I was passing people climbing even in a less than optimal gear. I finished the first loop feeling pretty good but not as good as I would have like in the quad area. Clearly, I was mashing based on my gearing but that was the choice I made and had to live with. The hills had taken a small toll but it could have been much worse. I just told myself to hold it together and not do anything stupid. Steady, steady, steady. I did just that and came through the second loop having passed 221 of those 291 people that started ahead of me. My quads however had worked harder than I would have liked. They were fatigued and now I had to run 26.2 miles. I finished the bike with the 5th fastest bike split in my age group, 45th overall.

Bike 5:09:39

The Run

After stopping during the first mile to relieve myself, I got in a decent rhythm. My original goal was to run a sub 3:10 marathon. To do that, I would have needed to come off the bike fresher than I was. I knew right away that this goal was not feasible after what happened on the bike. My quads were fatigued to the point that the goal was just to run 26.2 without walking. I was running well. Most miles were within 10 seconds of each other. I was just waiting for total quad failure but it wasn’t coming. 8,9,10 miles….still going well. It wasn’t until the 15th mile where the quads just gave out. I didn’t have a gradual fade. I immediately started running a minute per mile slower. Too my surprise, I was able to maintain that pace. Each mile got progressively worse. I was in the belief that my legs were going to buckle from underneath me at any point. The muscles just weren’t holding up. At mile 24, my friends wife had told me I had ran into 2nd place in my age group. I would have liked to have upped the pace to make sure it stayed that way but I was physically incapable of it. With ½ a mile to go, I heard someone coming up from behind. Crap, he was in my age group. I tried for 1/10th of a mile to stay with him. At that point, he took off in a sprint. I tried to sprint but my pace didn’t change at all. He managed to put over 30 seconds on me during that final 4/10’s of a mile. At 150 yds out, I slowed to high five the crowd and soak it all in. I knew no one else was behind me and that my Kona slot was in the bag so I just enjoyed my finish.

Run 3:26:36

Final time 9:48:27


I feel VERY lucky to have been able to qualify for Kona. I feel lucky in the sense that my bike issue could have made it so I couldn’t ride. The fact that I was able to continue in any kind of gear was a huge break for me. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’d rather be lucky than good….luck is more fun. Training now starts for my final Ironman race. I don’t have my goals laid out yet but I’m very excited to compete against the best in the world. I truly consider it an honor to be able to toe the line with these amazing athletes. That being said, I intend to do my part and suffer, hoping that I’m putting the hurt to others in the process. We’ll see!!!

It's been a while......

I'm back after a long hiatus. I've been doing plenty of endurance sport but not much endurance writing. I'll try to get better with that! Since I last posted, I have been training a lot. Over the years, I have changed from training to race to racing to train. I love to race but love the training so much more. Racing just gives my training a focus. In May, I raced an altitude PR at the BolderBoulder 10k in 36:06. That was pretty exciting as this race used to have my number. I got to enjoy the race with my 12 year old who ran her first 10k. That made it a truly great day. The main goal for this season was to qualify for Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. I was fortunate enough to do so at Ironman Coeur d'Alene so Hawaii training has been the focus. Training has been good but I have to be honest, my head hasn't always been where it needs to be. I am so geeked up to do the Leadville 100 Trail Run next year that I find myself getting ahead of myself. With the race being held over the past weekend, I'm more in that mindset than ever. We''ll see how that hampers things. I raced a 10 mile race a few weeks back in a PR of 59:06. I was pretty pleased with the result since it came during a high volume week. Anyway, I'm having fun training and preparing for Hawaii. I have race reports for IM Coeur d'Alene and the 10 mile race that I'll post in the next couple of days.