Ironman Coeur d'Alene Race Report

My Ironman day started off at 4:15am, getting out of bed on time and hopping in the shower to wake up a bit. I slept surprisingly well thanks to three Tylenol PM and had starbucks coffee waiting in the fridge that I had bought the night before. Great idea. Probably got about 6-6:30 hrs of sleep. I had a pretty nervous stomach, so I choked down two bananas and a small muffin (probably around 400 total cal), not able to get the full 600-800 recommended. Worrying about this, I drank a little more than half of a 32 oz Gatorade, getting an additional 100-150 cal.

After getting everything packed up into gear and special needs bags the previous day, and thinking it was greatly complicating things, I was happy to only have to remember swim gear the morning of the race. The nerves really got going as we drove to the race course. Mom and the fam dropped me off right at transition’s edge around 6:10. I had my own pump with me, something that greatly simplified things, although people borrowed it as I left the bike area, slowing me down a bit. I had Andrew with me to hold onto the pump until the race started. Next time, have him walk along side the outside of the bike area, instead of trying to find that person by the entrance. Just too many people. Also, having your family wear bright colored t-shirts would be a great idea. I found myself always looking for them, but they blended in pretty well, so they had to see me first.

I double checked all gear bags to be sure of where they were, then got body marked, lubed, and sunscreened, and got ready for the swim start. Walking down to the beach by 6:40 was pretty perfect timing in that I swam for about 5-10 minutes, practiced an entry counting steps (3, then dive), and then decided to go take some deep breaths and relax a bit on the beach. After all, I did have 2.4 miles to swim. Didn’t want to waste too much energy early on. I had taken a cup of water and Gu Roctane down to the beach and had it right before the warm-up.

My race plan was to line up inside the buoy line and go out hard to try and get into open space and then settle down. I was one of the first to the first buoy and started getting into a good rhythm. I was swimming long and controlled, but started getting bumped A LOT. By the time I was to the third buoy, there was so much contact that I started looking at adjusting my course. It seemed that EVERYONE was trying to swim down the inside of the buoy line, so I stayed on a course about five feet to the outside of the line. This proved to be better in getting to the turning buoy, yet when I got there, I was in the perfect position that everyone wanted, so things bottle necked and it turned into a water polo match. Next thing I know, I get a foot to the face, both goggles are filled with water, I took a huge gulp of water and was pretty much hyperventilating. My first thought was, “this is why you put your goggles under the cap.” I stopped and adjusted my goggles and got going again. It took me another couple minutes to settle down after this though. After a similar experience and the second turn, I decided to get a little more to the outside and really work on finding some good feet to conserve energy. It was at this point on the first lap that my focus switched from really racing the Ironman to simply finishing. Through tons of contact and really fighting out in the water, I felt as if I was burning matches already and didn’t want to be doing that in the first hour of the race. I finished the first lap in around 33 minutes and made up my mind to stick to more of a contact free path and focus on drafting for the next lap. Things went much more smoothly and I found good feet the entire second lap, although I probably added 0.2 miles to the total distance with my wide turns. I wasn’t worried about it though, as I felt very fresh getting out of the water at 1:10:41. On to the bike!

After getting off the beach to transition, I used the wetsuit strippers, which was awesome, found my bike gear bag with ease and ran straight up to a volunteer in the changing tent. He was great. I dumped everything and he took care of my swim gear for me. My plan was to be methodical but quick in transition so that I didn’t burn up excess time, yet didn’t forget anything. One thing that surprised me was that my five power bars cut up in the sandwich bag had melted into one huge block! I didn’t know what to do with it. Too large for the bento box on my bike or my tri top pockets, I stuck it in my shorts for the run to the bike and then moved into the front of my shirt once on the bike. I didn’t stop to lube or sunscreen here and was happy with a pretty quick transition time. 3:48 T1.

Once out on the bike, I was warming up well. The swim was cold and left me with numb hands, feet, face, so I was happy to be getting the blood moving. My original race plan was to not be afraid to go hard in the first 80 miles. I maintained a good pace through much of the first lap, but had switched my thinking once again to not burning any matches. I wanted to save those for the run knowing it’d be tough. HR was pretty constant between 135-145, only going over on a few early climbs. I focused on soft pedaling on a lot of the downhill sections and coasted turns. Something I learned the hard way was that I should have had Gatorade in the aero drink and water in my water bottles. That way I could spray myself off after peeing on the bike. After drinking much of the water out of the aero drink, I dumped one of my bottles of Gatorade into it within the first hour and replaced with a water bottle. I peed once an hour for the first four hours on the bike. I felt that not stopping to pee was a good way to maintain a good rhythm and make up some good time. There were several guys that were truly faster than me on the bike that had to pass me four times, due to stopping to use outhouses. Note: DO NOT wear socks on the bike if you’re planning on urinating while riding. Nutritionally my goal was to listen to my body closely. I knew a general framework that I wanted to stick to of one power bar per hour and Gatorade to supplement, but found out in Wildflower that these needs could and would go up with the harder course.

At the latter part of the first lap, someone right in from of me actually almost got hit by a deer sprinting across the road! I sat up and slowed down knowing deer rarely are alone and there was a good chance that a few more would be coming across. Luckily, there was only one. Around 3:30 I had gone through almost the entire power bar chunk, so I started to slow down a bit. There was one instance around 4:00 bike time when I felt like I had taken in too many calories, so I backed off and drank solely water for the next 40 minutes to an hour or so. I never felt full, but wanted to be sure that my stomach was in good condition for the run. I think it may have been too much Gatorade that got me feeling like this. It was almost an acidic feeling in my stomach that subsided relatively quickly with the water intake. By the end of the bike, I had one Gu, two-three banana halves, and the five power bars. I’m not sure how much Gatorade I had, but it did serve as my primary fluids, sipping water every other time or so to wash down calories and keep my stomach feeling balanced. I do know I went through two 24 oz Gatorade bottles and refilled my aero drink with Gatorade 3-4 times with about 2/3 of the bottles they had on the course (24oz I think).

When we started heading back towards the lake, I started focusing on conserving as much energy as possible to prepare for the marathon. This was difficult though because there was a head wind all the way back. Something Mike Reilly said to me before the race was to not cook yourself on the first lap. Pass people late in the bike. With my plan to sustain the aerobic pace and avoid burning those matches, I dropped A LOT of people that I was either trading back and forth with or had passed me early. It felt good! Once I hit mile 100, my sole focus was the run. I remember feeling pretty good through much of the ride. Mile 60-80 and 100-105 were probably the most uncomfortable times I had on the bike. After mile 105, I started feeling pretty good though and was actually getting excited for the run! 5:48:18 on the bike, and feeling fresh.

T2: I felt surprisingly good running off the bike going into T2. A volunteer got me my run gear bag and once again, I went into the changing tent and found a volunteer. This guy was even better! He organized everything for me and made this transition really easy. I sat down to put my shoes and socks on grabbed some Vaseline to lube up the under carriage for the run. I should have done the armpits too!! Next time a body glide stick in the run gear bag will be a must. I stopped for sunscreen on the way out. Don’t forget the lower back next time.

Out of T2, I felt like a million bucks! I actually ran the first mile sub 8:00 thinking I was running 9:00 miles. It was a good thing I had my Garmin with me because I really started focusing on taking it easy and getting into a rhythm of 9:00-9:30. Truthfully I ran the first 8 miles at 8:45-9:15 miles. This was a little too fasts in hind sight.

I walked every aid station, no matter how good or bad I was feeling. Around 30 minutes in, I took my first gel. My stomach was feeling pretty good at this point and I felt well hydrated, stopping to pee around mile 6. I was drinking water and small sips of Gatorade leading up to this. Around mile 5-6 or so, I remember having a cup of Gatorade that seemed insanely strong. I took one sip and had to wash it down with water. Around mile 8, things started getting a little harder. I maintained, but started walking the entire length of the aid stations instead of just the water portions like I had early on. Focusing on running technically and getting to the next aid station before walking kept me going through the half marathon mark. At this point, my lower intestine was pretty severely cramped, but I still felt strong. I was growing afraid of Gatorade and any gels, so I tried out potato chips. This sat well, so I stuck with chips and water for the rest of the race. Miles 15ish and on got progressively harder with miles 18-23 being some of the darkest moments of my life. I entered into an exhaustion that I’ve never experienced, having several moments where I felt so overwhelmed emotionally that I actually cried. I made it to aid stations without walking, but was having trouble talking, trouble grabbing cups of water, and struggled with all I had to make it to the next aid station. At this point, everything below my belly button was in severe pain. My stomach felt fine, I didn’t feel full or bloated, but my lower intestine and testicles were in excruciating pain. It felt like someone kicked me in the groin. I think this may have been a result of the Gatorade on the course… but why were my testicles sore to the touch? My legs were fatigued and sore, but I never felt in danger of any muscle cramps.

My darkest moment occurred at mile 21 at the base of the last hard climb. I was so exhausted both physically and mentally, that I not only cried for a second time, I sat down on a truck bumper at the end of the mile 21 aid station. This was significant because it marks the first time I had ever stopped moving forward in a race of any kind in my life. My thought process was that I’d rather take a minute to gather myself and run a good final five miles than to suffer through all of them running poorly. At this point, I was trying out cola to try and get some energy. Luckily enough, I had talked to a girl that was running pretty much stride for stride with me on the first lap. She came up right after I sat down and said “hey! You coming or what?” This snapped me out of that dark place that I had entered and I realized I had no idea why I was sitting down! I should keep moving. So, I got up, continued to carefully take in fluids and walked the base of the climb, then got rolling again. I knew I was struggling when I saw I was running 11:00 miles DOWN hill. So, once I got to the aid station again, I took a second to refocus and try to get back on my technique. At mile 23, I realized that my face was covered in salt, so I splashed some ice water on my face with the intent to clean it off. BOOM. This jolted me awake! All of a sudden I felt slightly re-energized, so I did it again and then poured some water over my head. I started running again with a focus on technique and really tried gut out the last 5k. Mile 24 I did the same. Chips, a sip of cola, some water, and Ice water in the face and I was off. Miles 25 and 26 were probably the best of the last half marathon. Mile 25 was the first time in over two hours that I actually realized I was going to finish my first Ironman. Up to this po

int, the thought of making it to the next aid station seemed so insurmountable that it was completely consuming me. It never occurred to me that there was a finish line out there. Once I made the last couple turns and was on to the main road, I started to get chills! There were so many people cheering and yelling for me by name! This was truly the biggest rush of my athletic career. The entire three blocks leading up to the finish line was essentially one long finish line shoot. It was absolutely amazing. It was at this p

oint I started telling myself to enjoy it. Don’t race the last ¼ mile. Savor it. I checked behind me to be sure there wasn’t anyone too close and actually slowed a little to give the person in front of me their glory. Hands up going into the finish line; I had made it. I was pretty delirious, so I’m not sure if Mike Reilly was calling my name or not, but it didn’t matter. I had done it. It was the toughest thing I’ve ever done. The toughest hours of my life were out there. I doubted everything multiple times, spontaneously cried, said I hated the sport, went through highs and lows, prayed for help out of absolute despair, and yet I somehow made it to the other side for the biggest thrill of my life. 11:42:48 and a 4:37:53 suffer-fest of a marathon. My family was going insane right at the finish line and Rebecca was actually waiting for me amongst the finish line catchers. I actually don’t remember a ton from this, but I think they all said they were proud of me and I got a huge kiss from my supportive girlfriend. The next thing I remember, a medic is asking what I needed. I think I said banana, Gatorade, and massage. Not completely sure though. Next, I’m on the massage table with one of the volunteers feeding me coke, Gatorade, and some water. I think this helped a little. Not sure though. I was still pretty bad off.

After crossing the finish line, I was an absolute mess. I could barely talk, was slurring my words a bit, and was staggering, barely able to stand up straight. I had never been this exhausted. I started to get a tingling feeling from the top of my head down to my finger tips and thought I was going to pass out. The volunteers were absolutely amazing. They more than took care of me and didn’t leave me to myself until they were absolutely sure that I was ok.

Still feeling horrible, I had a cup of chicken broth about 20 minutes after finishing. Almost instantly this seemed to bring me back to life. I could think

a bit more clearly. I had another. And then another. Four total, I think. I had zero appetite, but I could now think, talk, and almost felt a little energized. Chicken broth real

ly is the magic stuff I’ve heard people talk about. Next time what do you think about a flask of this in my special needs bag? They only brought it out at the last aid station. I probably could have used it at the beginning of the second lap.

Thinking back on things now, if you were to ask me if I’ll ever do an Ironman again, the answer was absolutely not on race day, maybe on Monday, and is now yes. I want to see if I can endure those dark miles late in the marathon any better. Can I be mentally tougher, more physically fit, or handle myself with greater focus? It became apparent to me that it is the mind that fatigues when the pace drops, not the body. Overall, an incredible experience. I’m very happy with how I raced and think that fueling on the run is the one place for improvement next time around. Ironman Arizona 2011?