Race Report Ironman Coeur d’Alene

We had decided a couple of months ago to drive the 1600km to Coeur d’Alene instead of flying. The decision was based mainly on economics, but curiosity played a role as well. Despite knowing we were going to be on the road for a long period of time over a couple of days, I think we were both looking forward to it.

It was a bonus to know that we were avoiding the hassles of flying and saving some money at the same time.

The balance sheet for each scenario is as follows:

Flying Costs
Tickets - $400 each $800

Bike Charges
$250 each $500

Hire Car
$300

Total (approx) $1600

Driving
Fuel (or Gas) $4.00/gallon $400
(based on 20miles/gallon)

Accommodation
(motel one night each way) $140

Total (approx) $540

Coeur d’Alene is in the state of Idaho, which is in the Northwest region of the US.

After the initial 40km of the journey, the route to CdA encompassed two major highways – the I-25 and the I-90
The I-25 took us north to the border of Colorado and Wyoming, then north through the state of Wyoming before hitting the I-90 just south of the Wyoming/Montana border.

The I-90 followed a northwest path from the northern region of Wyoming, across Montana – traversing the Rocky Mountains in the process - and then into the pan handle region of Idaho, where the pretty town of CdA is located.

CdA is very close to the border of Washington State to the west and Alberta, a province of Canada, to the north. When I competed in Ironman Canada in 2006, I flew into Spokane, hired a car, drove the 40 mins to CdA, stayed a night with my second family in CdA and then drove the 6 hours to Penticton, the site of Ironman Canada, the following day.

We started the journey on the Tuesday prior to the race. We loaded the two bikes, 6 wheels, two large bags and other paraphernalia into the 4-Runner without much fuss at all. The only slight inconvenience was the need to remove both the front and rear wheels of the bikes.

We crossed our fingers when we first handed over the cash to purchase the 4-Runner and we crossed them again when we first set off. As we had only been doing trips around town, we weren’t 100% sure of the reliability of the old girl on a long haul journey.

We gleaned some reassurance from the fact that we were recent additions to the AAA membership club (similar to RAC), but that dissolved when we discovered our mobile phone didn’t work in all areas we were likely required to make an emergency call for help.

We drove for most of the first day, with the customary pit stops for food, fuel and ablutions. It was amazing how quickly the time seemed to go and it turned out to be far less painful that I thought it was going to be.

We did have a minor scare about 4 hours into our 10 hour first driving stint. Not long after a lunch break in Sheridan, Wyoming, I discovered the cruise control was playing up. It would work if it was set immediately after being activated, but if the setting had to be cancelled for any reason, the cruise light would intermittently flash and then disappear, never to return no matter how many times I pressed the on/off button. I didn’t fancy having my foot on the accelerator pedal for the rest of the 1200km journey.

Miraculously, the cruise control resurrected itself about 2 hours later after another break. I wasn’t quite sure what happened – maybe a relay switch was playing up.

My right tibialis anterior muscle was particularly overjoyed at the news.

The countryside was interesting for most of the journey, we had the Rockies visible to our left for some of the journey and the rolling plains of Wyoming were moderately enchanting because of unfamiliarity (that would change on the way back though). The most aesthetically pleasing countryside was reserved until we reached the state of Montana and made the east to west traverse across the Rockies. There were no incredibly high mountain passes to negotiate, but there were snow covered mountains to view on either side of the vehicle for two hours at least. The sunset driving into Bozeman, our stop for the first evening, was the highlight of the journey as far as I was concerned.

There had been no animosity between the two of us until we reached Bozeman and tried to decide on a motel in which to spend the night. We were both as bad as one another - talk about indecisive.
It was getting late and, after driving around for 45 – 60 minutes looking for something suitable, we finally stopped at a quaint two story motel that looked as though it had a vacancy. Raija was adamant that she wanted a ground floor room for ease of unpacking – we weren’t about to leave the bikes in the car overnight.

However, under the circumstances, I thought the inconvenience of having to walk up a set of stairs was far less onerous a task than getting back in the car and driving around aimlessly for who knows how long to find a motel complex with an available single story room. I did point that out – with grace of course.

Luckily there was an available single ground floor room.

After a good nights sleep, we re-packed the car, took advantage of the free coffee (there were donuts too, but Raija neglected her duties and failed to grab a couple for the road) and began the balance of the journey to CdA.

We drove for 10 hours the previous day and were expecting a much shorter drive to complete the journey. We did our calculations and were disappointed to realise that there were still approximately 5 hours of driving left before reaching our destination. Like the previous day, though, the driving didn’t become a chore until the last hour or so, and by that time we were so close to our destination, it didn’t really matter.

As we had been deprived of decent espresso coffee for the last 48 hours, our first port of call on entry to the town site of CdA was a local café. I was familiar with the town due to a previous visit in 2003 to do the Ironman (the result was a DNF on this occasion due to hyponaetremia) so a suitable café was easy to track down.

The next task was to call our homestay hosts – Kent and Mia Eggleston. Kent and Mia looked after me in 2003 and again when I competed in Ironman Canada in 2006. They understand exactly what is involved and are the perfect hosts. I view them as my second family and love spending time with them.

Unfortunately our phone still wasn’t working. When we called, it connected but we couldn’t hear anything. Kent tried to call us back a couple of times, but it was the same scenario. We decided to drive to the house and found a note on the front door saying something like – “welcome, make yourselves at home”. The front door was unlocked and we let ourselves in.

I called Kent on the house phone and complemented him on his attention to detail with regard to home security.

As all the ancillaries were looked after, I only had a couple of concerns in the lead up to the race. The lake water was very cold for the time of the year. A week before the race the temperature was 12 degrees and neoprene hoods and booties were on the recommended list.

Prior to the drive to CdA, I purchased a neoprene hood but balked at the idea of neoprene booties. I was going to take my chances on this one as I didn’t fancy having neoprene booties dragging me to the bottom of the lake.

As it turned out, the weather in the week leading up to the race was typical summer weather for the region and it made a large difference to the temperature of the lake. By the time race morning dawned, the water temperature had increased to 15 degrees and while still very cold, with two caps, a neoprene hood and long sleeve wetsuit, it wasn’t an issue.

The other concern was my fitness status. Due to my breathing difficulties, I was unable to complete a suitable training block in the race lead up and was probably lacking in the endurance department for both swimming and cycling. My running endurance was intact and I was confident of a good run if I got through the bike in one piece.

I did do Kansas 70.3 the week prior to Coeur d’Alene and, although I didn’t feel as strong as I did in Florida, I managed to finish in 6th place. Racing half ironman, however, requires a totally different endurance skill set to full ironman.

I started the swim in much more conservative fashion than I would normally. I chose to take my medicine on this occasion realising that I wasn’t in very good swimming shape. As expected, all my opposition swam away in the first 300m and I was left with slim pickings as far as “feet to draft off” was concerned. I swam unaided to the first turn around buoy, but noticed I wasn’t swimming any faster than those in my immediate vicinity. As there was no point wasting any extra energy by swimming on my own, I pulled in behind a fellow athlete, and got a tow around the rest of the course. I felt a bit lazy because I was easily able to maintain my position, but the alternative was to swim possibly a minute faster and waste a lot of energy doing so. I exited the water 5 minutes behind the leader, who happens to be an exceptional swimmer, so I wasn’t too disappointed all things considered.

When I first started the cycle leg I felt very strong, my heart rate was low and I was maintaining a very good pace. The initial section of the cycle is a flat out and back affair of approximately 18km along the perimeter of the lake.

This is the first opportunity to gauge how the opposition is fairing.

I realised at this point that I was further back than full back and had some work to do.

The next segment of the course is a gradual climb away from the lake before encountering a relatively hilly loop at the top end of the course. The route back to the transition to start the second 90 kilometre lap is via the same road used to climb away from the lake. There was a strong headwind on the return journey, however, and it felt more like a climb than a descent.

I completed the gradual climb and first half of the hilly top loop feeling relatively strong. There was another opportunity to view the opposition at this point and it seemed as though I was making ground on all of my opposition apart from race winner Tom Evans (after race analysis of the ironmanlive run down would confirm this observation).

I made it back to the transition to complete the second loop feeling ok and set out on the out and back section again with a reasonable amount of confidence. I noticed that Tom hadn’t made much ground on me as he passed going the other direction relative to the first lap, and this gave me some heart.

It was not long after the turnaround point of the out and back section that I realised I was getting pretty tuckered out. I was somewhat concerned as I still had 80 kilometres to ride and most of it was undulating, uphill, or into a headwind. I struggled up the gradual climb from the lake and by the time I reached the hilly loop, I was absolutely rooted. It felt like I was dragging ten shovels up the climbs, and it makes sense, because I was digging holes. It reminded me of how I felt in the cycling section of Ironman Canada in 2006 – oh happy times!

Almost everyone I had passed previously overtook me and left me for dead. I was a little jaded by the circumstances, but not totally demoralised, as there was a long way to go. I knew I would run well when I got off the #$%^ bike.

I limped into T2 like a little bird with an injured wing. That was fine though, as I didn’t have to fly at that point and the running legs were there. I left T2 in feeling ok and by the time I reached the 1km point I was feeling strong and confident of running some of the opposition down. I had a spot of tightness in my right calf at this point, but thought nothing of it. Little niggles are all part of Ironman racing.

The run was a double out and back with the majority along the perimeter of the lake. There were some undulations to negotiate, but on a whole, the course could be described as flat. The first out and back was about 3k and the second accounted for the rest of the 21k lap. In town the crowd was awesome, but it thinned out a bit at the far end of the course. There were always people around to give you a cheer though, and it is one of the best Ironman races anywhere because of this community spirit and support.

I saw the lead the first two athletes had on me at the far turnaround point and realised immediately that I was running for third place. This meant I was going to have to run down three athletes, Mike Neil, Victor Zyemtsev and Steve Larsen. I was confident I was running faster than Neil and Larsen, but Zyemtsev is a solid runner and it was going to be a big ask to mow him down.

On the way back to transition I had a couple of little hiccups in my progress. I had to take a pee and I refuse to pee on myself so this meant stopping of course. It is amazing how long a pee can take when you are in a hurry. I definitely did not take the time to “shake” on this occasion.

The next delay was a minor stitch. I had to walk and “burp” myself for about 100m before being able to commence running again. It was still there but dissipated over the next couple kilometres as I ran past transition for the second time to start the first out and back section of the second loop.

I noticed at this point that third was unlikely as Victor was maintaining his lead, 5th was a certainty as I had taken some 10 minutes out of Larsen of the first loop of the run and he was just ahead of me and 4th was a distinct possibility.

All this turned out to be fantasy though, because as I ran past transition again at the end of the first out and back, my calf locked up in the place it was sore when I started the run. I noticed it getting progressively worse in the first 15k of the run, but then it seemed to tread water in terms of severity and I was confident I would get through the run without any problems. How wrong I was.

I walked, stretched, and performed trigger point pressure massage for the next 3km, all to no avail. I was extremely disappointed.

There was no way I was going to walk the last 17km for the sake of finishing, so I walked a little further to the point where Raija was spectating to let her know what happened before walking back to transition to hand in my timing chip.

We couldn’t go back home to Kent and Mia’s at this point because our car was parked on the bike course. This was unfortunate, because, as always, I felt extremely ill and just wanted to lie down. Raija gave me a sponge bath and, when I felt like I could move again, we wandered over to the business district and ordered a burger and soda pop. This helped immensely and I felt almost human again.

Two Ironman Coeur d’Alene’s and two DNF’s. I have vowed to go back next year to break the CdA curse.

We now had to face the prospect of driving back to Boulder in a couple of days.

It actually turned out to be almost as painless as the drive there, apart from the last few hours which seemed to drag on a bit.

I made the decision almost immediately to sign up for Ironman Lake Placid. I had the goal of qualifying for Hawaii and this was the next opportunity. To be honest, I wouldn’t be all that disappointed if I don’t qualify this year, but, at the same time, I would like to perform in the “big dance” at some stage to see what all the fuss is about.

Every other time I have qualified I have succumbed to injury at the death.