You ask yourself “why” a lot when training for an Ironman. Why I did I sign up to do this? Why an Ironman? Why not a shorter race? Why opt to sacrifice so much of our time and resources to training. The simple answer, race day. It provides an experience like no other and that is why.
I was dead set that this was going to be my 2nd and LAST Ironman. Too much needs to be sacrificed for this one day. We got to Coeur d’Alene excited that the race was finally here and ready for it to be over! Crossing the finish line would mean goal accomplished and getting our life back. We would be done! Here is the recap of our race experience.
There are going to be two versions of the event… the Cliff notes version and the great epic version filled with all the gory details, at least my gory details. You can choose.
Cliff Notes Version!
We were in Coeur d’Alene for 6 days, that were filled with family, friends, amazing local support, cold and windy swims, great race day weather. During the trip I tried to make Team Odwalla proud wearing my team gear as much as possible and showing it off on race day. Paul kicked butt and beat his previous IM Canada time by over an HOUR! Finishing in 14:14:00, it was 15:15:51 last time, I think it is a sign that he needs to do another one to try for 13:13:00. I beat my Canada time by 3 minutes, finishing in 15:12:05. I was not happy with my bike, but was happy with my swim and run. Actually I have never felt better on a run and overall had an amazing day.
The Blow by Blow Version… you might want to grab a snack and a glass of wine.
Pre-Race: We arrived in Coeur d’Alene on Wednesday, after driving from LA to Seattle the weekend before, spending a couple of days in Seattle and then heading to Idaho. Why arrive into town 4 days before race day? The practical reasons are to scope out the course, get settled, do your last taper workouts on course and enjoy the expo. The mandatory reasons are packet pick-up happens earlier than other races, the athlete dinner is two nights before race day and bike & gear bag drop off is the day before the race. But more importantly… one sacrifices so much of their time training for an event like this that taking the extra days to enjoy the pre-race experience is worth it.
Wednesday: After settling in to the house we were renting, we headed into town where all the race festivities would take place. We met up with our friend Jame from the IronTeam who was also racing and drove the course together. The “ladies”, my mom-Zita, Paul’s mom-Payson & aunt-Jane, arrived later in the afternoon.
Thursday: First stop…a 7am swim-we wanted to get used to the 56 degree water at race start time. According to the locals it had warmed up from 50 degrees earlier in the week and was supposed to keep warming up… fingers crossed. The water was COLD, but calm and clear and after our feet, hands and face were all numb it was actually quite pleasant. Of course the wetsuit and neoprene cap helped! We ran into some other LA friends at the swim who were also racing, Ian, Konrad, & Mark. Then Jame, Paul & I went for a short run as well. After a stop to the local coffee shop we completed registration; got our numbers, wristband, gear bags, etc. At the expo we ran into more LA friends, Jen & Anna. Despite the fact that there are 2700+ athletes arriving in town for the race there is a small-town atmosphere when you keep running into people you know. The ladies were now with us and it was like having paparazzi, cameras documenting our every move! We were the celebrities! Time spent at the expo resulted in some new IM goodies and the paparazzi went to work on making support signs. Jame, Paul & I rode part of the course which made me really excited about the ride. The course was beautiful, two lakeside sections, farmland, windy roads through lush farmland, and rollers… as I would come to find on race day… lots and lots of rollers. Payson took us to dinner at a restaurant floating on the lake. We were able to enjoy a beautiful sunset and some amazing Pacific NW food. I now know why everyone makes such a big deal about the Copper River Salmon…YUM!
Friday: Rest Day… no workouts just chill, kinda. Paul & I wanted to walk the downtown part of the run course as it was a little confusing on paper. We also needed to pick up the athlete banquet tickets for our family… another good excuse to head back to the expo and check out the Pro-panel. The ladies, now joined by my dad, so I guess we will call them “the crew”… met us for lunch and then we all drove the course so they could get an idea of where we would be while we were out on course. After scouting the course, we relaxed at the house for a bit then headed to the athlete banquet. We sat with a bunch of the LA Tri peeps and realized that even more people we knew were racing! Fun! The athlete dinner is part inspirational and part business. They honor a racer who has been chosen as the most inspirational athlete, they call up to stage the youngest (both 19) and the oldest (the woman was in her mid-60s and the man mid-70s!) men and women racers, and they give a prize to the person who lost the most weight training for this race. The guy who won this lost well over 100 pounds! Yeah I lost around 5…no records there. We stayed for the mandatory athlete meeting where they go over rules and regs one more time.
Saturday: 7am swim. One last time to check out the water at the official race start time. One word… wind. The water had warmed up but there was a fierce on-shore wind, the lake had waves and a current! All I kept thinking was that we had done almost NO open water swims because our race was in a LAKE! We got in and warmed up swimming to shore. Deep breath and simulate race day…swim straight out to the buoy. No big deal except every time I looked forward to breath and sight I was getting whacked by a wave. Paul, Jame and I survived the chop and went for a quick run. Back to the house to get all of my race day gear ready. At IM races you have to drop your bike off in T1 the day before, along with your swim to bike gear bag, and your bike to run bag. We got all of our stuff ready, ate lunch and rode our bikes with our stuff to the race start. Back to the house to relax… we had a “last meal” with Payson and Jane, my parents were off visiting a cousin who lives nearby in Sand Point… and then my brothers both arrived. Off to bed early…ish.
RACE DAY! 4am wake-up…quick breakfast…almond butter with banana on whole grain bread. Grab our special needs bags, these are bags you drop off before the race that you can get ½ way through the bike and ½ way through the run. Slight hiccup when Paul’s zipper on his tri suit broke…thank goodness for moms! Payson saved the day…zipper fixed and we were on our way to the race start. Body marking first up… check my bike… tires ok… bottles on the bike. Check my transition bags one last time… sunscreen… porty potty… wetsuit… cap… goggles… time to walk over the timing map and I’m on the beach. Wind is minimal…water calm… quick warm up swim and time to wait for the canon to go off. There is a sense of calm for me at this moment…I am ready. Ready for the day to start, ready to be done, ready for what lies ahead. I am prepared. Just like during my training, I remind myself that I can’t be phased. There is too much ahead of me to start worrying now. Paul and I choose different places to start, so after a kiss and hug I am alone among all my fellow athletes.
Swim: The canon booms and 2700 athletes all head to the water to start the swim. I am surprisingly calm despite the chaos around me. I focus on trying to find clear water and find a rhythm. This is hard with so many people around you…some are faster and swim over you literally, some are slower and I swim around them, some are a similar pace and I try to draft. This is a two loop swim so I try to think of the first 1.2 mile loop as a warm up. I come to the first turn buoy and find myself forced to start treading water upright with hundred of other swimmers all trying to get past the first buoy. It is a total mosh pit until the next turn buoy and then it clears up as we head back towards shore. A brief run up on shore across a timing map and then back into the water for lap two. The second lap was much less hectic. 1:23 and I am out of the water heading to the strippers! These volunteers help strip your wetsuit. Off to grab my swim-bike bag and head to the changing tent. Amazing volunteers help get you sorted changed and heading it the bike. I remember running to my bike and thinking why am I running? I have all a long day ahead of me!
Bike: I grab my bike and head to the mount line. I hear Sebastian, my brother yelling m
y name…awesome. On the bike and heading out of town I hear my dad, R-A, and the ladies cheering me on! The bike was two 56 miles loops on a beautiful course of rolling hills. These rollers made for a long day on the bike. I was comfortable, stayed in my heart rate zone, but never felt like I could get in to a groove. The best part of the bike was all of the locals out on the course cheering us on…ALL DAY. The old lady who played Michael Jackson on her boom box, the people who partied ALL day long dressed up in costume, the family playing the Rocky theme song on a loop, the old man with his vintage Penny Farthing bikes and the hundreds of others including our personal family fan club. Overall my bike was slower than I had hoped, but I finished well before the cutoff. Did I mention that I was lapped by the men’s leader Andy Potts who went on to win the race? Yup I was lapped. 6 bottles of Infinit Nutrition, water, 2 power bars and a blueberry pop tart later, I was pretty darn happy to give the volunteer my bike as I got back to transition 7:43 after I had started the bike. The awesome volunteers once again helped find my bike-run bag and get me sorted to hit the run.
Side note: Days of pre-planning and mapping by the ladies resulted in the best fan support ever. They were everywhere and having them cheering at so many different points was such a huge help and highlight of my day.
Run: Sebastian stayed for the beginning of the run and then had to head back to seattle to work first thing Monday. I spent the first half of the marathon pacing myself
… staying in my heart rate zone and trying to figure out my nutrition all in the hopes that I don’t bonk later. Anything other than ice water and my Infinit Nutrition drink was not sitting well, especially sweet things. So much for my “Sport Jelly Beans”. I was able to start eating a pretzel or chip here and there… but the chicken broth ended up be the winner. The best part of the run was getting to see Paul and Jame a couple of time. Eventhough they were well ahead of me the loops on the course made it possible to see everyone else out there. I met a couple of nice people who asked about my Odwalla kit and what Odwalla was. The nice thing about my less than speedy case was that I could talk to people and have some interesting conversations. Some nice guy was running with his camera and took a picture of Paul & I as we had a quick hug on one of our passes… still hoping he tracks me down on FB to send me the pic! The kids on the course and at the volunteer stations are the best. They take their “jobs” very seriously and get so excited when you take a second to acknowledge them or thank them. Makes you wonder if they will grow up and want to do this too some day.
I had realized after my bike that it was going to be hard to make my goal of finishing under 15 hours, but didn’t want to worry about it too much. So I stuck to my plan on the run, which was to stay in my heart rate zone until about mile 16 and if I hade anything left then I could start pushing. There is somewhere ½ way through the marathon where I think a lot of people have a mental moment. Most of the day is behind you and you know the rest is totally doable, but you still have to finish a half marathon! For me this is where the mental toughness has to take over… cause I knew I could do it but was kinda over it. I was ready to be done. This is where the crowd support is soooo important. My second lap was the hug lap, stopped for hugs from dad, mom, Payson, Jane, Paul… next time I saw any of them would be at the finish. As I was leaving town for the final out and back, I saw the clock on a bank and realized not only was I definitely was going to miss my goal but might not beat my time from Canada, 15:15:51. This totally got me fired up and I went from jogging to RUNNING! The good news was I totally had the legs for it. I had the best negative split ever, the only bummer in hindsight is that I probably could have pushed a little harder during the first half and made my goal. Besides what would be the fun of doing an Ironman if you don’t get the mandatory glow necklace that they give to racers out after dark.
Before this race I was done with IM’s… this would be my last. Too much training, too much time, too much of everything. But as I was out there on the run I came to the realization that race day really is worth everything you put into it. The experience of being able to accomplish something like this is really meaningful and something that I truly appreciate and treasure.
You know you are closing in on the finish because you hear it usually before you see it. Mike Riley, the “voice” of ironman announcing, people cheering, then you see the lights of the finish shoot, and the rest becomes a blur. The atmosphere is a bit overwhelming…running down the shoot little kids were leaning over the bleacher barriers looking for high-hives, of course I obliged, they didn’t care that I was a late finisher, I missed my name but heard “Pasadena” over the loud speaker, I crossed the line arms in the air, smile as big as Texas, to the “catchers”/volunteers waiting for me. They make eye contact make sure you are ok…as ok as you can be and adorn you with your medal, finisher shirt, space blanket and head you towards the finisher photo area. Jame was there waiting, Paul had to figure out how to sneak back in and my family was there, as they had been all day to snap pictures and offer hugs. And that’s it after 8 months of training, training 7 days a week, 2 times a day, and on this final morning waking up at 4am and being in a constant state of motion for 15 hours, 12 minutes and 5 seconds I was done. Grabbed a couple slices of pizza in the finisher tent, headed to meet Paul and the family who was grabbing my bike and transition gear, and then to the car where a cooler of beer awaited.
I was dead set that this was going to be my 2nd and LAST Ironman. Too much needs to be sacrificed for this one day. We got to Coeur d’Alene excited that the race was finally here and ready for it to be over! Crossing the finish line would mean goal accomplished and getting our life back. We would be done! Here is the recap of our race experience.
There are going to be two versions of the event… the Cliff notes version and the great epic version filled with all the gory details, at least my gory details. You can choose.
Cliff Notes Version!
We were in Coeur d’Alene for 6 days, that were filled with family, friends, amazing local support, cold and windy swims, great race day weather. During the trip I tried to make Team Odwalla proud wearing my team gear as much as possible and showing it off on race day. Paul kicked butt and beat his previous IM Canada time by over an HOUR! Finishing in 14:14:00, it was 15:15:51 last time, I think it is a sign that he needs to do another one to try for 13:13:00. I beat my Canada time by 3 minutes, finishing in 15:12:05. I was not happy with my bike, but was happy with my swim and run. Actually I have never felt better on a run and overall had an amazing day.
The Blow by Blow Version… you might want to grab a snack and a glass of wine.
Pre-Race: We arrived in Coeur d’Alene on Wednesday, after driving from LA to Seattle the weekend before, spending a couple of days in Seattle and then heading to Idaho. Why arrive into town 4 days before race day? The practical reasons are to scope out the course, get settled, do your last taper workouts on course and enjoy the expo. The mandatory reasons are packet pick-up happens earlier than other races, the athlete dinner is two nights before race day and bike & gear bag drop off is the day before the race. But more importantly… one sacrifices so much of their time training for an event like this that taking the extra days to enjoy the pre-race experience is worth it.
Wednesday: After settling in to the house we were renting, we headed into town where all the race festivities would take place. We met up with our friend Jame from the IronTeam who was also racing and drove the course together. The “ladies”, my mom-Zita, Paul’s mom-Payson & aunt-Jane, arrived later in the afternoon.
Thursday: First stop…a 7am swim-we wanted to get used to the 56 degree water at race start time. According to the locals it had warmed up from 50 degrees earlier in the week and was supposed to keep warming up… fingers crossed. The water was COLD, but calm and clear and after our feet, hands and face were all numb it was actually quite pleasant. Of course the wetsuit and neoprene cap helped! We ran into some other LA friends at the swim who were also racing, Ian, Konrad, & Mark. Then Jame, Paul & I went for a short run as well. After a stop to the local coffee shop we completed registration; got our numbers, wristband, gear bags, etc. At the expo we ran into more LA friends, Jen & Anna. Despite the fact that there are 2700+ athletes arriving in town for the race there is a small-town atmosphere when you keep running into people you know. The ladies were now with us and it was like having paparazzi, cameras documenting our every move! We were the celebrities! Time spent at the expo resulted in some new IM goodies and the paparazzi went to work on making support signs. Jame, Paul & I rode part of the course which made me really excited about the ride. The course was beautiful, two lakeside sections, farmland, windy roads through lush farmland, and rollers… as I would come to find on race day… lots and lots of rollers. Payson took us to dinner at a restaurant floating on the lake. We were able to enjoy a beautiful sunset and some amazing Pacific NW food. I now know why everyone makes such a big deal about the Copper River Salmon…YUM!
Friday: Rest Day… no workouts just chill, kinda. Paul & I wanted to walk the downtown part of the run course as it was a little confusing on paper. We also needed to pick up the athlete banquet tickets for our family… another good excuse to head back to the expo and check out the Pro-panel. The ladies, now joined by my dad, so I guess we will call them “the crew”… met us for lunch and then we all drove the course so they could get an idea of where we would be while we were out on course. After scouting the course, we relaxed at the house for a bit then headed to the athlete banquet. We sat with a bunch of the LA Tri peeps and realized that even more people we knew were racing! Fun! The athlete dinner is part inspirational and part business. They honor a racer who has been chosen as the most inspirational athlete, they call up to stage the youngest (both 19) and the oldest (the woman was in her mid-60s and the man mid-70s!) men and women racers, and they give a prize to the person who lost the most weight training for this race. The guy who won this lost well over 100 pounds! Yeah I lost around 5…no records there. We stayed for the mandatory athlete meeting where they go over rules and regs one more time.
Saturday: 7am swim. One last time to check out the water at the official race start time. One word… wind. The water had warmed up but there was a fierce on-shore wind, the lake had waves and a current! All I kept thinking was that we had done almost NO open water swims because our race was in a LAKE! We got in and warmed up swimming to shore. Deep breath and simulate race day…swim straight out to the buoy. No big deal except every time I looked forward to breath and sight I was getting whacked by a wave. Paul, Jame and I survived the chop and went for a quick run. Back to the house to get all of my race day gear ready. At IM races you have to drop your bike off in T1 the day before, along with your swim to bike gear bag, and your bike to run bag. We got all of our stuff ready, ate lunch and rode our bikes with our stuff to the race start. Back to the house to relax… we had a “last meal” with Payson and Jane, my parents were off visiting a cousin who lives nearby in Sand Point… and then my brothers both arrived. Off to bed early…ish.
RACE DAY! 4am wake-up…quick breakfast…almond butter with banana on whole grain bread. Grab our special needs bags, these are bags you drop off before the race that you can get ½ way through the bike and ½ way through the run. Slight hiccup when Paul’s zipper on his tri suit broke…thank goodness for moms! Payson saved the day…zipper fixed and we were on our way to the race start. Body marking first up… check my bike… tires ok… bottles on the bike. Check my transition bags one last time… sunscreen… porty potty… wetsuit… cap… goggles… time to walk over the timing map and I’m on the beach. Wind is minimal…water calm… quick warm up swim and time to wait for the canon to go off. There is a sense of calm for me at this moment…I am ready. Ready for the day to start, ready to be done, ready for what lies ahead. I am prepared. Just like during my training, I remind myself that I can’t be phased. There is too much ahead of me to start worrying now. Paul and I choose different places to start, so after a kiss and hug I am alone among all my fellow athletes.
Swim: The canon booms and 2700 athletes all head to the water to start the swim. I am surprisingly calm despite the chaos around me. I focus on trying to find clear water and find a rhythm. This is hard with so many people around you…some are faster and swim over you literally, some are slower and I swim around them, some are a similar pace and I try to draft. This is a two loop swim so I try to think of the first 1.2 mile loop as a warm up. I come to the first turn buoy and find myself forced to start treading water upright with hundred of other swimmers all trying to get past the first buoy. It is a total mosh pit until the next turn buoy and then it clears up as we head back towards shore. A brief run up on shore across a timing map and then back into the water for lap two. The second lap was much less hectic. 1:23 and I am out of the water heading to the strippers! These volunteers help strip your wetsuit. Off to grab my swim-bike bag and head to the changing tent. Amazing volunteers help get you sorted changed and heading it the bike. I remember running to my bike and thinking why am I running? I have all a long day ahead of me!Bike: I grab my bike and head to the mount line. I hear Sebastian, my brother yelling m
y name…awesome. On the bike and heading out of town I hear my dad, R-A, and the ladies cheering me on! The bike was two 56 miles loops on a beautiful course of rolling hills. These rollers made for a long day on the bike. I was comfortable, stayed in my heart rate zone, but never felt like I could get in to a groove. The best part of the bike was all of the locals out on the course cheering us on…ALL DAY. The old lady who played Michael Jackson on her boom box, the people who partied ALL day long dressed up in costume, the family playing the Rocky theme song on a loop, the old man with his vintage Penny Farthing bikes and the hundreds of others including our personal family fan club. Overall my bike was slower than I had hoped, but I finished well before the cutoff. Did I mention that I was lapped by the men’s leader Andy Potts who went on to win the race? Yup I was lapped. 6 bottles of Infinit Nutrition, water, 2 power bars and a blueberry pop tart later, I was pretty darn happy to give the volunteer my bike as I got back to transition 7:43 after I had started the bike. The awesome volunteers once again helped find my bike-run bag and get me sorted to hit the run.Side note: Days of pre-planning and mapping by the ladies resulted in the best fan support ever. They were everywhere and having them cheering at so many different points was such a huge help and highlight of my day.
Run: Sebastian stayed for the beginning of the run and then had to head back to seattle to work first thing Monday. I spent the first half of the marathon pacing myself
… staying in my heart rate zone and trying to figure out my nutrition all in the hopes that I don’t bonk later. Anything other than ice water and my Infinit Nutrition drink was not sitting well, especially sweet things. So much for my “Sport Jelly Beans”. I was able to start eating a pretzel or chip here and there… but the chicken broth ended up be the winner. The best part of the run was getting to see Paul and Jame a couple of time. Eventhough they were well ahead of me the loops on the course made it possible to see everyone else out there. I met a couple of nice people who asked about my Odwalla kit and what Odwalla was. The nice thing about my less than speedy case was that I could talk to people and have some interesting conversations. Some nice guy was running with his camera and took a picture of Paul & I as we had a quick hug on one of our passes… still hoping he tracks me down on FB to send me the pic! The kids on the course and at the volunteer stations are the best. They take their “jobs” very seriously and get so excited when you take a second to acknowledge them or thank them. Makes you wonder if they will grow up and want to do this too some day.I had realized after my bike that it was going to be hard to make my goal of finishing under 15 hours, but didn’t want to worry about it too much. So I stuck to my plan on the run, which was to stay in my heart rate zone until about mile 16 and if I hade anything left then I could start pushing. There is somewhere ½ way through the marathon where I think a lot of people have a mental moment. Most of the day is behind you and you know the rest is totally doable, but you still have to finish a half marathon! For me this is where the mental toughness has to take over… cause I knew I could do it but was kinda over it. I was ready to be done. This is where the crowd support is soooo important. My second lap was the hug lap, stopped for hugs from dad, mom, Payson, Jane, Paul… next time I saw any of them would be at the finish. As I was leaving town for the final out and back, I saw the clock on a bank and realized not only was I definitely was going to miss my goal but might not beat my time from Canada, 15:15:51. This totally got me fired up and I went from jogging to RUNNING! The good news was I totally had the legs for it. I had the best negative split ever, the only bummer in hindsight is that I probably could have pushed a little harder during the first half and made my goal. Besides what would be the fun of doing an Ironman if you don’t get the mandatory glow necklace that they give to racers out after dark.
Before this race I was done with IM’s… this would be my last. Too much training, too much time, too much of everything. But as I was out there on the run I came to the realization that race day really is worth everything you put into it. The experience of being able to accomplish something like this is really meaningful and something that I truly appreciate and treasure.
You know you are closing in on the finish because you hear it usually before you see it. Mike Riley, the “voice” of ironman announcing, people cheering, then you see the lights of the finish shoot, and the rest becomes a blur. The atmosphere is a bit overwhelming…running down the shoot little kids were leaning over the bleacher barriers looking for high-hives, of course I obliged, they didn’t care that I was a late finisher, I missed my name but heard “Pasadena” over the loud speaker, I crossed the line arms in the air, smile as big as Texas, to the “catchers”/volunteers waiting for me. They make eye contact make sure you are ok…as ok as you can be and adorn you with your medal, finisher shirt, space blanket and head you towards the finisher photo area. Jame was there waiting, Paul had to figure out how to sneak back in and my family was there, as they had been all day to snap pictures and offer hugs. And that’s it after 8 months of training, training 7 days a week, 2 times a day, and on this final morning waking up at 4am and being in a constant state of motion for 15 hours, 12 minutes and 5 seconds I was done. Grabbed a couple slices of pizza in the finisher tent, headed to meet Paul and the family who was grabbing my bike and transition gear, and then to the car where a cooler of beer awaited.
As promised that was the loooong version. Sorry that it is a month late!
What next? Well I already did a fundraising 5k for the IronTeam which proved my theory that short fast efforts are no fun. And tomorrow I do the Vineman ½ Aquabike, 1.2 mi. swim and a 56 mi. bike with NO run after. This may be my dream event. The real reason I am doing this race is because my Iron Peeps are doing their FULL IRONMAN race and I want to be there to cheer them in!
What next? Well I already did a fundraising 5k for the IronTeam which proved my theory that short fast efforts are no fun. And tomorrow I do the Vineman ½ Aquabike, 1.2 mi. swim and a 56 mi. bike with NO run after. This may be my dream event. The real reason I am doing this race is because my Iron Peeps are doing their FULL IRONMAN race and I want to be there to cheer them in!
Wow, great account of your race day! I trained with the SF Bay Area Ironteam and did the Full Vineman last week. Coeur d'Alene looks like a winner- did you prefer it over Canada? The field is MUCH bigger than Vineman. Thanks for sharing!
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