Coeur d'Alene 2011

Bloody live update was behind all day Meldy... his swim time didnt show until like 2 hrs later

Well done Foggy  13:51 looking forward to race report  

Good work Foggy

Excellent, Foggy! I hear the bike course was pretty tough.  

Ironmandead is still living up to its reputation.

IRONMAN COEUR D ALENE 2011

Thank you family, friends and training partners.

Thanks to “The Pirates” for continued inspiration.

My first Ironman without the trusty Pirates, I wanted to experience an Ironman in USA and Coeur d Alene was closest to where family live in Seattle, so CDA it was.

I rolled up in CDA on Thursday, expecting Idaho to be full of flat fields full of potatoes. WRONG. Big hills, big trees looking more like an alpine scene.

The lake looked beautiful but quite windy putting a lot of chop on water, which must change before Sunday!

Got registered for race tipped toes in water, it was bloody freezing, decided to leave swim until Friday allowing water temperature to rise  10 degrees( one can hope).

Nice bike Thursday evening round lake so felt quite settled.

On to Friday, I really wanted to swim in lake to find how I felt in water.

Locals said water temp was around 12 to 13 C or 55 in f.

I needed to find out if I needed to buy some additional neoprene boots and hat.

Water was very choppy and first five minutes in felt very cool, but after a while seemed to get used to it and probably swam about 1000 metres very slow going with conditions but felt that I could cope come race day with no additional neoprene purchases required.

I then spent rest of Friday and Saturday faffing around and eating in the time honored Pirate tradition.

The last supper on Saturday teatime consisted of chicken and pasta soup, salmon with rice and veg and a side order of a jacket potato, that took care of any short fall in carbohydrate intake. Had a few photos with my awesome support crew and went to bed around 8pm, laid in bed till 9pm eating a bit of ice cream, set alarm for 03.50 and crashed out.

Around 11pm I thought fridge was about to blow up. Becky looked in corridor and found hotel fire alarm going off. Oh knackers, some twit has thought it would be a jolly wheeze to get everyone up 2 hours after they went to bed.

Fire engine and police roll up had to check all rooms, but no sign of fire.

We later find out from hotel staff that a smoke alarm had gone off in one of the bedrooms, they phoned down to that room and asked if they were smoking, guests said no. It turns out they were smoking wacky backy and the police arrested the dopey smokers!! And so to bed again at midnight!!

Soon alarm was going of, coffee and grub taken on board, down to lake at 5.30am.

Loaded drink and other nutrition on to bike, pumped tyres etc,out of transition at 6.20.

Saw the Pros off and 6.25 and then all 2700 of us whilst standing in the shallows peed ourselves in the vain hope of raising lake temperature by 10 degrees.

We then realized it was hopeless, so we all stood there shitting ourselves( this time only metorphpically)

I was really quite nervous about swim, last 3 IM swim times have been between 1.05 and 1.09, but realized this one was going to longer, the wind was not too bad at start but still not expecting to be much quicker than 1.15.

Music was really ramping up atmosphere and heart really pounding, at long last gun went off. I was about 10 rows back and saw first 2 rows go in sprinting to get clear water. No turning back now, I knew I had to get my head down and swim, bugger the water felt cold. I was right in the middle of the scrum, maybe first 600 metres , complete wrestling match, just as I was about to get completely fed up with whole triathlon malarkey, I found a little bit of clear water about 2 foot wide and 6 foot long, I swam in this box for rest of first lap, water feeling cool but I was in a happy place.

Second lap wind had got up, putting some waves on lake again, got in another wrestling match round some of bouys but nothing like first 600 metres, got kicked in the nuts by some swimming at 90 degrees to rest of field.

Down last leg feely ready for bike, got out looked at clock.111. Result.

Saw my awesome support crew. 1 down 2 to go.

Looking at Pro results show over half pro field swimming over an hour, so my 1.11 was no disaster.

swim start video

Pirate support at 1 minute onwards

Sorry for delay, had to go out cycling, then watched TDF, then went to pub.

Carl, if you needed any specific advice on CDA, just PM me.

Arrived in T1 and surprised that most of bikes were still there. Got my self dressed and headed off for 6hrs plus in the saddle. I was hoping to get back into T2 with around 7 and half hours elapsed time, but needed to stick to heart rate limit of 145, apart from hills where I could let drift up.

Felt cool in the morning air but felt comfortable. As expected as soon as I was out on road, got overtaken by a steady stream of cyclist, all seemed to be on Cervelos, deep section wheels and areo helmets. In Europe seems to be a mixture of expensive and less expensive bikes, but here in USA they all have the latest kit.

First bit is along lake then turn round back into town, crowds were out and making a lot of noise, very enthusiastic. We then headed out of town up towards Haden lake, course here is really beautiful, on par with Austria and Switzerland, hills were not as big, but more numerous and frequent.

I was taking on my energy gels and drinking my drink as plan.

Around 40 miles needed to stop and use thunder box to lighten load, only took a couple of mins and thought I could get all way to T2 without stopping now. Back into town, see my supporters who were spread around town, first lap done in around.3.07, so not bad, just repeat first lap and everything would be fine.

Got to around 60 to 65 miles and needed thunder box again, I was peeing quite a lot so thought in cool air I needed to drink less, so decided to cut back a bit. Probably decided to cut back at time temperature started to rise, but we make silly decisions in race situations!!

Probably around mile 80 ish at top end of course started to feel a bit off colour, nothing major, knees ached, back ached, stomach felt a little crampy, nothing much, but never experienced this in training. I did get sprayed on a downhill by a fellow racer emptying their handbang, still it might have wiped some spilt gel off my handlebars.

It was now starting to get warm as we headed into town. I really felt sorry for those cyclists just heading back out on their second lap, it was going to be a long day for them. Back into T2, computer said cycling time of 6.18, not too bad but toilet breaks had added a bit of time and transitions were hardly lightening fast, so all thoughts of a pb were well out the window

From here race goes belly up. Faffed around in T2 trying to get Garmin to rest, which it refused to do. After getting off bike, I realized that temperature had shot up and it was getting quite hot, on with running gear and sunscreen and off for final leg.

The plan was to run a mile in about 10 mins, then have 30 seconds walking break then repeat.I knew first mile would feel strange on the legs, but expected after 10 minutes to feel ok, just like in training.

Wrong, heart rate was higher than it should have been, stomach felt worse and legs did not want to go, but I thought dig deep and hopefully feel better further on.

The run course although by side of lake is not flat and after about 5 miles goes up over a big hill, this forced first long walk break as I was feeling a bit ropey by now.

Nothing like the easiness of last years run in Roth. Up the hill, then down the hill, then hit turn round point on lap 1 which then means you have to go up and over the hill you have just been up and over. This I found hard mentally, fancy putting a big hill where I wanted a flat course!

Stomach was not feeling happy, aid stations had some chicken soup, perhaps I need that, with some salt to combat all gels I had taken on board, so I had a couple of those as I made my way back into town, getting slower and slower as my race plan fell apart.

Eventually made it back into town for end of lap 1, saw Becky and told her I was rough, legs would not go and I would be even slower on second lap.

I took on some coke at an aid station and plodded on out of town. Just as I was leaving town started feeling all dizzy, the coke started chasing the chicken soup and I produced an amazing array of technicolour yawns. I was throwing up into someones front yard, every time I heaved, I got a cheer from the crowd. Two kind people came over and sat me down on the lawn, gave me some water and told me to stop.

I said ok, I will stop for a minute or two. They gave me some cold water which settled ok, after a few minutes I  did not feel so hot and not dizzy, so started off again.

I knew I had loads of time and could walk the rest so I carried on and probably walked for about 5 miles to around the big hill where turn round point is.

I kept looking at watch to work out finish time, gradually it felt a bit cooler as sun started to drop, so I tried running again, did not feel as bad so jogged a fir bit into town, taking a little water and the odd crisp from aid stations.

As I got closer to town realized that I should make it in under 14 hours, not really what I planned, but a finish is a finish. The last mile is a straight road all the way into town centre, this was crammed with cheering supporters and they really make you feel like a rock star as you head towards finish.

I was looking for my supporters crew but nowhere to be seen. They had looked at run splits for second lap when I was walking and decided they had time for a snack before I finished. They were just eating when they saw me cross finish line on big screen.

Quickly they came over to finish line and congratulated me, but I was really fed up with how run had gone and was probably not very nice. Sorry!!

On reflection without making a long story even longer, it probably was not too bad.

I made some errors. Probably drank too much when it was cool, too little when it was hot. Maybe not enough time spent on my tri bike in training. I must learn( I say this every year). Maybe Im just no good at this!

Looking down results, there were 2351 starters, 2188 finishers. I was 1459 th overall in 13.51.

Swim ,I was 504th overall, 50th in ag

Bike I was 1109 th overall 157th in ag

Run I was 1828th overall 205th in ag.

Age group overall I was 173rd out of just over 300.

Sorry if Ive rambled!!

well done mate, would love a bit moreinfo about the location, resources, things to do and general feel in comparison to Euro races if you have time.

And a hnady time after the issues you had, well done digging in

Bouncing Barlist wrote (see)

I shall be racing 2012,

Good luck for Sunday, Barlos.