Ironman Coeur D’alene will always hold a special place in my heart because it is where I really discovered Ironman racing.  After watching Montana professional triathletes Matt Seeley, Linsey Corbin, Adam Jensen, Michael Gordon and others have breakout performances I knew I wanted to race in what has become our hometown race.  The close proximity of Coeur D’Alene to Missoula, Montana makes it a very easy race to train for and travel to.  The heritage of Team Stampede a Missoula, Montana based triathlon team started  in CDA with all of the team members crossing the finish line wearing a cowboy hat inscribed with Montana Stampede on it.  Matt Seeley one of the godfathers of triathlon in Montana started the tradition and he an his crew traveled the country dominating the race scene wearing cowboy hats and loading bikes in horse trailers.  In 2007 I raced my first Ironman in Coeur D’ALene; I won my age group and stamped my ticket for  Ironman Hawaii.  Five years later I once again found my feet at the waters edge about to race what would be my 8th Ironman.

In 2011 I had a disappointing finish at Ironman after being injured for several weeks and then getting food poisoning on the Monday of race week.  Despite crazy travel, a healing injury and lack of swim training I was feeling pretty darn good for Ironman CDA.  I was fortunate and a last minute request allowed me to stay with my homes-stay from last year; Big & Rich.  The duo of Big & Rich is always entertaining and they were also hosting Victor Zymnestiv (now 3 time Ironman CDA champion) and Anton Blokhein(5th in 2012); two athletes from Ukraine.  This years race was a high points race and a talentented male and female professional field were fighting for the $75,000 prize purse. Race preperation went well and I met with a few TCH clients and gave them my personal insight on the course.  The bike course was totally new for 2013 and looked like it would present some very challenging terrain.  The days leading up to the race were very relaxing and come race morning I was ready to rock & roll.

I woke to hard rain and thunderstorms but come race time the storm had moved toward the north and the cold waters of lake Coeur D’Alene were beckoning.  The water was damn cold although it still was a little warmer than last year.  The gun went off and I was very thankful to have my Zoot Prophet wetsuit, without it I would have ended up in the ambulance with hypothermia just like my first ever triathlon and the swim would have taken me much much longer.  I was able to fight for some good feet and get in a group for the majority of the first lap of the swim. My lack of swim fitness made it difficult to deal with the groups accelerations.  I felt like I could continue to go for a long time at the pace I was holding but I needed to go my pace.  I was able to make it out of the swim in 1:03 minutes and was not even close to the last one out of the water.  I made my way through transition on frozen feet and jumped on the old whip and headed out on a long ride.

The new bike course still used the first 14 mile out and back from the past and I was able to gauge exactly how far back I was from the others.  I settled into a good pace but my left quadracept felt really weird. By mile 16 of the bike my quad was completely cramped and starting to lock up. I hit a handful of Hammer Nutrition Endurolytes sipped some water with Hammer Nutrition Fizz in it and the cramp subsided very quickly.  I settled back into a rhythm and kept my heart rate in check for the first hour which was difficult because we hit the first of 3 major climbs around mile 18 of the bike.  The middle section of the bike went very well and I continued to hit my nutrition of Hammer Gel, Endurolytes and Fizz with water.  The bike was going by fairly quickly although shortly after finishing the first loop I had to make an emergency porta potty stop around mile 60.  After a brief stop I felt like a new man and the only down side was I lost time on the group I had been gaining on.  The second loop was fairly uneventful other then that my water bottle cage fell right off my bike.  Fortunately I had some rubber bands on my aerobars and was able to rest a water bottle there.  The bike had some serious wind and the actual elevation gain for the course was just over 5,000 feet which was 2,000 more feet of climbing than they had listed.  I came in off the bike and felt really good but knew I still had a long road ahead!  The run is normally my strength but I knew it might be a very difficult run today.

The first two miles felt terrible!  I was running the pace I needed to run but I was not feeling very good and it took me a couple miles to warm up before I finally hit my stride and got my head in the game.  I settled into a rhythm and was clicking sub 7 minute miles for the first 16 miles.  I probably was a little quick but I knew if I wanted to catch anyone I was going to have to roll the dice and see if I could hang; I could not hang!  At mile 16 I started to get really tired and my it-band started to lock out a little bit.  For the next six miles I struggled to maintain a decent pace and the age groupers were coming by me which was a little frustrating even though they were on their first loop.  I finally came around again with 3-4 miles to go and held onto 10th place.  I crossed the line in 10th place with a time of 9:30 and was happy to have the race completed.  The week following the race was spent recovering, relaxing and getting out on the mountain bike.  The next 4 weeks will be spent training and I will race Calgary 70.3 on July 29.  Two weeks after Calgary I will race the US professional national championships for Ironman in New York City.  Ironman CDA was very motivating for me and I’m excited to put in some solid training and then race full throttle! A big thanks to all my sponsors; Hammer Nutrition, Zoot Sports, The Cycling House, Nashville Hip & Fracture, Ark Intervals and Missoula Bicycle Works.

Also a huge congrats to all of those Cycling House clients that Ironman Coeur D’Alene and all the other races around the country.  Be sure to comment on this and let us know how you did.