I thought I'd pop in here for a quick minute and post a race report. Hope you are all doing well!
Without further ado...

For those that just want the stats…
Athlete numbers:
• 2,804 registered athletes
• 2,351 race-day starters
• 2,188 athletes finished under the 17-hour cut-off
Race Division numbers:
• My division was M45-49
• 339 registered athletes
• 296 race-day starters
• 241 athletes finished under the 17-hour cut-off

2.4-mile SWIM:
1:34:47, #220 in my division, #1,844 out of 2,351 overall

112-mile BIKE:
6:05:35, #105 in my division, #809 out of 2,351 overall, 18.4 mph average

26.2-mile RUN:
3:51:11, #26 in my division, #228 out of 2,595 overall, 8:49 per mile average

OVERALL:
11:46:06, #65 out of 331 in my division, #526 out of 2,351 overall

This was my fourth Ironman Triathlon and it ended up being my toughest day at one. I set a couple of time goals for myself going into it and while I didn’t make those cut-offs I was able to finish another one. And any time a person can finish an Ironman upright and smiling…you can’t complain too much.

Sunday (Jun-26) - RACE DAY – My wonderfully supportive wife and I were out the door of the hotel at 5:00am and in the transition area about 30-minutes later. Race morning was perfectly clear, in the mid-40’s so a bit cool, and windless which was great considering the awful amount of wind the two days prior to the race. We stood on the knoll at City Park soaking up the atmosphere (and precious warmth from the sun) and a little after 6AM it was time for me to go. I always hate leaving her on Ironman race morning so I always put it off until the last moment but with a long hug I was off to get ready for the day.

SWIM – After an absence of six years I was once again standing on the shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene and getting ready for a long swim with a couple thousand of my closest friends. I’d heard all week about how cold the water was but until the moment I put my hands and face in the water I had no idea how cold the water was. It was painfully cold. The temps were stated at being around 53-55 degrees and that was by far the coldest water I’d ever been in. I don’t even drink water that cold! While the mass start of an Ironman swim is a spectacular site to behold for the spectators…it is awful for the competitors. The first couple hundred yards I found myself trying to swim with my head up, which is not an effective way to swim, because I didn’t want to put my face in the water because it hurt so badly. But I finally got over that and started swimming and soon thereafter took a forearm to the head that knocked the goggles askew for the first of two times that day. After fixing the goggles with the one-armed water-treading I tried to find open water but was unable to so resigned myself to full-contact swimming which is never fun. With the swim being two loops with two turns the turns are very crowded and are like trying to swim through a washing machine and in my case required doggie-paddling swimming around the buoys. Also not an effective way to swim. However hard and cold the swim eventually it ended and I climbed out of the lake and headed into T1.

BIKE – Everyone in the changing tent either had blue lips or was shivering hard or both. And we all had numb fingers and toes which makes it a bit difficult to change into cycling gear. I struggled for several minutes trying to put on arm warmers before giving up and just getting on my bike and going. The first few miles take the route out of town and along the lake to a turn-around that is two-big hills away. While the sun was out it still wasn’t even 50-degrees yet so the ride was cold. After the first turn-around the course comes back through town before heading north of town and into the hills. Having had such a poor swim did have one advantage and that is passing people steadily on the bike because they swam faster than me but I was riding faster than them. Karen and I drove part of the bike course the day before the race and I felt pretty good about it. But driving it and trying to race a bike on it were two different things. Like the swim the bike course is two loops so every difficult hilly section or steep hill it climbed in the back of mind I was thinking about how I get to do that section or hill again…with many more miles on my legs. And that also went for the many (36 per loop!) 90-degree or sharper turns. There were way way too many of those for my liking as they force you to slow way down and get out of any kind of a rhythm you might have had going. With the first loop done it was back through town and along the lake to the turn-around before heading back out for loop number two. While I never felt bad on the bike my average speed wasn’t what I was hoping I’d do and I ended up riding 15-20-minutes slower than I had hoped. I want to blame that on the hills and turns…so that’s what I’m going to do. Finally I was headed back into town under the much warmer mid-day sun and then into T2 to start the run.

RUN – My T2 time was 10-minutes faster than T1 since I wasn’t shivering and getting into my run shoes and hat is much easier than putting on all the cycling gear. I headed out of the changing tent and was able to shout to Karen who was standing and waving at the fence which was great! I immediately settled into a pace I felt good at while winding through town and again was passing other runners at a steady rate. The crowd support at this point is amazing as the route winds through town and is hugely helpful. Soon enough the course was out of town and running the same road the bike course used earlier in the day. The same section of the bike course with the two big hills. The same two big hills we did twice on the bike that I now got to run twice during the marathon since the run, like the swim and bike before it, is a two-loop affair. But unlike the swim and bike that are overly-crowded in a two-lap race the run is great with all the runners out there together. There is constantly someone you can say hello to or wave to as they go by the other direction and there is always someone up ahead that you can try to chase down and those little distractions help a lot. The first loop went by right on target pace and soon I was back in town and turn-around to run the second loop. Running back up from the turn-around I was able to grab Karen’s hand for a quick hello before heading back through the crowds and an out of town. While the temperature by Ironman standards was quite pleasant by this point in the day the upper-70’s we’d reached felt like an oven. I think it might have been the lack of acclimating to any form of sunshine during the cloudy, wet and cool spring we’d had! At each aid station I’d make sure to get something to drink and water to dump on myself along with a wet sponge to carry along to the next aid station a mile away. The second loop felt much harder than the first one as one would expect. But the two big hills we had to run over, down, then back over again for the second time were brutal. I’m happy to say I didn’t have to walk them as so many were doing but my pace slowed considerably until I was over them. Once over the last hill I was only 3-miles from the finish line and those 3-miles are through town and crowds of people lining course all the way in. It was awesome to come down a little hill and be able to take the lane that said “To Finish” instead of the lane that said “To 2nd Lap!” Soon enough I made the final turn onto Sherman Avenue and I could see the finish line 4-blocks away. The crowd on both sides of Sherman was huge and loud and helped me picked it up down the final stretch. Once I entered the carpeted chute I was able to take it in, slap several hands in the crowd and then cross the finish line with a smile on my face.

Final thoughts: My finishing time was not what I had hoped for nor trained for but I can’t be too upset. My previous 3 Ironman races all went very well so I was due to be humbled by the distance and I feel that on this day, at this race, I was. I’ll regroup and spend my copious amount of time going over all the what-ifs and woulda/coulda/shoulda’s before letting this go. I know I had a faster time in me fitness-wise but like I said earlier…I finished smiling so it’s all good. Once again I want to thank my training buddies (you know who you are!) And more importantly I want to thank my wife for her support. Training for an Ironman is difficult for both of us but she was always there when I got back from a long day on the bike and she was ready to get up with me to start her day when the alarm went off at 4:30AM most mornings. I loved our road-trip to/from and time spent in Coeur d’Alene just being Steven and Karen…Thank you, Honey!
See you all at the races!

-Steven