Ironman Coeur d'Alene Race Report - Part 1
Thought for the day #1: The only thing I can control is my attitude.
Thought for the day #2: Smiling makes everything better.
Thought for the day #3: This is Ironman. It's supposed to be hard.
Those thoughts are what powered me through the day. That and Pringles.
I've been writing this race report for days now, and decided I should break it up so that it doesn't fill up the entire internet all at once with my random musings.
Part 1 covers pre-race, swim, and T1. Here we go.
Set the alarm for 4:15 but as I almost always do, I woke up before the alarm. Put on the clothes I had laid out the night before - Blue Seventy Tri shorts, Zoot Sports Bra, blue sweatpants, Trizones hoody, red fleecy Crocs. The house was abuzz - everyone was up and moving. I briefly considered oatmeal like I'd had all week before the cold swims, but the "nothing new on race day" rule won out. I trained eating an english muffin with PB&J, a banana, and a cup of coffee before every long workout, so that's what I had this day too, cold water advice be damned.
Julie, Nancy, Jeff and I left together for the short walk to the venue. The temperature was comfortable and it wasn't raining but it had rained overnight. Roy was already volunteering at body marking and Richard would join later. I went straight to Tiny to drop nutrition - one water bottle, one Infinit bottle, and an aerobottle full of Infinit. Three bonk breakers (three flavors) and an Accelgel in the bento box. Pumped up tires and had a brief moment of uh-oh when my neighbor's pump wouldn't pump up my front tire, but Tom's pump worked fine.
Left Tiny and went to find my run and bike bags to add my nutrition. Then back out to find Jeff, and over to drop off special needs bags. Found Roy among the body marking volunteers with great senses of humor (Free Body Marking! All you have to do is strip!) and had him draw my happy faces above my knees - one right side up, and one upside down. One for me, and one for everyone else. I didn't need any more, as Julie was so generous to share her TriTats with us the night before. We had such professional looking numbers!!
Found an empty curb and sat down to put on my wetsuit legs and Ingrid's swim booties. I'd like to wear swim booties for every swim! No worries about stepping on rocks when I've got booties on! Then Jeff and I went back to add a forgotten gel to my transition bike bag for after the swim. The crowd was thick with both athletes and spectators and I had to fight my way in. Jeff stayed by the entrance where we found Lynn, Vicki, Carolyn, and Emmie. I dropped off the gel and came back to that corner from the inside and found I was blocked by thousands of athletes trying to get through the small gateway to the beach. Tom found us and we finished putting on our wetsuits and ear plugs and a couple of swim caps and waited for the crowds to pass through. Jeff & Lynn got recruited for crowd control since they were wearing their purple volunteer shirts.
Finally Tom and I got tired of waiting and squeezed through the fencing and joined the crowd moving towards the beach. He wanted to move far right, so I followed. I put on my goggles and third swim cap - the one I was actually required to wear for the race. Of course it was pink. What other color would females want? National anthem was sung, which I could only partially hear through everything on my head. Then Tom wanted to move farther right, and I followed again. He found a spot that satisfied him, and looked around, and there was Mohamed! And then we turned around, and Nancy was there too! We all group hugged, and suddenly the cannon went off! It was time to swim!
One of the things that had most worried me in the weeks leading up to the race was the water temperature. It was in the low 50's when we arrived in Coeur d'Alene. I had heard that it took 3 practice swims to acclimate to the cooler water, so we swam on Wed, Thu, and Fri. On Wednesday, getting in was shockingly cold!
Picture by Tom Marek.
I swam about 1100 yards - 3 out and backs along the buoy line, and it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. On Thursday was a group swim sponsored by Connie Price from the iAmTri forum. It was a very polite swim start, with about 50 people. We started in the same place as we would on race day, but instead of going straight out we swam parallel to shore, past the lone tree to the docks and back for a 1.2 mile swim. Half the distance of race day. And the water was a little warmer and I was a little less surprised by it. And on Friday was an even bigger group swim. By this time I knew I could handle the cold and it was becoming old hat. We swam to the lone tree and back for only about 20 minutes and decided it was enough and we were ready for race day.
Picture by Ed Sparks.
So on race day, when the cannon went off, it was just like those practice swims, only with an additional 2500 people - a little more crowded, a little less polite.
Picture by FinisherPix.
In Ironman there is only one wave. Well, actually there are two waves. The pros started 30 minutes before, so that they could be well into their second loop before the thrashing began. I followed the masses into the water and then dove right in. I knew from my practice swims that the first 5 minutes were the coldest. Hands hurt from the cold, but they adjust (or go numb) after that. We started wide right on a counter-clockwise swim, with the idea that we'd angle towards the turn buoy without getting crushed by everyone else. I followed feet every chance I could. I want to know what the brand of swim socks is that has orange swirly stripes on the bottom. They reminded me of Spiderman and I liked following Spiderman. Nothing could harm me if I was with Spiderman! I didn't bother with sighting much, just tried to walk the fine line between following feet and staying away from the fray. Eventually staying away from the fray won and I was swimming alone, which was delightful. Until it occurred to me that in a race with 2600 people, swimming alone is a sure sign you're not where you're supposed to be. I popped up to get my bearings and saw the buoys a very long way off to my left, so I headed left, angry at how far out of the way I had gone.
Finally I cought up to the crowd, and there were Spiderman feet again! It was a different Spiderman though, since this one had a pink cap and the first Spiderman had a green cap. So happy to finally find one red turn buoy, and then another, and then head back to shore. I didn't get bumped or kicked or punched or anything much ever really. I remember kicking hard once after something that felt more like a grab than an incidental brush against my leg.
As I got closer to shore my right calf threatened to cramp. I flexed and relaxed my foot and focused on kicking from the hip and it subsided. I swam until I could touch with my hands and then stood up. Checked my watch and it said 43 minutes! Faster than I expected! They had volunteers announcing the time as well and confirming that my watch was correct! My goggles had started collecting water and I had the urge to pee, so I was hoping to take care of both as I exited and re-entered the water. I tried to release and reseal the goggles and hoped they'd hold. Peeing wasn't going to happen unless I stopped moving, and I didn't want to stop moving, so I dove back in for the second loop. I was a little unhappy that I had to do it again. But the only thing I can control is my attitude, so I fixed my attitude and back in I went.
And then it started getting choppy. I took in a few mouthfuls of water as I turned to breathe, and learned quickly to keep my mouth closed until I was sure I wasn't turning into a faceful of water. And then the chop turned to waves. Big waves. Swells, actually. And the goggle seal was not holding. I stopped and turned around so I could see if I would get run over, and tried to adjust the goggles. I had to put my hand on one woman's head to keep her from running into me. I apologized when she looked up, and she didn't seem too bothered. I swam a little more, and the goggles were really leaking. I stopped one more time and tried to reseal and make sure the swim caps weren't in the way, and realized I was losing the ability to control my fingers. So I got them back in place and said to myself it was what it was and I was just going to have to hope they didn't leak too much and cause me to lose my contact lens. I put an extra lens in my bike bag, so I'd be ok even if that happened. I made sure to stick closer to the buoy line on this lap. It was exhausting fighting the waves. All form went out the window. I caught glimpses of others struggling too. It was really hard. But I told myself it was ok. It was Ironman. It's supposed to be hard. I will get through it. I fought to get to the turn around, because I was hoping the waves would bring me home once I turned around. Finally I reached the turn buoys and headed back, and felt like I was body surfing. I just enjoyed the ride. Good thing I'm not prone to seasickness!
Once again as I got close to shore my left calf threatened to cramp, but flexing and relaxing and kicking from the hip worked again. I was really getting cold at this point. My arms were cold. My fingers were frozen. I kept moving my fingers like Denise had coached me to do. But it was all ok. This is Ironman and it's supposed to be hard.
I finally reached the beach and checked my watch - 1:33! So happy with that time! Nowhere near that 2:20 cutoff!
Official times:
1.2 miles - 43:13 (2:14/100m)
1.2 miles - 50:40 (2:37/100m)
Total: 1:33:53 (2:25/100m)
T1:
I couldn't manage anything faster than a walk. My feet were too frozen to go any faster. A volunteer asked me if I was ok and I gave him a frozen thumbs up. I can see in the picture why he might have asked. Zombie walking!!
Up the stairs and to the wetsuit strippers who had it off of me in a flash, and even peeled off my swim booties and handed it all to me and pointed me towards bag pickup. I dropped one of the booties but a volunteer noticed and ran to give it to me. Got my bag and really had my hands full as I went to the changing tent, where chaos was happening.
I found an empty chair and a volunteer started helping me. When I first learned about changing tests I thought I could never change in front of all those people! But in the midst of it you realize, nobody is looking at you. They're all just worried about themselves. Plus it's dark in the tent. So I just worried about myself and let the volunteer help me. She emptied my bag, found my towel, and handed it to me first with instructions to dry off. She found my dry Shebeest bike shorts and sleeveless Trizones bike jersey. I didn't pack a dry sports bra, since they're so hard to manage when wet, even with working fingers. I changed my shorts myself. She helped me into my bike jersey. I had packed both arm warmers (the Terry kind that go over your shoulders) and red wind jacket. I asked her if she thought I needed both, and she said it was 57 degrees and windy, so we agreed on both. She helped me into them. Socks were a struggle with frozen fingers. Then I saw Jenny and got her attention so she came over to help me while the first volunteer helped someone else. We tried to put on my bike gloves, but my fingers would not cooperate at all. My pinkies were especially uncooperative. I shook my hands to try to get some feeling. Jenny tried to warm my hands between hers. Finaly we punted on the bike gloves and put them in my jersey pockets for later. I had also packed soft, stretchy gloves with rubbery dots that I planned to put over the bike gloves if my hands were cold. They were easier to get on, so I wore only those. I put on my helmet and sunglasses, and Jenny helped me into my bike shoes, and I was finally ready to go. They asked if I wanted to go to the warming tent, and I said yes, and they pointed me across the basketball court. So far away. I had already taken a lot of time in transtion, so instead I ran across to the porto-potties for a much needed pee. I had swum the entire time without a pee stop! I found out later my T1 time was 21:28! I knew it was long, but it wasn't like I was in there eating cake! Julie and Nancy were directed to the warming tent after the wetsuit stripping. I might have had a faster transition if I had known I could go there first to defrost my fingers.
Slow but determined walk into transition trying to avoid getting mud in my cleats and Jeff and Lynn were there to point me to Tiny. Another volunteer pulled Tiny off the rack for me. My parents were at the fence waving and cheering! Walked to the mount line and it was time to bike! 2.4 miles down. Except my Garmin showed I swam 2.7 with my detour on the first lap.
To be continued...