Jason's Triathlon Page: Ironman Coeur d'Alene Race Recap

After an embarrassing swim, it was time to get into my race. I have never been a good swimmer, and I have accepted that fact. My plan is usually to make it through the swim without wasting too much energy, and then make up time on the bike and run. This bike portion, however, was going to be different than Ironman Arizona. This bike portion had some serious hills in it.

I jumped on the bike and immediately got going. I had no idea where my fellow IronClanners were, but I figured they were all ahead of me. The bike is basically 4 out and backs. There's a small one, followed by a long one (which contains the climbs), which equals 56 miles, and 2500 feet of climbing per lap. Yikes!

Rather than write a ton about it, I'll just give you a visual assault of the bike, courtesy of The Wife:

Iron Husband Mark

Pappy

Pappy (it was colder during the first lap, so he had a jacket on)

Pappy

Iron Wife Beth

The Music Man

Old Wise One

The Music Man

The Music Man (and Sean sporting the Team IronClan Uniform!)

Pappy

The Music Man

Old Wise One

Iron Husband Mark

The Music Man

The first lap on the bike was pretty awesome. I averaged 20.3 mph, which was maybe just a little much, but I was feeling pretty good. I was nailing my nutrition plan, and things seemed to be going great. I had caught up to The Music Man at about the half way point of the first lap (the start of the first big climb), and saw that Old Wise One was just a couple miles ahead of me at the turnaround. I hadn't seen anyone else out on the course, so I had no clue how they were doing.

During the second lap, the wind came out. Nothing major, but just enough of a head wind that it made climbing up the hills even tougher, and we weren't able to really capitalize on the downhills following the climbs. After the turnaround, though, it was pretty nice. My top speed for the bike ride was actually on the very last downhill, and was 42.9 mph. I ended up with an average speed of 19.32 mph and a time of 5:47:50. The best part of the ride was that I started the bike in 89th in my AG, and ended up in 43rd in my AG after the bike was over, so I passed 46 guys in my AG on the bike! Not too bad.

My only gripe with the bike course was the "no pass zones". I don't mind that they existed, but rather how they were described at the athlete meeting. In the meeting, the bike course director simply said "on the last downhill", which made everyone think it was the entire downhill, when in fact it was a very, very short section on the downhill. There were signs on the course that I thought were very clear, but others did not see them. So, on the entire downhill, other athletes felt that it was alright to no longer ride on the right, but rather ride on the left because they wouldn't be passed. I actually had to repeatedly yell at a group of goofballs to move over, and ended up getting the middle finger flung my way. It would have been much better if the bike course director was precise about the no-pass location, and what would be even better would be if it was described someone in the printed material! Nowhere in the athlete guide did it mention any "no-pass" zones. A map of the bike course could very easily highlight where these zones are. Ok. Enough of my ranting.

I think I did pretty well on this course. My average cadence was 74, which is much slower than I wanted (more around 80), but oh well. My heart rate average was 128 bpm, which is great for me! Based on that heart rate, I may have even been able to push a little harder, but I was specifically trying to make sure I didn't kill myself for the run.

The aid stations were great, and the support was great. Unlike Arizona, I didn't have to pee constantly (only once. I know, TMI...), so that was a success. And we had the great support of the rest of the IronClan group!