Ironman Coeur d'Alene Race Recap - The Aftermath

I absolutely loved this race.  It was only my second triathlon outside of Arizona, and my first Ironman outside of Arizona (and obviously first Ironman that wasn't Ironman Arizona).  It was so much fun to be able to share this experience with a large group of people, all of whom support us athletes in our endeavors.  Even more exciting was that I got to be a part of Old Wise One's and The Music Man's first Ironman experience!  And even more impressive was that it was The Music Man's first triathlon ever!  Holy crap!  And on that note, I would just like to say how impressed I am with those guys.  They both came out and dominated their first Ironman race.  I'm thinking about changing their names from Old Wise One to Yoda, since he is now the Old Wise, and experienced, One, and from The Music Man to The Rockstar.

I ended up placing 35th in my age group, which really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.  What matters is how I feel I performed.  My swim was slow, and it is what it is.  I originally thought that my CdA swim was way slower that any of my other Ironmans, but I was wrong.  In fact, I swam a 1:19 at Ironman Arizona last year.  The difference was that I didn't have a 14:00 T1 at any of my other races.  I was very happy with my bike performance.  I may have pushed a little too hard on the first lap, but I laid off on the second lap to sort of make up for it.

As I hinted at yesterday, my goal has always been to run a 4 hour marathon in an Ironman.  Well, my run time was 4:00:21.  Not under 4, but soooo stinkin' close that I'll take it.  I'm absolutely happy with this run time.  I feel that I may have even been able to give just a little more during the second half, once I got over that mental wall, but oh well.  I missed my goal time by less that 1 second per mile.  I'm not sure I could have cut it much closer!

Thank you so much to everyone who supported me along the way, especially The Wife.  She's probably excited to have me not thinking about triathlons for a few weeks!  This was truly an experience of a lifetime, and I can't wait to race Ironman again in Arizona in 2013!