My Ironman Coeur d'Alene Race Report

My Ironman Swim Experience:

 About 8 minutes before the start cannon went off I told Linda I wanted to experience the washing machine & I did it. No farting around on the beach, no slow entering. I go in that water and started swimming, which is unusual for me. I didn't freak out, my goggles didn't leak.

I got kicked in the face and every where else on my body, I was hit on my head, I was swam over, I swam over other people, I was fondled and groped on every intimate part of my body.

My goggles fogged up so bad that I couldn't see the bouys so I just kept track of the heads around me & went in the general direction they were going. There were legs kicking, arms stroking, bubbles everywhere, kayaks and surf boards in the way and thats why they call it the Washing Machine.
I was loving every minute of it, it was so much fun.

 I made it to the first turn fast & was expecting a tough time till the next turn but it wasn't bad at all. Going back to the beach was fast and I completed the first lap in 55 minutes, which really surprised me. I found out later that Richard Seibert was exiting the swim the time I got done with the first one.

My 2nd lap was a whole different story. The wind kicked up and made big waves so we were thrown around, up & down, rolling me side to side. I had to keep sighting land, see anything on the horizon to keep the motion sickness at bay.

I had been able to wipe the inside of my goggles at the turn around so I could see until they fogged again. This time it took longer to get to each bouy, I thought I was at the 4th one but it was only the 2nd, then there were 2 smaller ones to pass before I reached the big red turn bouy. Every time I sighted & breathed I sucked in water. The waves were having their way with me but I was still hanging in there, enjoying myself and having fun.

In the middle of the end of that lap I was being pushed by waves into the small red marker bouy; I tried to go right but suddenly some guy swam over me and my leg cramped, hard. I got away from him & the bouy, stretched my leg out some & tried to swim but it was very difficult. Waves were hitting me in the face, I was breathing water so decided I needed to hold on to a kayak. But none of them saw me waving for help!

I just started swimming again and made it to the turn heading back to the beach where I got ahold of a kayak for a minute. That guy told me there were white caps on the lake & he was surprised we were all doing so well. I then basically went from kayak to surf board to kayak for a ways, massaging my leg and trying to swim, trying to sight the shore through the foggy goggles. I knew I had a half hour with 1/8 of a mile to go, there were still plenty of swimmers around me and I HAD to get to shore. I still had the motion sickness going on, still had to sight every other breath.

I could hear Mike Reilly on the loud speaker cheering on the people coming out of the water and that was encouraging. Finally I could see the shore, I could see the volunteers and I stood up and walked out of the water, SO happy to see the time was 2:04:42 and not 2:20.

At this point I was just so surprised to see the clock hadn't timed out.

My leg was still cramping and it was difficult to walk so I was assisted to the grassy area where they stripped my wetsuit and booties off me & put me into the heating tent.

The tent had maybe 6 chairs and about 50 women sitting everywhere around 2 propane heaters, I swear it was 115 degrees in that tent. I wasn't cold though, just had that awful cramp. They brought me my T1 gear bag and I dried off & got out of there in about 15 minutes.

Ran to the bike...

I mounted my bike at 2:20:42

and headed out onto the course.

Its a 2 loop course in sort of a figure 8, the first part goes east along Lakeshore Drive to the end of the road where we turned around & headed back to town. I was having a good time and I was lapped by a few pros before I even got back into town.

I rode pretty well, or so I thought. People were passing me but I was thinking I wouldn't go all out on my first loop so I wouldnt use all my energy. But my leg was still cramping from the swim. It would ease up a little & then come on again and I was scared of hurting my left knee again too.

I had a good time riding, its a pretty course and the hills aren't too bad. I was able to just slowly turn the pedals going up hills and scream down the other sides.

I made it 85 miles before I knew I had to stop. I was 5 miles from the 90 mile turn around and I would have been pulled from the race anyway due to timing out at 4pm.

Viktor Zyemtsev was the winner at 8:32:29

Meredith Kessler (USA) won the womens race in 9:21:44

Dane-ger Ballou, in his first Ironman, came in 2nd in his age group, 18-24 yr old males so

HE'S GOING TO KONA!!!!

Here is the medal so many other people got; Linda, Richard, Alisa, Dane, Linda R. and so many others.

 But I didn't get one. I'll get another shot at it next year, there are only 360 days to go!

IRONMAN Coeur d'Alene 2012

How is training going? Its all done.

Tomorrow I will attempt to finish my first ever Ironman triathlon; swim 2.4 miles in 60* water, bike 112 miles and then run a 26.2 mile marathon. There are a lot of people here that I know and we're all going to have a great day tomorrow. Loving this weekend.

In 3 Days

How is training going? I'm a couch potato today.

In 3 days Lan & I head to Coeur d'Alene for my Ironman triathlon.

Today I worked 10 hours so after I got home even though there was time to swim or ride the bike, I chose to do nothing. Early mornings KILL me desire to train so I didn't do anything. But I was on my feet all day and that counts a little, right?

Here is Fred landing the ferry I came in on.

 
Here's Fred again, he had just gotten the ticket from that SUV that's about to blast down lane 1 on its way to Vashon Island.

The newbie, Rick. Hes super happy just to have a job. Hes nice but most of the new people are.

And my favorite car in the world, even higher than the 1960 Thunderbird. Rolls Royce. Super nice lady and gentleman own this car. No, I didn't touch it.

And another beautiful sunset. One nights like this I absolutely LOVE my job and I usually do anyway.

Anita, Queen on her throne.

8 Days Remaining

How is training going? Taper, only 8 days until I start counting down hours.

First, lets see the goofy picture I took of Linda today...

These goggles were blocking her nose and she started laughing and SNORTING, it was hilarious!

Like I wasn't tapering the entire last 10 months!  No, really, I have been working harder and harder each and every month, just go to www.dailymile.com and check out my workout history, every month since January it shows more and more each month.

This is my statistics for the past year showing all my workouts combined. In December I ran my 1st marathon and I had been slowly working up my miles but icky winter weather slowed me down a lot. I did a lot of spin classes over the winter to make up for not being able to ride outdoors.

Overall

Here is my swimming graph. Is it obvious I haven't swam much? I don't care for the sport because I can frolic pretty well but I only had my first lesson 1.25 years ago and then only 6 with a high school kid and then 4 lessons with Ryan in October & November. It isn't showing the 1.4 miles I swam today.

Swimming

The bike graph, with the most miles and my favorite sport. The miles have really added up fast on here since it is the easiest to do. I'll continue to ride and try to improve so I can race bikes more, I love going fast.

Biking

Running graph... I was doing pretty well up until January, when I was 1st recovering from Yukon Do It marathon & then realized I had injured my Hip Flexor. I ran a could 5k's in the week or 2 before the half marathon in May & that's why it goes up then.
I haven't run a whole lot, actually none, in June. I'm not really worried about it, I can walk the marathon & jog a lot of it.

Running

This is the jogging/walking graph. Since I knew I had to at least attempt to move my feet in any kind of walking/jogging/running motion I did walk. It doesn't hurt the Hip Flexor and I could do more of this with Linda than running, even though she has run more than I have, a lot more. but shes never run a half marathon, let alone a full marathon.

Walking

In 10 days my Ironman will be over, whether I finish in 17 hours or not. I'm nervous and have had a few bitchy moments but not too many and I'm not freaking out. Yet. I'm sure I will.

I'm extremely glad I have just finished my PMS (so what if I don't have a period, I still get the bloating) so I'll be a little less bitchy in the next week. I should also feel a bit better physically on race day since I won't be bloated and my boobs won't be so dang tender.

Two days ago Linda and I got together to go over our lists and that made me nervous, more than anything else has. I was shaky nervous. People everywhere I go ask if I'm nervous & I sarcastically say NO, not at all. But I haven't been too bad, thankfully.

I have so much to do and here I sit on the computer farting around.

Things I have yet to do in the next 5 days:
Dye hair
pack!
unpack, repack, unpack, repack!!!!!!
load truck
wash truck
gas up scooters
wash bike
buy new undies for the trip
new shoes?


Things I did get done this last week:
manicure
pedicure - really needed one, ingrown toe nails
hair cut, short!
picked up borrowed canopy for truck
visited a few stores, last minute shopping
made arrangements for horses to be fed
have a list of people to thank
bought yet another pair of cycling shorts gel shammy, yay.


So much to do for an Ironman, so little time left. I remember when I started my countdown,

Darn Goggles

How is training going? Very good, enjoying taper.

This evening as I was swimming and bitching about my goggles ONCE AGAIN, I figured out what the leakage problem has been all this time.

When I put on my wetsuit I use lubricant. Then I get wet and wipe the water off my face with my LUBED hands. So how in the world are goggles supposed to work?? Doh!  I'll be swimming again in 2 days and am going to take baby wipes to wash with after getting into the suit and see if I have indeed figured it out. If they leak on Ironman I'm screwed.

Finally

763

My number for Ironman Coeur d'Alene

on June 24, 2012

Its for real, I will be taking part in this event.

17 Days from today.

100 Bike Miles

How is training going? Let taper begin.

Yesterday Lan and I rode 100 miles in the Peninsula Metric Century. They offered 100 miles plus many options for shorter rides, like 100k, 50 miles, etc. I needed to get to the 100 miles mark so that was our only choice.

We started out at the Southworth ferry dock. Linda and Barb were supposed to meet there at 6:45-7:00 so Lan and I got there but I didn't see either of them so we started out at 7:01am. It was chilly so we had on jackets & leg warmers, full finger gloves and booties would have been nice too but we didn't think it was that cold.

Course took us out through Manchester, along Beach Drive, through Port Orchard, up to a fire department on Sedgwick for Rest Stop #1. We were early and I was the 1st person to dip into the PB&J. We spent about 7 minutes there.

From there we headed out on a big loop: Glenwood, 118th, Creviston, Elgin-Clifton, JM Dickinson & back to the fire station for Rest Stop #2. Lots of people here now, the entire jar of PB is gone & he hands me a 2nd jar, which I'm 1st to dip into. I see a pattern here...

There were bikes of every description leaning into the hedge and in the gardens. I thought it looked pretty cool.

I wish I had a better camera so I could get nicer photos. I see things and just can't capture them with a point & shoot camera but its better than nothing and I do not need another hobby.

These guys in orange were all Pacific Islanders riding together. They were coaching each other, one on one and that was cool. They were all nice too and didn't mind that I totally chicked them on the first hill we all went up. But then they all passed me after that but we were still riding with them for the next 20 miles or so.

At Rest Stop #3, on 144th in Purdy, John found me. Hes in my spin class, sometimes leads it. Extremely nice guy, works in the hospital with Torrey.

From Purdy we went out along Sehmel Drive and had a choice, take the short cut & avoid the hills or take the hills for the longer route. We did the longer route. Out around Kopachuck to Artondale Drive. I used to live out there and LOVE that area. We rode past places I rode my horses and the farm where Bubba lived. Here is the road up to Sarah's house, she was such a good friend.

As we were getting into Gig Harbor I was getting tired and bitchy. I had to get off and walk a few hills. My left knee was in pain and it hurt to pedal. Lan was mad/disappointed with me but I was done.

Right before we got to Rest Stop #4 another rider came alongside Lan & it was Craig Heatherington. They used to be really good friends, rode & worked together for many years. Craig was a FAST rider, we went to Seattle a few times to watch him race. One time he did the Alki Crit & he won at least 1 round. His girlfriend is Emily, they have a nice home in Seattle and Craig is a chef.
While we were at that Rest Stop I got some strawberry shortcake for Emily and me, I made the guys go get their own. I'm glad I got some, it really hit the spot.

After we started out again we went through Gig Harbor and out to Crescent Valley Road. My knee was really hurting now and I was pushing it up every hill. I finally asked Lan what I should do, keep going and risk injury or quit. I asked him to go ahead and get the car and come back for me. I had about 20-ish miles to go at this point.

I rode the flat parts of the road and had to walk the hills. One other lady gave me 1 ibuprofen, that helped a lot (most of it mentally) and they would pass me & then I'd pass them. Her butt was hurting. I could totally relate to that.

I rode & walked about 5 miles when suddenly I heard "Denise, is that you?" and it was Linda and Steve, coming up behind me. I was glad to see them. They stuck with me for the rest of the ride, walking with me when I had to walk and encouraging me to ride on flats. I was able to coast down hills really well and going down into Olalla was all downhill so I blasted it, way fun!

As long as I didn't put too much pressure on my knee I could ride and we finally got to the corner or Mullenix & Orchard, right down the road (hills) from home. I decided I only had 5 miles to go, I might as well finish it so we passed Banner Forest and got onto Sedgwick, the final road back to Southworth.

Then Lan showed up, with just 2 miles to go! I told him I was going to finish and I did.

It took me 9.5 hours. About 30 minutes of that was at Rest Stops, about 1 hour was pushing the bike up hills.

Knowing I had finished 100 miles was important, now I know I can do that. But will my knee hold out? Will my butt hold out? Will I be mentally capable of finishing 140.6 miles?

I was disappointed at the end of the ride, they had packed up and taken away all the strawberry shortcake so no end of ride food. I thought they were supposed to be there until 5:30?? They were gone at 4 when Lan got there and I finished at 4:30.