Trying To Ride: 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