IM CDA Race Report
Let me preface my race report with an analogy of a college student procrastinating studying for his mid-term.....hahaha!!!
Prior to the race I had severely under utilized the site and the vast amount of information that the team had to offer. I had actually signed up for the CDA team/group about a week before the race....DOH!!!! 
Not to mention, I hadn't quite figured out my nutrition plan since I hadn't watched the nutrition plan seminar until Coach P. smacked me upside the head and showed me where the nutrition plan was....hahaha! Needless to say, I found out heaps of information the week and half leading up to the race which turned out to be invaluable come race day.
Pre-race: Woke up at 2am, chugged down two 8oz glasses of wanna be Naked Juice, and actually ate a full Power Bar for a total of about 500 calories. Tried to go back to bed but that simply wasn't happening. I figured I'd just get to the race start a little earlier and get a nap before. Arrived in Coeur d'Alene at around 3:30am and headed into transition at 4:30am. Finished setting up at 5am and just hung out with friends until it came time to warm up for the swim. I continued to sip on some Gatorade till about 5:30am.
Swim:
Prior to the swim, I headed out for a quick warm up where I ran into a few friends in the water. Did about 100yd warm up and got out. I ended up seeing another one of my friends on shore who was completely dry, and suggested that he warm up to get used to the water, which he declined. After the race he told me he regretted not warming up and that it took him 5 minutes to finally warm up.....hahaha talk about stubborn.
Prior to CDA, I did Wildflower in which the swim portion took me 39:31, so I figured with fatigue of double the distance, I lowered my expectations and settled on having a swim in under 90 minutes. I lined myself up at the start approximately 2 minutes ahead of where I thought I'd finish and put myself smack dab in the middle like the coaches had suggested. The self-seeding swim was new to CDA and I believe it was a fantastic idea. This was by far one of the smoothest swims I had experienced. I credit that partly to where I seeded myself....in the middle thanks to the coaches. As I started the swim, I broke the swim down into manageable chunks and my confidence continued to grow as I passed buoy after buoy.
I told myself that I would not search for a draft but would take one if one came. It was pretty funny when I did catch a few, because the swimmers in front of me seemed to get all mad and kicked so hard that you heard that "thumping noise" as his/her foot re-entered the water. HAHAHA!!! Didn't matter, I smoked them anyways and finished my first lap in 38:19. Might I add on the 2nd turn, the buoys were a little confusing as it seemed that they used kayakers instead of buoys for the first couple hundred yards, and then little orange buoys after that. My second lap went without incident and I finished that one with a slightly longer time 40:12. Out of the swim in 1:18:31, of course I had no idea at the time since I wasn't wearing a watch, but I knew that I had a great swim with the heaps of people that I passed. 
Transition 1:
I ran from the swim like a bat outta hell before realizing that I wasn't suppose to do that.....lol. I had half my wetsuit off before a friendly volunteer helped me with the rest of my wetsuit. Out of T1 in 5:34.
Bike:
Jumped on the bike and headed out of town to the cheer of thousands of spectators. It was so hard to hold my legs back, but I kept saying to myself, "There's no such thing as a great bike split, if you have a crappy run." So I stuck with the plan and just "rode along" for the first hour. By the time my hour was up, I had already come back to town and made my way to the 95 which is where the hills began. I made sure to take it easy on the climbs and bombed down the downhills.
Per the race report, I was to pee twice on the bike.....well considering I was also to take in 2 bottles of perform per hour....that didn't happen twice....it happened five times!!! 
As I said before, I hadn't had my nutrition down but was so worried about cramping that I decided to do the 2 bottles of perform. I also had a gel every 45 minutes when my stomach felt like it needed something more substantial than liquid. The first time I had to pee, I had so much liquid in me that it hurt to stay aero. I was going to stop by the port-a-potty but there was a line 3 riders deep. 
This would be the first time I would experiment with giving my bike a little "golden shower". I grabbed a water at an aid station to "pretend" I was drinking....but was rather peeing....but the problem was, I couldn't even do that. Thirty minutes go by, and I finally thought to myself, forget it, I'm not going to bother hiding it. I finally figured out the way to do it was by standing up.....duh....and it helped that it was on a descent.....AMEN relief at last!!! 
The second time, I decided to stop at a port-a-potty, but after realizing how long it took, I decided to not do that again....hahahaha!!
I finished my first lap with an average speed of 17.8 mph. This was a little faster than I had anticipated and I remember thinking to myself "Am I going too fast.....am I not sticking to the game plan?" I became even more concerned when I started passing riders with aero helmets and disc wheels...."Was I being a "hammerhead"? I decided to let off the gas a little on the second loop and I think it was the right decision as the outside of my left knee and the inside of my right knee started to ache a little bit. Great.....IT band acting up right before the run?!?! Might be a long day.....To make things more interesting at around mile 104 a bee decided to do a kamikaze style bombing run right into my shoulder. After he/she/it bounced off my shoulder, the little bugger fell into my shoe and yup that's right.....STUNG ME!!! 
Good thing I'm not allergic to bees! I ended up finishing the second lap with an average speed of 17 mph for an average of 17.4. I had planned to finish the bike in under 6:30 hours and finished with a time of 6:26:06
Transition 2
Entering T2, I quickly grabbed my T2 bag and headed into the tent after an additional elongated "pit stop"....man I drank way too much... I remember packing compression socks the night before and was so thankful that I had as I thought it would help with my knees. While in the tent a volunteer came to assist me as I started to dump my T2 bag out. As I unzipped my top to apply some bodyglide......BAM!!!! my zipper breaks 
I tried to get some help with getting it fixed but after two volunteers and finally breaking the zipper on both sides, I decided just to safety pin it. I threw on the rest of my gear and headed out for a dismal 11:01 T2 time....hahahaha!!!! 
Run:
During training, I had struggled on my long runs after 14 miles which caused the run section to be a big concern for me leading up to race day. Granted I was dehydrated and wasn't taking in enough nutrition during the training days as Coach P had pointed out. This along with EN's philosophy of not needing to run a marathon haunted me. Would I be able to run 26.2? I had set a goal prior to race day to run the marathon portion under 11 min/mile.
I came out of the run repeating to myself.....give coach 3 minutes and he'll make your race. I have to admit it was so hard to stay disciplined and hold back with the crowd cheering as loudly as they were. I was being passed by so many runners that it was pretty embarrassing. Then the crowd began to cheer for me and began to encourage me after the fast people blew right by me. I swallowed my pride and stuck to the game plan and gave the coaches those 3 minutes and boy am I glad I did.
After reaching the first 6 miles, I began to settle into my Z1, (if you consider a HR of 163 Z1 hahaha). 
I surprisingly felt incredible....but I had felt that before up to mile 14 during my training runs. This time I was more prepared, taking in approximately 4 oz of Perform every mile and doing a Gu every three miles. By the way the Mango/Orange Perform......yuck..
..but you do what you got to do... The funniest thing I remember during the run was a spectator holding a sign that said "Smile if you pee'd on your bike".......I immediately cracked a huge smile unintentionally and proceeded to laugh out loud. It totally made my day.
Miles 6-16 went incredibly smooth and I even met a new friend while running. She was a bit quicker than me but as we were stride for stride down the hill, I told her that I had best slow down as I needed to be running about 10:27. She was trying to run around 10:00. I did what the race strategy suggested and took what I needed from the aid stations and then proceeded to walk 30 steps at the end of the aid station as a reward for keeping pace. She walked the entire aid station which allowed me to catch up to her but unfortunately she had run a little too fast early on as I ended up dropping her about 6 miles later. No more friend.....
Since my longest run during training had been 16 miles, I wanted to be sure to have enough umpfh for the last 10. I began to pick up the pace slightly but nothing significant to damage my race. When I reached mile 18, I remember that, I was allowed to "race", however I still wasn't confident enough to pick up my pace too much as I still had doubt, so I saved a little in the tank. Come mile 20 and it was on like Donkey Kong!!! I started picking up the pace and watched as I passed runner after runner....my confidence continuing to build. The encouragement from my fellow triathletes also helped as they yelled..."GO GET IT!!" With two miles left I finally said screw it.....and kicked it up another notch and came flying through town with a 9:37 average pace for the last two miles. There was no SUCK during the marathon portion!!! I was absolutely astounded by what I had accomplished. To the roar of the crowd and a couple of my friends waiting for me at the finish line, I crossed to the announcer saying "Ted.....YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!"
Of all that I have experienced in life, I must say that this definitely ranked in the top 5. I can't thank EN, the coaches, our race captain and my fellow teammates enough for getting me through this. You are all amazing!!! 
This is probably the first time that I have raced a race with a plan with this much attention to detail and I must say I loved every bit of it.
Should I ever do another Ironman, I will be back....and so will my friends. I trained with 7 other athletes who used different training programs and every single one of them said if they were to do it again they would use Endurance Nation!! How awesome is that!?!?! I think they signed up for your tips or something as they got some emails from you guys. Thanks again for everything!!
Ted
P.S. I started with a goal of 12:45-13:15.....I finished in 12:35:18!!!
Comments
Great race, Ted. Sounds like you executed really well, despite getting stung by a bee on your foot
OUCH!
Also, it sounds like you had a great run by running your race and not getting sucked in to what everyone else was going.
It was nice meeting you! Great job!