IMCDA 2013 Race Report
Ironman Coeur D’Alene Race Report
Short Version:
Swim 2.4 Miles: 1:12:49 – 1:55/100m
Transition 1: 6:58
Bike 112 Miles: 6:34:28 – 17.04 MPH
Transition 2: 6:45
Run 26.2 Miles: 4:37.09 – 10:34/mi
Official Finish Time: 12:38:09
Long Version:
Some background: Since seeing a 70.3 race in Wiesbaden, Germany in 2008 or so, I had always wanted to do an Ironman. I had always thought it was a sport for the uber fit and athletic, but after comparing myself to some of the competitors (not in a mean way), I had thought it was something I could do. Thanks to Chad Henderson and Mike Skiff in South Carolina, I started doing some longer endurance running in 2010. After about a year of that, I met Wendy Greenlaw, and she gave me the final nudge to start down this path. I can say that she has challenged me to enter almost every triathlon I have done, and am ever thankful that she did, though I’ve cursed her a few times for it as well. When she recommended that we both do IM CDA as our first 140.6 this year, I signed up immediately. I signed up immediately, and stated online how hard this race would be – Scott Hoducavich replied that the race would be easy, it was all the training leading up to the race that would be hard – and no truer words have been spoken. Having no idea on how to train for this race, I started combing the web for the best way forward…after much searching, I signed on with Endurance Nation, an online coaching forum and triathlon community. While the structure provided by the plans were incredibly helpful, I’m still on the fence as to whether membership is worth the monthly fee, to me anyway…nothing astronomical, but I may or may not have had the same results with just following a downloaded plan – believe I am going to stick with the program over the next year or so, and make a better determination if it is something I want to go with – I think to truly benefit from the forum, I will likely need to invest in a powermeter or computrainer – better save up my pennies.
Training:
I dived into the training plan, and quickly realized that the training would become an integral part of my schedule. While I’m the first to admit that I didn’t come close to nailing all of the workouts, the workouts were always there looming – going forward, I think that I have gotten to a point where I can enjoy most of them, so it won’t feel as if it is some chore or task that I have to complete. My training generally consisted of swim/run Monday, run/bike intervals Tuesday, swim Wednesday, long run Thursday, swim Friday, long bike Saturday, not quite as long bike Sunday, with the principle of get faster, than farther. I worked very hard on swimming, rarely missing a workout; I love to run, so that part was great, though the adding of tempo runs and speed work really made a difference. I never fell in love with the biking – and this discipline, more than any other – still needs the most work. I probably skipped or shortened more bike workouts than I completed. As a tune-up, I completed HITS Napa Valley in April, and was very concerned with my mental state and physical capacity coming out of this. As such, I was very uncertain that I would reach a 13-hour goal I had set for myself.
Travel/Prep:
Picked up Wendy from SeaTac on Monday, and drove out to Coeur D’Alene on Tuesday. We rented a house on Hayden Lake, and were looking forward to just relaxing and enjoying the beauty leading up to race day. Tuesday it was nice, then the rain began, and didn’t really clear up until race day, which was a prayer answered, as it was raining again come Monday morning. Went for a quick swim in Lake Coeur D’Alene on Wednesday, and came out pretty confident about water temp, etc – it was about 62 degrees, compared to last year’s race day temps of about 58 degrees. Drove the bike course, and then the run course, with a quick 3 mile run up-over-and back of the climb at the turn around. Completed registration on Thursday, picked up my race wheel rentals, and met up with about 20 other Endurance Nation (EN) folks for a team dinner – if you’re ever in the area, Crickets has some fantastic Halibut fish and chips. Did another swim on Friday morning with the team, then went out to the bike course and went up-over-and back of the first main climb on the course. Had a quick lunch with Jason Marshall, who I hadn’t seen in about 20 years, and who had a great day as well, going about 11:51. Lane and Laurie Smith arrived later that night, and stayed up way too late bs’ing. Checked in bike and run transition bags and bike on Saturday, tried to go look at a classic car junkyard – closed- and really just chilled for the rest of the day. Tried to go to bed at about 9pm, but was likely lying awake until 11 or so – in a nutshell, I felt ready!
Race Day:
Up at 3:45am for an Ensure and a granola yogurt, grabbed the rest of the gear, and headed downtown. Got the special needs bags turned in, set up the nutrition on the bike as well as checking the tire pressure. Watched the pros go out at 6am, then suited up for a quick warm up. Getting to the warm up area was stupid crowded as spectators wouldn’t make way for athletes, but tried to remember the EN credence of just staying in my box and only worrying about what I could control. Got in a couple of minutes of warm up, saluted the flag for the National Anthem, and then seeded myself for the swim. This was the first year for a rolling swim start vice a mass start, and while the ego in me wanted to say I had survived the chum, I am very happy we did the rolling start. I seeded myself towards the back of the 1:00 to 1:15 group.
Swim: In the pool I had gone about 1:13 for a 4200yd swim, so thought I might be able to go 1:10 or so. My greatest fear was the consistency of my freaking the hell out in the first couple of hundred yards of a swim. I pretty sure it has something to do with anxiety, but causes me to be short of breath, in a panic, and end up alternating between treading water and swimming for the entire duration of the swim, which lends closer to a 1:40 swim. The start went very fast. I was probably 300 folks back, but was in the water in under 2 minutes after the gun went off. I focused on going easy, real easy from the start, knowing that my really easy at start is impossible to maintain a couple of miles into the swim. Sure enough, right as I hit the second buoy, I panicked. I’m not sure what set it off, but it happened, and I figured I was screwed, and even glanced back to the beach with thoughts of calling it a day. After about five seconds, I put my head down once again, and I’m not sure why, but I started counting my strokes. I can never count my strokes consistently during training, as I find it to be one of the most boring things in the world. I can say that I didn’t panic again during the swim…if I was counting to 3 or 100, I think the mere aspect of my mind focusing on that simple task may have saved my whole day. After that, the swim was rather uneventful other than the occasional ass who decided to swim over and not around. Only got smacked in the head a couple of times – that’s what I get for wishing for the scrum of a mass start. I felt solid and strong, and looking back, believe there was plenty left in the tank to go a bit faster. But, as this race was the longest triathlon I’ve done, with no ideas of what to expect, I tried to err on the side of caution all day.
T1: T1 went faster than expected. My race number put my bags at the ends of a row, and the volunteers were fantastic in support. As my bootie always hates me after 3 hours of biking, I’d opted to completely change between swim and bike, putting on cycling bibs for the bike. A volunteer helped with the hard part of getting the jersey on a wet body, my bike was near the run through, so quickly grabbed it, turned on the Garmin, and was off.
Bike: So, just 112 miles, eh. No problem, though I hadn’t ridden for more than 5 hours or 90 miles in training. Not that I was supposed to ride further, but…it never happened. The bike course consisted of two out-and-backs, each rode twice; one through down and by the lake, and the other longer one out on 95S. There was one quick hill at the end of the first leg, and about 4 lengthy 6% climbs on the 95S leg. Again, this was pretty uneventful. My goal had to been ride at a heart rate of about 130bpm, and haven’t downloaded the Garmin, but bet I was closer to 140bpm the whole way, which an occasional spike. I was very worried that I had worked too hard on the bike, that I hadn’t dialed in the nutrition (still experimenting), and that I was going to be among the walking dead on the run. I ran into a fellow EN’r on the first hill of the second loop who was riding with a power meter, and we seemed to be pretty equal on the effort, so spent a good portion of 40 miles within sight and kind’ve gauging my effort that way. The hills were slow going up, especially the second loop, but the downhills were friggin awesome. During my training ride, I was scared to stay in aero with the new deeper wheels, but I stuck it like a champ on race day and busted 42mph in a few places. A side story during the bike – I’m not in the peeing on the bike bandwagon yet – I’m not racing for podium, so don’t see the point – and after being directly behind some little blonde who decided to raise her haunches and just let go, splashing off her water bottles as I got out of the saddle to pass and get out of the way, still think it may be a day or two before I decide to race for hours in my own piss – I don’t pee that much while racing anyway.
Transition 2:
This went very quickly as well. As I was wearing bike bibs, I had to completely take off my top before I could take them off, and switch into tri shorts…and while it would of made way more sense to just put running shorts on, I wanted to look cool in my photos, and that couldn’t be done with running shorts:o) As always, I left my Garmin on my bike, and would like to throw a shout out to the volunteer who ran out to my bike to retrieve it and was back as I was getting ready to leave the tent. I also opted to go with toe socks and some silk dust recommended by an EN’r to avoid blisters and the friggin toe thingamajig I’ve seem to have developed this season. Kudos, it worked! I ran out of transition and looked up at the clock to see 8:02:xx. Holy crap, I only needed to run sub 5 to go under 13 – was pretty sure I could do this on my worst day, but decided to bide my time anyway.
Run:
Leaving T2, I knew I had this thing in the bag. I could still feel my legs, nothing was on fire, I wasn’t starving to death, and I still felt strong and confident. I was still focusing on the mythical wall at mile 18, and kept my pace to a 9:30 for the first 6 miles, while walking the aid stations. I think I ended up walking for 30 seconds every ½ mile for the first 15 miles or so, then made it from aid station to aid station, but wasn’t exactly breaking any records in doing so. The first lap felt pretty good, and got to see Lane and Laurie at the turn around. I danced a couple of jigs, and headed back out. The second lap was more of the same, and got to see a lot of EN jerseys on the course, which was motivation to keep ticking out the miles. There was also a gravel/dirt path during the 6 or so miles that ran by the lake, and those were a nice reprieve from banging pavement all day. The crowds were great, the volunteers even better, and I was enjoying myself without getting too caught up in the race of things. My second to best moment was when I hit the split for the one-more-lap for finish-line, headed the finish-line, and full swing middle fived the volunteer that was standing there. After a bit, it was a left turn onto Sherman Ave, and about a 400 yard downhill run down a wide, fan-lined road. I knew it was coming, and started getting a little choked up. A lot of effort and training was about to pay off, and I still couldn’t believe I was well inside of my 13-hour goal. I was looking for Lane and Laurie, and finally saw them right before the finisher’s chute. Took a quick detour to give Lane a big hug, and then stepped onto the padded chute for the final 25 yards. As I neared the finish line, I finally heard Mike Reilly say, “Mark Hickman, a Soldier with NORTHCOM (not sure where he got that), YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!” Gotta admit, it was pretty freaking cool.
Post Race:
Quickly got my medal, took the finisher’s photo, and moved through the food folks to meet Lane and Laurie. He told me that my Mom had been able to watch me finish online, and that was the icing on the cake – pretty cool. Ate my pizza, drank some chocolate milk, had a coupla smokes, loaded up the car, and waiting for Wendy to come on in – like every other person on the course that day – she killed it, I was super proud when I got to see her cruise on by on Sherman Avenue.
Retrospective:
When I got done, I expected to feel a lot worse. I commented to a few that I had felt a lot worse after some half and full marathons. I don’t know if that can be chalked up to a lower level of intensity, a focused approach to training, or if I just had a great day, but I’m gonna call it all three. Also, I’m not sure that it has soaked in as some great accomplishment – I think it is for anyone who completes this even – it is a great accomplishment just to toe the line with months and months of training behind you. I’m blown away by the guys that do this 3 hours faster – I’m going to strive to get faster, but don’t know that I’ll ever get there – freaking machines. Nevertheless, I’m happy to have completed it, and look forward to the next one.
Thanks:
Thanks to Wendy for staring this ball rolling, for your constant advice and snippets or smart-assed-ness, and for politely listening to me about my training. The day wouldn’t have happened without you. Thanks to family and friends, near and far, for putting up with me talking nothing but tri, and for supporting me along the way. And finally, thanks to the race-day sherpas and supporters Lane and Laurie – you made the day’s logistics so, so, much easier, and knowing you were out there supporting made a huge difference to me, and to Wendy, too.
Comments
Congratulations, Mark! Great race and nice to meet you!
Get Kickr. Not computrainer. Cheaper. Better.
Desoto tribibs. One with the medium pad. Wear all day. For taking off straps for the run, slip just arms out of sleeves.