Ironman Coeur d'Alene Race Report
Background:
This was my first Ironman although I have done several 70.3’s and Olympics. I have only been with EN since April 30th so I had not had the benefit of an out season or a proper ramp up. I trained with the Joe Friel plan all winter, lots of volume early. I found EN because I was tired of being tired and broken. My first experience with a “team” was the race rehearsal on the Coeur d’Alene course 6 weeks ago. I knew I was in for the duration after meeting some of the IMCDA group. I had a good lead-in to the race as far as training went. Made all the workouts and hit most of my paces. I had 3 potential goals for this race…A) 4:00:00 marathon, if that didn’t happen then B)a sub 12:00:00 finish and if I failed on that one my last goal was C) a 12:36:00 final. This was the PR of a friend of mine that I wanted to beat.
Pre-Race:
We arrived in CDA on Thursday evening and drove the run course just to see if anything had changed since I was there 6 weeks prior. Friday morning most of the team met at the lake for a practice swim and to hopefully get used to the water temp. The wind was 15-20mph and there were white caps on the lake. Along with the cold it was a very uncomfortable swim. I knew that although it would affect my swim split the cold and rough water would favor me in the race because I am a larger person. (6’ & 190#) We got in around a mile swim and then we all went our separate ways to get any pre-race admin things done. I didn’t run or bike at all Thursday through Saturday. I didn’t feel like I needed it and knew that it wasn’t going to make me any faster on race day, I only stood to possible hurt something or break something on my bike. So my family and I just went into chill mode, when we weren’t doing admin things. Our hotel was up in Hayden so I was safely away from the buzz of Ironman Village. Made the 4 Keys talk on Saturday which actually changed some of my nutrition focus for race day. Rich spoke about making sure you don’t over eat and that rarely is a nutritional problem due to under eating. I am usually a smorgasbord rider. I take half the kitchen with me on my long rides and usually had some kind of energy or GI problems. I always thought it was because I didn’t eat enough. But after the 4 Keys talk I decided to trust my Infinit 3 hour bottles and just take water at the course aid stations. I had 4 GU’s tape to my bike in case I needed them.
Race Day:
I was up at 4:00am to shower and eat breakfast which consisted of a banana , 2 Greek yogurts and a cup of Green Tea. Got the family up and we drove down to Ironman Village. Body marking went perfectly smooth, took about 1 minute. Dropped off my special needs bags and got my bike ready for the day. The crowds were enormous and made getting around the swim start almost impossible. I finally made my way to the beach with my wetsuit on and started to adjust myself to the cold water. I have never done a beach start and never done a start with more than 300 people. This was a beach start with 2600 people. The gun went off and it was pandemonium, the first 5 minutes I didn’t even put my face in the water, just head high crawl to get out of the fray. The first lap was a hockey match in the water! I got my goggles knocked off, kicked in the gut and got the wind knock out, got swam over 20 times and swam over 100 more. The worst part of the first lap is my Garmin 310XT got ripped off my arm and sunk. I saw it sink away but was afraid if I went after it I would be drowned by the mass of people coming up behind me. The first lap finished in 35 minutes, about 3 minutes slower than expected, but you couldn’t “swim” for the first lap it was purely defensive swimming. On the second lap I swam wide to get some clear water, I was about 30 yards out from the buoy line and finally was able to swim my swim. It was actually a very pleasant swim until I made it to the turns, then back to the outside for clear water. The time I lost looking for clear water was worth the time expense, because the energy I would have had to expend to fight on the buoy line would have been costly later in the day. Finished the swim in 1:15, about 5 minutes slower than expectations.
T1 went smooth, this was my first experience with wetsuit strippers. My feet were pretty numb and my hands didn’t want to work but not unexpected. T1 time: 6:4X (expected 5:00)
The bike started out good, I thought I was holding to my power gears correctly. Maybe going a bit harder than I wanted. During the 4 Keys talk Rich said to be wary of the first 25 miles average pace. By the time I hit the hills I was warmed up and feeling good. I saw Rich at English Point and he reminded me that they were NOT giving away cheeseburgers at the top of the hill, so don’t hurry. Good advice, that became my mantra for the rest of the ride. Every time I came to a hill I would say, “No Cheeseburgers”. Coming back from the first loop of the ride I met up with Michael Smith (stud #1) and told of my experiences in the swim loosing my Garmin and now not having pace on the run. So he handed me his wristwatch so I could at least have a chrono from mile to mile. (he got a beer out of that!) Finished the first loop in 3:03 (12 minutes faster than expected) Right on my power numbers; IF- .66 and NP of 196. And still felt very strong. Hit the special needs and only took my 2nd Infinit 3 hour bottle (left the smorgasbord for the volunteers). Headed for the hills again, by now I am feeling the toll of the 80 miles that I have put in. I was starting to have problems keeping to my 2nd gear power readings and was consistently 5% off the rest of the ride. Having looked at my ride on WKO+ I can see that I went out a little too hard and had a steady decrease in power over the course of the ride. Not too serious but it is noticeable. This is something that I will keep in mind for IMAZ. Finished the ride with about a swallow of Infinit left and all four Gu’s. Ended up drinking about 120 oz’s of water over the course of the ride with one potty break. Man it felt good to just stand there and pee, and felt fully refreshed after having stopped for just 45 seconds. Ride time 6:03 (27 minutes faster than expected)
The run started out with a whimper. I was barely able to walk from bike dismount to the changing tent. My achilles and right hamstring were very sore for the last 20 miles of the bike. (will be checking bike fit immediately) The sore leg wouldn't hamper my run but it was there the whole time. Since I didn’t have my Garmin I couldn't be exact on my pacing, but I got to the first mile marker and it was 9:10. PERFECT! Just had to keep this pace. I walked to last few steps of every aid station to get the proper water and perform in me. (I had no solid food the entire day) I caught up to Michael S. out on CDA Lake Rd and had a nice conversation with Hayley Cooper-Smith, the third place female, for about a quarter mile. After that she decided she need to stop wasting time with an old age grouper like me and took off to find her place on the podium. My pace was starting to drop off as the heat was climbing and the miles ticked by. I was slowing to a 10:00 mile pace. Knowing that a 4 hour marathon was not in me I started to focus on a 12 hour IM. I had to make it back by 7:00pm for that to happen. Made it through the downtown mojo on the first lap and through special needs where I picked some salt tabs and a motrin to help calm down my hamstring and Achilles, washed them down with some hot coca-cola and pushed on. Still had a 10:00 pace going until the turn around at mile 19’ish. About a 1000 feet after the turn around I saw Gilberto heading down to the turn and vowed to hold him off as long as possible. (he is a great runner!) At mile 20 I found my gears I had been looking for the past 14 miles. Started to click off 7:30’ish miles for the next 4 miles, until I felt the wheels coming off, so slowed down to a manageable pace that would get me home. The watch Michael gave me was now set to the time of the day and I knew that I needed to get to the finish before 7:00 and it was 6:52 with 2 miles to go. Well looks like it was plan C for me. I pushed on at a manageable pace until the library where Gilberto over took me. As I turned to go down Sherman drive I could see 7 blocks of people cheering for the 5 or 6 runners make the final stretch of this Ironman challenge. Thousands of people were yelling for us and giving us that last punch to finish hard. I high fived Peter, his wife and coach Rich as I ran down Sherman and my wife ran from the crowd as I approached the last couple blocks. Kissed her and made the final stretch. I had spoken to Mike Riley earlier that day, telling him that this was my first IM and I wasn’t crossing the finish line until he called my name. He said count on it and gave me a fist bump! Well he remembered me and made good on his promise, he started his trademark finish call when I entered the first arch and didn’t finish until I hit the finish line. AND DOING HIS FIRST IRONMAN AT THE AGE OF 45 FINISHING IN UNDER 12 HOURS, FROM PUYALLUP WASHINGTON, STEVE SWANLUND. YOU. ARE. AN. IRONMAN!!!!!!!!!
Oh yea, the watch that Michael let me use was 12 minutes fast……
Final Time: 11:57:45
Look for my bike info on the crucible, if I can figure out how to email it to P
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Comments
It was great to meet you at RR #1 and to interact in the forums. I look forward to doing Lake Stevens 70.3 in August with you as our team captain.
steve:
excellent job. you were definitely moving faster near the end, since i saw no sign of you until that very last climb up to the library! i was pretty consistent on that second loop, so either you had stopped at the wenches pirate station for some booty or you had picked up the pace!!!!
great race.
gh
@Chris- I had a GREAT first IM. I can say that I had the time of my life the whole day. Don't worry about the Garmin, wifee has already ordered me a new one. As far as the Hamstring and achilles pain, I didn't have any of those symptoms on either of my RR's. I am thinking possibly a pedal issue or maybe need to tweak my cleats. I have a top notch fitter that I am going to see today to get his opinion. It WILL be fixed before IMAZ.
@Gilberto- I vowed at the turn around that I was going to hold you off as long as possible but start to run out of steam with 2 miles to go. I think you would have caught me even if I had gone strong to the end, you're quite the runner. BTW I thought about the wenches!
@Scott- I am jazzed that you are in for LS 70.3. I have a great dinner location and cool after-race place picked out.
Steve, such a super first IM. If this is what you do with only 8 weeks of EN mojo, I can't wait for the result in Tempe.
Went to see my bike fitter today and he thinks the saddle should be dropped a quarter of inch. So we'll see on my RR in October if that fixes it. The pain didn't start untl about mile 100 and I have HIm training until September.
FWIW, wifee may be able to return the new 310XT. Call Garmin and explain what happened - lots of anecdotal evidence to suggest they'll send you a new one free or at least a lot cheaper than retail.
Hey Steve,
Great race and great meeting you and your wife this weekend! Nice to see you're jumping right into Lake Stevens and have picked up the Race Captain ball as well. Thanks!
Cheesburgers: I like to stand on big hills and watch people attack them like their giving away cheeseburgers or Benjamins at the top...then see those same people with exactly the opposite sense of urgency on the run. The comparison is pretty remarkable after you been to many races and seen it many, many times.
I also try to entertain the athletes now and then, I know I appreciate it when someone makes me laugh. I tell old doodes and gals they look way to good to be 5x or 6x and I want to see some ID. Or I'll put on a baseball game food vendors voice and hawk hotdogs, ice cold beer and fresh legs for $1000
Best of luck in hammering Lake Stevens and Arizona. It was great to meet you.