Ironman Coeur d’Alene, recap – aborted mission.
Monday, June 28th, 2010Well, I just got back from my trip to Idaho, at Ironman Coeur d’Alene. To make a long story short, my sole goal to race it was to attain a qualifying sport for Kona. The funny thing about racing these Ironman races are the following: a) you can’t fake your preparation, which needs to be backed up by weeks of consistent training/loading, and b) the race gives you what you deserve.
My race synopsis:
The swim was remarkably easy,..I was in the second large pack, and felt like we were more floating and flopping around than swimming – I can’t complain however, as I was not willing to jump to the front of the group and do more work.
My bike fitness recently has shown some decent capacity to go fast over the short haul,..but clearly displayed in the race, that I wasn’t prepared for the distance yet,…showing that I simply didn’t have enough miles under my belt. What pace felt like lolligagging on the first loop of the bike, ended up being a pace that I wasn’t able to sustain later into the ride. Evidently, this displayed the clear message that I simply wasn’t fit enough. As an aside, there were tonnes of age-groupers all over the road during our second loop – a course marshal ended up giving me a penalty for passing an age-grouper on the right (i felt that he should have cut me some slack, as I felt it was the safest way to pass this particular individual – after my penalty, I started calling out to at anyone on the center-line, to move to the right, so I could pass without getting another one of those stupid penalties).
Onto the run, it appeared as though I was considerably off pace from a top 4 finish (which is what I needed to finish in order to gain a spot – as Andy Potts already had a spot). I stayed positive however, and knew that anything could happen, and simply held a comfortable, steady pace for 1/2 the marathon, and reassessed my position and chances based on how the race was playing out. Quite uneventfully, when I got back to transition (start of lap 2), I decided to call it a day, as I would have cost me too much, all for approximately a 9th or 10th place,..which would have only equated to ‘no Kona spot’, and a few weeks of compromised training while recovering from the effort. I cannot help but feel disappointed in my performance, but certainly the result is what I deserved. There’s no self pity from me. I’m however secure in knowing that my energy reserves have not been tapped out this season, July/August will now be dedicated to bettering my preparation for Ironman Canada.
As an aside, someone who was on his bike, heading into his second lap of the bike, while I was at the 5km mark on my run, said something that had an impact on me,…he said, “Boy!! Do I ever wish I was in your shoes!” Instantly, I was overcome by a feeling of gratitude that I was able to do what I was doing, while doing it relatively well, which took the edge off the feeling of effort or pain I was experiencing, and it gave me energy,…which was really nice. I think his number was 132,…thank you 132, or whoever you are, that was a good thing to say to me.
I came across this photo from race day,…this lady came out to clean up the road in front of her house at 4:30am so that the bikes had a clear path. This reflects the spirit behind these races:
