Background: I have been training for Ironman Coeur d'Alene and have been racking up quite a few hours training. I have really enjoyed the process, but the race is now three weeks away and I needed a reminder that triathlons are for fun and aren't supposed to be work. So I decided on a whim to do a race day Sign up for the 20th anniversary Eastern Washington University sprint distance triathlon called the Iron Eagle Triathlon (that is a mouthful).

Weather: 65 degrees, pouring rain
500 meter swim (pool), 10 mile bike, 3.1 mile run
June 1st, 2008.

As I said I am training through this race so I did an 80 mile ride and a 4 mile run a day earlier. I woke up at 5am and left the house to get to the college by 7:30am, plenty of time to spare for the 9am start. I went with my friend Joe and my dad. We signed up for the race and found out that they had a record turnout of a 130 people which was kinda funny to me that they considered that big. The transition zone was in the fieldhouse which is like an indoor track facility, and I quickly realized how unorganized this triathlon was. There were no bike racks and people were just leaning their bikes up against the wall or on the ground. I had no intention of lying my bike down and all the good spots on the wall were taken so I took one of the hurdles and propped my bike on it right near the opening to the bike mount area outside. No one could tell me where the course went exactly, but I just tried to relax and remind myself that this was for fun.

Swim: The swim had somewhere around 10 heats and apparently people were placed in heats based on their estimated swim time. People who signed up the day of the race were randomly assigned a heat. I was placed in the third heat that started at 9:25am and I quickly realized that I luckily was placed in the fastest heat. Why they had two slower heats in front of us I don't know, but it definitely made for an interesting bike ride. I was in a lane with two other girls one was a swimmer from the college and the other was 15 and doing her first triathlon. Apparently she misunderstood the distance of the swim thus caused her estimation to be 3 times faster than she actually swam. So let's just say that made for an interesting swim. The whistle blew and I led our pack of three to the first wall. After about 70 meters I passed the 15 year old girl for the first time of many. I had many close calls weaving in and out of the two girls, often the college girl going one direction and the 15 year old and I going the other. It made for a challenging situation, but I understand races like this is where many people get their start. Heck, two years ago that 15 year old would have been lapping me and my efficient doggy paddle. So I got out of the water and figured I was about 5th overall at this point. I ran on the carpet mats about two hundred yards to the field house and saw that three of the four people that beat me on the swim were still in transition.

Bike: It took me about a quarter mile to pass the group of three (two guys and one girl) and my eyes were searching for whoever was in first place. We turned onto a highway at about mile three and I saw the leader up in the distance. I closed the gap to about 10 seconds by the turnaround, but I lost some time braking gently in the pouring rain. I never regained the time I lost and saw him stay about 25 seconds ahead the entire way back. This whole time my assumption was that he was leader, but I wasn't completely sure knowing that there could be some random fast dude in a later heat, but I was pretty confident it was going to come down to the myself and the guy in front of me. I came into T2 like a wet dog and I heard people make comments that I never dried off from the swim.

Run: I took off from the field house in the wrong direction because the course was marked with chalk, and as I mentioned earlier it was slightly raining. After realizing my mistake I ran through foot deep mud for 15 feet or so and then was back on course. I was now somewhere around 45 seconds behind. By the turnaround I had closed the gap to only a few seconds, but it seemed as though this guy had eyes in the back of his head. Every time I picked up my cadence he seemed to do the same and couldn't close the gap. The final 100 meters was total mud and any ideas of a sprint finish faded away when I thought about how dumb it would be to risk a sprint in the mud exactly three weeks before my first ironman. Nightmares of ankle bones in the wrong places kept me content with 2nd overall in 56:00, six seconds back and an age group win (I think). Official results wont be out until tomorrow. I told you this race was kinda disorganized. Any race medals and awards are mailed to the winners.

So it was a messy, confusing, challenging, and a great time that I had today. It was like what I've read about doing a triathlon in the old days where everything was somewhat by the seat of your pants and unpredictable. It was great to see some familiar faces and meet new people that joined the triathlon family. Only three weeks until Ironman Coeur d'Alene!!!