Pre-race: I live in beautiful Coeur d'Alene. 6 years ago when Ironman started here I couldn't have told you what the distances were. I had watched the world championships on tv the year prior and couldn't understand why they moved Ironman to CDA. Then someone told me there were many more ironman events than Kona. The next year I went to watch part of the run, my only interest being that I thought is was a possibility to get on ESPN. I found out the official distances and I told my newly married wife that I thought I could do the race. As a supportive new wife what else could she say but, "I'm sure you could babe". If she could've only known then how much that made me believe I could do it. My next thought was how I could get a bike. We have volunteered every year since and I got my first bike almost exactly 2 years ago. So in a way I have been looking forward to this race for 5 years. I have done 10 smaller races in 2 years and have been training solely for ironman since november. In the meantime I have become obsessed with the sport of triathlon and it has transformed my life.

My taper went well leading into the race. After a week of feeling lethargic, I became increasingly sore, but I was assured that this was normal by many people who have done a two week taper. By thursday I was starting to feel like the taper was really working and I was raring to go. I was able to meet Vince aka (tsilcyc) on thursday at registration. The night before the race there was a huge storm which made it difficult to sleep and I think I got up to pee around 27 times. I also checked trifuel at about 1:30 am to take my mind off the race (bad idea). I set 3 alarms to make sure that I wouldn't sleep in and I woke up at 3:45AM with about 4 hours of broken up sleep. Not bad considering it was my first ironman. I took a shower, ate my my magical homemade pre-race pancakes with peanut butter and my wife and I arrived at the race site at 5:15AM.

Set-up went smooth and it was great to see all the familiar hometown faces getting ready to race. I was unbelievably excited and at 6:35AM I went down to warmup in the balmy 59.5 degree water. (You mention the .5 degree when it is under 60 degrees) :).

Swim: I started in the front of the pack knowing that I would get passed by about 25% of the field, but I wanted to fully experience the mass swim start. There is nothing like an adrenaline boost like battling for position early on in the swim. It was so much fun in all of the turmoil (I know I am wierd). I got around the first turn buoy with no major problems until in a about a thirty second span I got kicked in the groin so hard that it made me dizzy and then a sheriff on a jet ski ran me over trying to help someone that was wanting to be pulled out of the race. Luckily he ran over my back and not my head. I quickly forced myself to re-focus and set my sights on the shore. The second loop went a little better and I came out of the water feeling like I hadn't even done anything yet. Not exactly the time I was hoping for, but I was happy with how energized I felt coming out of the water.
Swim time: 1:12:34
T1: I went through transition like a highly caffeinated yet focused 8 year old and managed to get everything off that was supposed to come off and everything on that was suppose to go on in a scorching 2:58. I think I passed 75 people in transition.
Bike: I clipped in and looked at my heart rate and realized I was a bit above my intended heart rate for the race at a mere 90% of my max. Within five minutes I got it down to where it needed to be and blamed it on the sight of my family and so many screaming spectators. Going through the middle of town is a blast. I was flying past people on the flat roads and was feeling awesome. Through the first 34 miles I was averaging 21+ mph and I was so excited because that included the real hilly part of the course. I normally average in 20+ during training so I felt really good. I knew the flat section was coming up and hoped to speed up even more. As soon as I turned onto the first flat road I hit a pretty good head wind and wasn't comfortable going above my planned heart rate and so I was only going around 19mph the whole way back to town. I just kept telling myself everyone else was battling the same thing and I needed to stay within myself and the most important thing was to be patient and pass people late in the bike portion. I got to the halfway mark feeling good and headed out for the second loop. I began to pass a good amount of people and felt my pacing went pretty close to plan. I was not able to negative split, but I felt strong until about the last 5 miles. I would've traded my bike for a hamburger at this point in the ride and couldn't wait to get off and straighten out my back. Overall a pretty solid ride.
Bike Time: 5:33:15
T2: I came into transition 2 like a highly caffeinated unfocused 8 year old and like an idiot didn't put socks on. I never wear socks in short races, but I had them in my transition bag for this race. I just forgot to put them on. My time was 1:18, but this was my big ironman rookie mistake which cost me a lot of time on the run.

Run: My original plan was to run out the marathon and to average 8:30 minute miles throughout. If I started to slow significantly, I decided I would walk the aid stations for 1 minute then run a little faster when I was actually running. This worked pretty well until I began to form massive blisters on my toes on both feet. By mile 8 I was in a good amount of pain and began to slow the pace a little. Somehow I managed to run the first 13.1 in about 1:50, but I knew things would not hold up considering my left foot especially was starting to really bother me. I began a back and forth argument with myself and after a lot of coaxing I finally agreed with myself (sounds strange I know) and began to walk for 2 minutes at each at station for about five miles. Then I got mad at myself for listening to myself and was also motivated by someone in my age group who passed me. For three miles I ran a 7:45 pace to "make up lost time" and at mile 21-22 I realized I had made my second ironman rookie mistake which is DONT EVER TRY TO MAKE UP LOST TIME!!! I walked for a good three minutes through the next aid station and kept telling both my left foot and myself to shut up about being tired and sore. I began to think about Mike Reilly yelling my name at the finish line and my friends and family waiting for me. I again started to run and the last mile was one of the most exciting things of my life. I passed my entire support group going crazy and I felt like I was floating. I really soaked it up high fived the crowd and came through the finish line and decided since there were finish line catchers that I might as well let them catch me. My uncle was one of the volunteers who caught me and it was one of he greatest moments of my life.
Run Time 4:18:58
Total Time 11:09:02
I looked down at my left shoe to see that my green shoe was completely red. I was bleeding pretty bad. Today as I type this I am icing my foot and I am getting an x-ray tomorrow. I had it looked at today at it sounds like it is likely that I have fractured something because the swelling will not go down. It was quite a day. Unbelievably I am signed up for next year. I am definitely looking forward to a little recovery, but I have a lot of shorter races that I am looking forward to this year. The racing season has just begun! Thanks to all my family and friends. Especially my amazingly supportive wife and son. Thanks to all you trifuelers out there who have supported me and gave me advice through this process, I couldn't have done it without all the support!