Ironman CDA is one for the books

After 20 weeks of training, it came down to one 17-hour day (or in my case, a 14h 19m day). This race was great. Coeur d'Alene is such a great venue. The people were great, the town was great, the event was great. It was very spectator friendly, as Jen already stated. We are looking forward to returning to it in 2010 (since 2009 will have us out of the country on vacation).

After all the speculation of the cold water, it ended up being about 59 degrees at race start...completely bearable. In fact, on the second lap, I was actually getting warm during the swim. the water was a bit rough but I did not have combat issues that always surrounds an Ironman swim start. 2400 triathletes in what I call "a flabby arm spanking machine." 75 min. split was equal to what I had in IMAZ, but given the cold and rough water, I did not mind at all.

After the swim, the next 112 miles took place on the bike. Definitely broken up into 3 parts: an out-n-back along the lake border, then a flat part through town and a series of tough rolling hills on the back portion of the course before heading back into town to do it all over again. I was very pleased with the bike. This was the first time I rode a long race on my new bike. Plenty of hours training on it, but not long racing hours. Much more comfortable than my bike in Arizona in 2007. I ended up with a riding time of 6h 30m. Sweet time for a hilly, windy course (yes 20 mph winds for a while). Overall, the bike split was 6h 50m. This included 3 stops for the call of nature and stretching.

Then came the dreaded marathon afterwards. Always a favorite of mine. I had some minor GI issues early on and I could not figure out why until recently. The swim and bike did not suffer any problems but with the mix and blends of fluids, it ended causing a little havoc on the system. Strictly speaking, all I need is water, calories, and sodium. Mixing drinks in training is one thing but racing is a whole other story. For the most part, I walked it off for the first few miles and then got things going. Ran the last half better than the first half, which was good. In the end, I posted a 74-minute improvement over my IM Arizona time. I was ecstatic.

I am excited for my time off and looking forward to some minor training maintenance over the next 5-6 weeks while my body fully recovers. I am not sore in the slightest and any soreness I had only lasted a day or two. Heck, I drove another 20 hours and 1100 miles afterwards. And less than 24 hours after I got home, I drove to LA to catch a flight to Nashville, TN for a 4-day conference. Now that is an Ironman!!! We will keep you posted as to the progress towards Ironman Arizona on November 23.

Bend, OR

8 hours in the car. Not much happened... I slept... Corey drove.... we saw a lot of teeeeeeny little towns. Mt. Hood is pretty, and so is Mt. Bachelor. I will have to connect my camera later to put in the pictures we took along the road :o)

Bend is a nice place to lay our heads. I don't plan on spending time here, though. Lots of hoity toities, it seems. Corey said that this is a big resort town. Skiing here is like going to Mammoth, CA. No wonder why the upscale restaurant that we were at had ski lift chairs in place of front porch swings!

Looking forward to seeing Mike and Jeanette tomorrow. Shasta county took quite a hammering from lightening last week. As a result, there are around 400 fires in the whole county, and over 100 in Redding alone! It will be nice to see be reassured that their Shingletown home is from the fire. It will also be nice to see how Mike is recovering from his back surgery, too.

Can't wait to get home to our son, though. We miss him lots!

Ironman Spectator Checklist

Hello! In case anyone is searching for a checklist, I thought I could help out :o) Plus, this will help me review what I've done to prepare myself for tomorrow.

- Camelbak with at least 2 liters of water
- Two Nuun tablets in the Camelbak for electrolyte replenishment. This will save me from dehydration headaches!
- camera with freshly charged battery
- cell phone freshly charged as well, so that family can call for updates (or for people to take photos to post on the Ironman website)
- fully charged ipod
- book
- portable chair
- hat
- sunscreen
- UPF long sleeve shirt and pants
- rain jacket and umbrella to keep in the car, just in case
- binoculars
- toilet paper
- hand sanitizer
- my distinctive cheering horn: my Second Amendment Sports duck call!
- my sign for waving around, when Corey comes into view --very effective in conjunction with the duck call ;o) Be sure your sign text and art are in high contrast with your background. Otherwise, two light colors or two dark colors will render your message illegible.
- cash for lunch and snacks --this will be a long day!

I think that's all... I'll add to the list as I refine my experience as an "endurance spectator!" haha!

Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2008--part 2

Well, here we are. After 20 weeks of training, we have made it to the big day. T-minus 10 hours and counting. Long rides, long runs, long swims, long weeks and it comes down to a mere 12-13 hours of racing. Water temperature went up to a warm 57 degrees (up from 47). Weather should be around 75 degrees and partly cloudy. Bike course is a bit hilly and a little challenging but certainly nothing I can't handle. 90% of the run is along the lake shore. Makes for a great day. The swim will be a challenge at first with 2400 triathletes entering the water all at the same time and battling with the cold water. My goal is to finish under 13 hours--an enormous 2.5 hours faster than my first Ironman. Actually I would be excited with a sub-14 hour since it is still an improvement.

Jen has been a huge support and a great inspiration throughout the process. She loves the venue and the excitement that surrounds the days leading up to the race. She missed Ironman Arizona festivities due to work. We have met tons of wonderful and polite people in the community and throughout the Ironman athletes. Here are some cool stats: 2400 starters, 889 are Ironman virgins (their first Ironman race), 35-39 mens' age group is the largest (my group), 40-44 is the second largest, 79% are men, 21% are women, the youngest is 18 and the oldest man is 73 and the oldest woman is 64 (and it is her first Ironman), California represents the largest group from a state (only 2 from Bakersfield), 2 guys lost 86 pounds training for the event, 3500 volunteers, and population of Coeur d'Alene is 34000.

Hard to believe that in 6 weeks from my finishing this race I begin training for Ironman Arizona on November 23 (5 months away). Okay you can say, "are you nuts?" It is an addiction and an awesome challenge--2 in 1 year. If I plan on making it to Ironman Kona (Hawaii), I would have to do 2 in 1 year anyway. WooHoo... Keep you posted.

Coeur D' Alene, ID day 3

Corey went swimming again. Today's swim was better than yesterday's. We suppose that it is because he knew what to expect. After a 1/2 hr bike ride, he did a little test run in his shoes. He's ready. He's confident :o)

We met a really nice couple from... I don't know. They're from the eastern US, but they don't have any accents or attitudes... I'm not sure where they are from. Anyhow, the husband is the cheering section for his wife, Christy. She is doing her first Ironman tomorrow. The hubby has trained with her this whole time, and he actually swam the swim course and the biked the bike course! He could have done this event! He'll probably do an Ironman in a few years with Christy, though. They've got some priorities superceding their athletic aspirations. Very admirable :o) Anyhow, they were totally cool, and they invited me to come hang out with them at their rental house on the bike course! I can watch Corey pass by 4 times, without dealing with the crowds at the "hot corner." I've been so impressed with the triathlon crowd. Everyone is so friendly and helpful and encouraging with each other!

After the practice, we went to go find the 4H bunny clinic. Alas, I think the clinic moved dates. The fairgrounds was desolate! Oh well. We found quick consolation in lunch and a nap, with plans to go to a movie later :o)

We watched "The Happening." Good movie, if you're into thinking about what you see. It's M. Night Shamylan, so it's going to be weird, but have a theme to it. It isn't as exciting as the others, but I still liked it. I can sum up every M. Night Shamylan movie I've seen: Something huge and weird shocks the main characters (and audience, ideally) into realizing that love for each other is the most important thing in life. But the manifestations of this theme is always interesting and a bit shocking.

Pre-race dinner: the traditional Chili's mixed fajitas. They haven't let Corey down, yet! Not too heavy with lots of protein, and some carbs and fat from the tortillas and cheese :o)

We were out of dinner by 5:30, and were ready for bed for some reason. Maybe it was the crazy change in weather. We walked into the movie with blue skies overhead, but came out an hour and a half later to wind and light rain! The weather seems to change by the hour around here. ANYHOW, we went to Boarders to play cards and drink some mocha lattes, just to pass time.

Now we're at the hotel. Seinfeld is playing, I'm charging batteries on my phone and my camera, and Corey is mixing all of his race beverages. Wish Corey and good night's sleep! He didn't sleep so well last night, and the night before the race is almost always a bust :o( He'll do well either way, but I at least want him to not-start-out feeling sleepy!

Coeur D' Alene, ID day 2

Corey went swimming in the lake, to see how bearable the water is. It was 57 degrees, but what does that mean for him on a practical level? I'll put a video in this post. I "interviewed" Corey for his experience....
( ...sorry for the George Costanza references. It's more of my geekery... I really need to get into that Final Cut video editing program!)

After the swim, we went to the tent to make signs for posting along the trail and for me to carry and wave around. I am totally happy with that, since I missed out on all the spectator things for last year's Tempe Ironman. We also stopped by the booth that allows you to post a giant electronic message to your athlete. It's pretty neat: the chip on Corey's ankle will cue the sign on his approach, and the message I wrote to him will come up for him to read!

Then we drove the bike path. HOLY COW! At first, I thought, "oh, this doesn't look TOO bad." But then, we went out into the more country-ish part of the ride --lots of steep uphills (and downhills, thankfully). I got tired just LOOKING at the route. However, Corey has ridden Round Mountain Road several times, and that road is steeper and way longer than any of those hills, so I'm confident that he'll kick butt!

The rest of the day was just... relaxed. We stopped in at Sportsman's Warehouse. Never been there before. Had a great time talking with two of the sales guys. They were totally helpful and enthusiastic about shooting sports. I had Corey look at the FN 57... I think he wants one :o) If you'd like to check it out on Wikipedia, since FN does not have this gun on its site, the link is ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_Five-seveN It was nice to be the customer making inquiries, versus the employee asking for tidbits of info here and there between customers ;o)

We went to the athletes' dinner. Cool! Two guys both lost 86 pounds training for the event! They got prizes. And every Ironman event also includes a Ford Ironman Everyday Hero. Neat stuff. Very special.

And now we are winding down for the night. We are so excited to have a DVD player in our room, so that we don't have to set up the laptop to play our Simpsons and Seinfeld episodes ;o)

Coeur D' Alene, ID

Seven hours in the car. What else can I say --esp. since I was asleep for a lot of it!!!!

Beautiful town. The GPS went a little wild on us. Pretty funny stuff. There are roads underneath the highway, so our TomTom was giving some pretty crazy directions. Went to the Athletes' Villiage to register Corey and all... nice venue! Definitely more pleasant than Tempe.

Our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express in Hayden, is pretty cool. It's attached to a funplex kinda place. Bowling, water park with 3 slides and a wavepool, arcade games, and mini golf. Corey and I are now tied in air hockey. We still have some tokens left, so we need to have a tie-breaking match :o)

Went to Olive Garden for dinner. The locals are extremely supportive of the Ironman event! It's neat to hear. We were worried that they'd all hate the triathletes , for closing the roads on the 22nd :o)

Mammoth Hotsprings, WY

Today started with a second attempt at fishing, then a hike through a series of Geysers, down by Old Faithful, and then we ended up in the northwest corner of the park: Mammoth Hotsprings.

Well, the lake was beautiful at 8 am! --like glass! Went to a less-rocky stretch and fished for two hours. I didn't catch anything, but I didn't feel so bad, 'cause two guys on a boat and then two guys down the beach didn't catch anything, either ;o)

Next, we went down to Old Faithful, to catch the Geyser trail. The trail was very easy, very fascinating, and sometimes STINKY! IN fact, one little girl next to me made me laugh. She said, "It smells like... salt. No, it smells like SNAILS!" hahaha! I had no idea snails smelled like rotten eggs. Anyway, the geothermal formations were just awesome! I'll attach some pics. Those multi-colors you see in the pools... those are a result of minerals and microscopic animals! I can't believe there are things living in near-boiling temperatures. We agreed that our favorite geyser (which we didn't see gush) was The Grotto. After walking through the other geysers, Old Faithful was about as spectacular as run-over a fire hydrant!

After the geysers, we headed to Mammoth. Cuter area. We hiked up a boardwalk trail around a place called Hera's... something or another. Nice hike. Got some hills and stairs in the thing. The stuff was pretty and interesting and all that, but not as fascinating as the Tetons or the geysers.

We really liked where we stayed. We stayed in a cabin at the Mammoth Hotsprings Hotel. The cabin was cozy and had all we needed for sleeping and showering and such. PLUS... we got to pull right up next to the cabin to unload the car! We didn't have to navigate stairs or long hallways and such, when bringing Corey's bike in :o) Ah.. a link... I don't know if that hotel has it's own domain or not, but this will get you some info.... http://www.travelyellowstone.com/mammoth-hot-springs-hotel-cabins-95.html

Yellowstone Lake Area

Today was a fun day!!!
As we were driving to our first hike, we had some buffalo hanging out next to the road. Corey did some fancy driving, and we ended up taking some pictures and a short video of the buffalo running just a couple of yards next to the Element! Funny stuff.
We drove to a trailhead called the Artist’s Viewpoint. Along the trail were two waterfalls: Upper Yellowstone and Lower Yellowstone. The river winded through what is known as the Yellowstone version of the Grand Canyon. Breathtaking. That’s all I can say.
The trail was pretty “breathtaking,” too! The 8,000 ft elevation left me sucking wind at intervals :o)
Actually, we’re not really sure which exact point was the Artist’s View. The sign read that we needed to hike in a little over a mile, but we hiked in about two and a half! But whatever.. . it was all good stuff.
After our hike, we were quite hungry and tired. We ate and took naps. I guess that’s what happens, when you are no longer 20 ;o)
Corey took me to Yellowstone Lake to fish for Cutthroat! The first spot was ridiculous. The wind was blowing white caps all over the place, and my line was NOT handling that well at all. So, we moved to a more sheltered area. I was totally ecstatic to catch a Cutthroat! He was only a footlong, but he was MINE! I didn’t get a picture WITH it, so to say. I’ll show you… my hand is in the corner of the pic, and my fish is wriggling away at the opposite corner. I didn’t communicate to Corey that I have to keep the fish in the water. He was expecting me to pull it out, like a bass, and I couldn’t hold on to my fish much longer. To Corey’s credit, he clicked a pic of my guy as he swam away! Hahaha! As and aside… I kind of like barbless fishing! It’s less work to get the hook out of the fish! I’ve had some messy episodes in the pass, up on the Kern :o(
After fishing, we ate at the Yellowstone Lodge. That Lodge is so much cuter and has less people than the hotel! We recommend staying THERE instead of the hotel.
Wrapped up the night with some Canasta and Seinfeld episodes :o)

To Yellowstone

We were very sad that we were only spending the night in Jackson Hole! Corey and I made the most of it, though, by getting up early to maximize our gawking time :o) Corey went for a chilly bike ride up to Moose, and I just wandered around the town.
After breakfast, we checked out of our adorable B&B, and meandered towards Yellowstone. We made brief stops for photos and teeny walks to vistas.
Between the Tetons and Yellowstone, there were miles of deciduous forest and big valleys. Some had wildlife, and some didn’t, but it was all beautiful.
Before we got to our hotel, we got a chance to see Old Faithful. Well, Old Faithful wasn’t on the way… it was more of an “improvised and unintended route,” you may say ;o) We were very lucky to arrive when we did. We only waited for 15 or 20 minutes for the geyser to erupt, while other people have been waiting for 90 minutes. It was really cool the first time. Now we can check Old Faithful off of our bucket list!
When the big show was over, we got in the car and headed back to Yellowstone Lake, where we needed to be. Our hotel at Yellowstone Lake was unremarkable, but it was a place to shower and get two good night’s rest.
We had a great dinner downstairs in the dining room of our hotel! After dinner, we just read our books and went to bed. Oh yeah, and I squished the barbs on my tackle and re-spooled my reel for fishing. Tomorrow will be the day to hit it hard!

Jackson Hole, WY

We left Vernal, Utah, today, to head for Jackson Hole, Wyoming! As we neared Jackson Hole, the pretty mineral-colored cliffs of Utah transitioned into some wiiiiidde open green terrain! We loved it! The sky was enormous and deep blue. We saw lots of Pronghorn, too! Couldn’t miss those white butts in the middle of sage and green undergrowth!
When we caught site of the Rockies, we were blown away. Boy, we didn’t know what was waiting for us in the Tetons ;o)
Jackson Hole is the cutest town! Lots of specialty shops, and almost no chain stores at all. I was very happy to see that. We pretty much just made it to our bed and Breakfast, the Alpine House, and dinner. Our desk clerk, JD, was very good at recommending a place to eat, as well as which local specialty entrees and desserts the restaurant served. He made us reservations as we settled in and freshened up, and then we were off to the Blue Lion!
Corey had the NY strip with peppercorn, and I ordered the Thai Linguine with Shrimp. Corey had the better dinner, but the linguine was still terrific! We decided to pass on the signature lamb dish –we aren’t been fans of mutton. However, we DID go for the dessert that JD mentioned, and it was TASTY! We got the Russian Crème with raspberries. Light and yummy: that’s how we like it!

And then…. We read for a little while in the cozy little parlor, and then went to bed.

P.S. if you want to check out the Alpine House, here's the link: http://www.alpinehouse.com/

Vernal UT

Hello! Not much. More driving. We took a beautiful scenic route, though! Lots of color in the dirt. Red, grey, and green. The colors came in layers, and they didn't stay at one level. It was all over, which I think made it pretty. I'll attach a picture later. Some of the water we passed was not so much beautiful as interesting. Those were dust colored, mint green, matte aqua, and FINALLY a normal blue color. I wonder if those are the different colors according to stages of "death" of once-large bodies of water??? Well, whatever we saw, it had its own beauty. The ranches looked so nice and peaceful (probably because we didn't have to maintain them ;o>)

Vernal is a, uh... a townnnnn... I guess. I like the dinosaurs all over the place, though. There is a dinosaur museum. I think we're going to it tomorrow... I can't remember.

Anyhow... our Holiday Inn Express room is terrific! Love it.

More later. Lots more tomorrow.

Cedar City UT at The Garden Cottage B&B

Hello!!! Well, today we travelled --LOTS! Corey was an excellent driver :o)

We stopped by the Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, as we passed through Vegas. WOW. That's all I will say.

The bed and breakfast that we are staying at is cute. I think the owners are going for a English Garden feel. It's quite nice! The decorations are all antique. Reminds me of the Jabberwock a bit.

One of the employees here recommended a place called Rusty's for good steak. Boy, was he on the money! Great fillet mignon!!!

Tomorrow morning, Corey will hit the bike trail that goes up this canyon. Looks like a good ride. We're at about 5000 ft elevation, so it will be a good way for him to get acclimated for Coeur D Alene next week!

If I happen to wake up when Corey does, I'll get up and do some walking. I've been QUITE the couch potato for last 7 weeks!

I'll include a pic of the room. It'll help take up space on this post to make it look like I wrote more.... ;o)