This last Sunday, I raced my first Ironman triathlon, Ironman Idaho in Couere D’Alene Idaho. I am now an Ironman!
The race itself was an amazing experience and it seemed like the entire town of Couere D’Alene was out to the support the participants. It was quite moving to be out on the course in the middle of nowhere and to have people standing on the side of the road cheering us on.
That’s quite an accomplishment. This was the full blown 2 plus swim, 100 bike and a marathon? That’s just an amazing feat.
I used to do the 1/3 scales and even those were tough. Good for you! Will you do this again next year?
Are you going to get vengence from the grave and kill the people you once saved?
Woo hoo!
I was just on the site yesterday looking at results. A couple people in our running community went up to do it. One gal finished in just under 12 hours, hoping to qualify for Kona. It appears she did not. What kind of time is necessary for that, do you know?
I run marathons, and by gum, that’s enough exercise for one day. So I can respect anyone who goes out to do that AFTER biking and swimming. Makes me exhausted just thinking about it. Shoot, the training itself is too monumental for me to ponder!
Yeah scout, the combination of disciplines definately adds to the required effort. In the swim you can pretty much exhaust your arms without substantial penalty later but the difficulty of transitioning from a bike to a run on your legs is pretty tough.
sengle, can I ask which age group you competed in?
lieu I competed in the 40-44 year old age group. I’m 41. For those of you unfamiliar with the sport, one thing they do – it seems kind of sensual to me – is they write on you. They write your race number on your left and right arms, on your right thigh. And then, they write your age on your left calf. It’s never clear exactly why this is necessary, maybe to identify your dead body, or something. I’m told that there is never a shortage of volunteers to help with this task. But when someone passes you, you glance at their calf to see the age of the person who just went by. I have passed on the bike by people in their 70s.
What is a 1/3 scale, by the way, do you mean an Olympic distance race?
I was a swimmer as a kid, so for me the swim is the easiest part of the race, then I get passed on the bike by everyone and their dog.
Thank you Scout1222. I didn’t see the Kona qualifing times, I don’t have time to take a look at the moment but I’ll check on it. Personally, I’m far from them, and it rolled down to me, I don’t think I’d be ready to go anyway, … next time …
The standard triathalon distances were cut by 2/3 for each of the 3 sports.
The first year some guy training for the Olympics rode his bike 100 miles to the event that morning, won by some enormous margin and then rode his bike 100 miles home.
We weren’t related.
I’ve been hearing about IM-CDA and the conditions are said to have been brutal…just too darn hot, and it took its toll on the competitors.
So, wow. You made it through it all!
Congratulations!!
(I’m hoping to join you next March … we’ll see)
lieu [I forgot to answer this earlier] I don’t know about next year, immediately after the race is not a good time to think about it. I’m giving it a few days. But I’d like to do maybe one a year, at different places. It was a beautiful venue though. This is one way to get to know a town.
Thank you amirinth. It was hot. But it didn’t seem that terrible (maybe I was going too slow to be affected by it) there was a headwind for some of the early bike ride that was kind of irritating. Also, I have now learned some places to not miss with sunscreen next time. But I did Wildflower earlier this year, where it rained continuously, so I held that memory for comparison.
But yeah, maybe our paths will cross in some race, that would be awesome.