3:30 a.m. and it is race day!  I have no cooking options in the trailer so cold Panda Express it is.  Mostly rice and a little chicken and mushrooms.  Of course, I had to crack open a fortune cookie in my half awakeness before I took a quick hot shower to wake up my body and hit the road.

The bike transition area opened up at 4:30 a.m..  I wanted to be there pretty much close to when it opened so I could get a decent parking space that wasn’t too far away so after the race is done, I don’t have a long way to haul my stuff back to the Subaru.

As I started my way toward town, I had to slow down to about 35 mph because there were deer all over the place out in the initial roads because my place was in the country.  They were thick like a herd of rats out there and didn’t seem to care about cars.  I was happy once I made it to the main road, left them behind, and joined my people who were obviously heading in the same direction I was.

After parking, I trudged along in the light of dawn with a couple hundred other people in lycra.  Lugging our gear bags, we filed into the transition area.  I was happy to find that the water table to fill up water bottles was at the end of my row and I was able to quickly set up my gear for the transitions.

At my last race in St George, Utah I went through a pre-race stretching and warm-up routine that seemed to help me be ready once I exited the swim and hopped on the bike.  I took this to another level this time including a half mile run before I put my wetsuit on.  I felt great and calmer than any other race to date.

I went back to my bike and gear to put on my wetsuit where I chatted with the other athletes around me.  We all noticed that we were obviously profiled and grouped together as we were all about the same age and had similar lack of hairstyles.

Because I am a slow swimmer, I cue up with the 50 minutes + group which I have found does not get in the water until about an hour after the pros start.  My nervousness during this time always sends me to the porta potties multiple times.  Instead of taking the top of my wetsuit on and off multiple times to do my business, as they say, I planned for these trips by wearing an old sweatshirt that I would discard just before I finally cued up with my fellow sloth like swimmers.  This strategy worked perfectly and I think actually lowered my stress levels and the number of trips to the plastic fantastic out house.  I also simply hung out on a bench instead of standing in line for an hour wasting my legs standing.

Finally, it was time to hit the water.  My last two races featured 57 degrees and 62 degrees water.  So, 68 degrees in Lake Coeur d’Alene was balmy!  I still had time for small talk with my neoprene clad friends and helped calm a female first timer with a few tips on how to avoid others crawling over you.  Then, we hit the water in groups of 4 people at a time.

The water was very clear which is helpful in seeing what is going on around you.  It was a simple swim course that was straight out, a brief turn to the left, and then another left turn to bring you home.  As usual, I settled into a steady slog and ended up at the back of the pack, but under the cut-off time by 16 minutes.  It was my usual less than stellar swim performance at 54 minutes and 52 seconds slightly faster than my 56-minute finish in St George.

In transition, I slathered on more sunscreen so that it would last time I did that during the rest of the race.  In St George, I listened to a sunscreen sales person who said her product would not wear off the entire race which made my transition faster due to applying it twice in advance of the race.  Of course, that was a lie and I burned badly.  This time I was happy to take a few extra minutes to save my skin and my comfort over the next few days.  I would love to figure out the secret of the pros who run in and out without worrying about sunscreen but to date, that miracle has been elusive.

Out of transition and on the bike things went exactly as planned for the first section if not better.  I was passing tons of people yet few were passing me.  I was into section two quickly and onto the long 20-mile climb.

The long climb was going great.  I continued to pass others and few passed me.  I was making great ground and felt strong.  However, I needed to stop at the second aid station bad to use the porta potty.  Unfortunately, so did about 10 other people but there were only 4 porta potties.  We all commented that Ironman should have noticed by now that no race we have ever been too had too many porta potties.

This stop was very depressing.  I was likely there for at least 10 minutes.  I lost a lot of ground and after I got back on the road it just felt like I lost all my mental momentum and some physical ability.  Instead of being in the thick of other riders, I was now way in the back with few others around me.  Those two things combined made me feel like this was not going to be a good performance.  Regardless, I pushed on knowing that I had plenty of time to at least finish and remembered that there was a decent amount of downhill ahead of me that might allow me to make up some time.

It turns out I was dreaming about the downhill.  As I was climbing uphill earlier, I had noticed that the cyclists on the other side who were heading back were going pretty fast.  I assumed that was because that side had a big downhill.  I was so wrong.  It certainly had more downhill sections, but the reason they looked so fast was that they were the pros and the elites!  Whoops!  Good learning for the future for sure.

Finally, I was back at transition and hit my Garmin watch to see what my bike time was.  It wasn’t that bad actually with a total time of 3:44:32.  Considering the amount of climbing I did, and the unfortunate porta potty traffic jam at aid station #2, this wasn’t so bad.  Maybe I could make up some time on the run?

I was in and out of transition fairly quickly and onto the run course.  I felt a confidence that I had a chance of making up some time here.  I felt good in the first half mile both in my pace and my energy level.  Also, there were only about 400 feet of climbing in this course so it was relatively flat as well.  All the pieces of the puzzle were there to help my brain connect a potentially less sucky outcome.

The first half of the 13.1 mile route went great.  I was able to keep a very solid pace and run most of it with only slowing down for some on-course nutrition at about every other aid station.   My attitude was fueled by the incredible support of the local community who was playing music in front of their houses throughout the route and there was even a group playing the bagpipes at one point!

As I settled into the next half, I had a slow down around mile 8, but then had a second wind that pushed me through the next few miles as my attitude massively improved knowing I only had a few miles to go.  The final mile would have been better, but once again like in all my other races I felt the cramp coming on in the back of my right thigh.  I was able to keep it from cramping by walking a bit to settle it down, but it finally hit me at probably the worst place possible….100 feet from the Ironman finish carpeting.  I stopped to work it out because my pride said I would be running across that finish line.  Probably a stupid decision, but it was what it was.

In the end, it was my fastest run to date at 2:19:05.  And….I was shocked to look at my watch and see that it was my fastest 70.3 Ironman yet!  It was my fifth 70.3 Ironman since October of 2017.  Even with an unfortunate delay in the bike, I was able to mentally and physically turn it around to make it my best 70.3 race yet at with a finishing time of 7:14:29!

Additionally satisfying was the fact that the run made it happen in the end.  I took the last 9 months to completely change my running form, religiously hit the weights twice a week, and all that work finally paid off!

After driving over 1,400 miles, I was standing in the sun on the beach of Lake Coeur d’Alene with a personal best 70.3 Ironman finishing time.  There couldn’t have been a better outcome in the middle of the Hack-bbatical than that especially in the face of adversity in the middle of the race.

My post-race meal was a local craft beer and a heaping plate of Grandma’s Spaghetti at Radicci Italian Bistro in Hayden, Idaho.  It included slow simmered sauce with mushrooms, bell peppers, Italian Sausage, and hand formed meatballs.  I met an old friend Kevin who lives in the area.  It was great to have had a personal best performance, a great meal, and quality catch up time with a good friend as day 5 came to a close.