Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene Triathlon Official Website

The "Nitty Gritty" Details (User Opinions)

Dana F.
Olympia, WA

  (06-29-2011)

"Arriving in Coeur D'Alene is always beautiful! I lived there for a year and actually saw the first IM held in CDA! I was also very out of shape and overweight at the time. This race was about conquering the distance and the demons! The race and ESPECIALLY the volunteers did not disappoint! The run course was harder this year than previous years, but the main reason I didn't give it a 5/5, was marking. There were definitely places on course that should have been marked for hazards that weren't. On a rural course, I think this can become a safety issue! Overall great location, great support!"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2011

Lauren S.
San Francisco, CA

  (07-29-2010)

"Never thought I'd have to go to Idaho, but Coeur d'Alene was beautiful! Great downtown, very clean. Swim course is 2 loops in harbour, can be choppy at times, but more immediately concerning was the mass start. Lots of room to spread out on the beach to start, but peoplep who can't swim in a straight line should probably not line up in front.
2 loop bike course is beautiful! Mostly flat with some rolling hills, steepest hill is only about 1/4 mile long. However, there was lots of traffic on the course, and some volunteers (well ONE) wasn't good about timing the cars, causing my friend to crash to avoid getting hit. Lots of little 'spurs' so you can see fellow competitors.
Run is 2 loops, mostly flat, along the lake. Great crowd support, lively aid stations, started serving warm chicken broth as it got darker. Snacks included pretzles, chips, cookies, bananas, oranges, and power bar gels. Drinks: water, orange gatorage, and cola.
Finishline was down the center street with GREAT crowds. Super exciting!! Only bummer was that there was no beer at finish (despite my several requests)
ALSO- would be nice to be able to pick up bikes the NEXT day, as opposed to the night of."

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2010

Dennis M.
San Francisco, CA

  (08-04-2009)

"Race day for me began ten minutes after midnight. The room I stayed in came with the 12:10 'car horn-alarm' wake up call at no cost. This is my first gripe about CdA: it's extremely hard to get a decent hotel room. It's called GOUGING and it's in full effect as 2500 athletes and their irritating spouses come rolling into town needing a place to stay. A craptacular room can run you $350+ (if you can find one).

Out of bed at 3:50am, 1200 paleolithic calories and one shower later I was out the door. Transition is well organized, though I wish they'd put up gear bag racks instead of just stacking the bags in order on the ground. Check bike, inflate tires to 120psi, reset computer, hit up the honey pot and lube up for the wet suit.

5 minutes later and I'm on a very narrow beach with 2300 other people dressed like seals, ready to take the 58 degree plunge. I decided to pick an inside line to avoid swimming more miles than I had to, but it was also the most crowded line. To give you some idea of the mayhem....imagine being in a building flooded with 10' deep icy cold water with thousands of other people. Then imagine the building is set on fire. And then imagine there being one exit that's about 8' wide and 2.4 miles long. Mass hysteria, total anarchy. The fact that people rarely ever die in triathlon mass-start-swims is a fucking miracle. After roughly an hour and twenty minutes of kicking, punching, near drowning and eye gouging I was in the T1 Tent tearing my swim stuff off and putting my bike gear on.

The bike course....well, aside from one hairpin, I thought the course was pretty boring. Everyone remarks on how beautiful CdA is, but I just wasn't feeling it. Water, trees, some mountains....oh it's all nice, but spectacular it is not. By the end of two 56 mile loops boredom more than pain became the thing I had to battle.

T2: Same as T1.

The run....well, the run was great. The spectator support was exceptional, the weather was cooperative and the course is relatively flat, plus there were a lot of places to throw up with a decent amount of privacy.

The end....amazing. If there is one great thing about doing an M-Dot vs. a non M-Dot branded race of the same distance, it's the spectator frenzy. Though I'm still holding strong on a couple dreams of mine, I know I'll never compete in the Olympics, I'll never be a famous actor, cult leader, dictator or flash rock star. But finish an Ironman and you can indulge in your own peculiar brand of megalomaniacal fantasy. "

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2008

Michelle R.
Sugar Land, TX

  (08-04-2009)

"This was my third IM and even though it was tough Idaho is beautiful and I highly recommend it!!!
If you can look up long enough to view the scenery while you are on the bike you are in for a treat!!!!
It is definitely a challenging course, but then again I am coming from Houston where we are as flat as a pancake so to find hills to train on is quite challenging.
Also we were coming from 100 degree weather to where race day I believe the high was 54. Needless to say I was freezing the entire time. The rain during the entire marathon didn't help either!!
Considering all that the race people were prepared to get us through it and were just great!!!!!
They didn't have the ribbon at the end of the finish line to go through this year which they do need to bring back which hopefully they will for my next one!!!!
So, sign up for 2010 if not sold out and plan on taking time off from work to go enjoy CDA and Spokane!!! White water rafting and wine tours are always good!!!!"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009

Kevin B.
West Boylston, MA

  (07-31-2009)

"Hello everyone!

Keith Kober and I both had a successful Ironman as we crossed the finish line at Coeur d’Alene Idaho on June 21st 2009 for our 3rd finish within 7 months on our 6 in 1 year Journey! Next on the docket is Lake Placid on July 26th then Louisville Kentucky on Aug 30th and wrapping up with Madison Wisconsin on Sept 13th. Got to meet up and hang with our good friend and fellow Ironman compeitior Andy Garrobo and his wife Mel from Colorado Springs. So we had some great friends and extended family to hang out with and have fun together. Andy is now known to all of us as the Love Guru!

Here is my recap on the race itself:

The Swim 2.4 miles……..it sucked…..4 foot swells, white caps, cross currents…..toughest swim I have ever had

The Bike 112 miles……….my best split ever….and I crashed at mile 14 and had a chain mechanical issue at mile 91

The Run 26.2 miles ……….it totally %^$c …..45 degrees, whipping rain………made it to mile 20 before my nagging injury kicked in And had to walk it out the last 5 miles before I ran home…

Final recap……..injured my shoulder a bit from the crash……..leg is OK…….hoping my bike has no issues when it comes home so it can be ready for Lake Placid….

We are halfway through our quest and feeling pretty good all things considered. I want to THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF OUR JOURNEY AND ALL THAT YOU MEAN TO ME. I really appreciate many of you that have stepped up to support us and our charities by going to http://www.lifeisnutz.com/ and purchasing our cool apparel.

My memories from this one I take are not having my wife by my side as she has walked through all of this with me and I thank her immensely for her support. She had a special sign made with a great picture of her and my kids cheering me on saying Go Kev/Dad We Love You!. I carried it over the finish line with me! Also missed having our mentor Joe Turcotte from Colorado Springs who without him Keith nor I would have been able to do any of these Ironmans. He is a master of the Ironman and will be competing in Ironman World Championships in Hawaii this October!! Keith’s family his son Jarrod who was awesome hanging out and being there for his Dad on Fathers Day was a great scene to see. He is also thinking about signing up someday. My great friend and biz partner Bill Beers who was incredible getting us in the right frame of mind and supporting us throughout the week and keeping tabs on us and sending updates out to many of you of our progress. He has been given the award of IronSherpa IM CDA! And also to new friends Bob and Nacy and their family for hosting a great BBQ meal which helped to fuel us along the race. Those of you who race know the 2 days of meals prior to a race day are crucial to the success of the race and they helped out big time. Their son in law and son both signed up for Ironman St George in May 2010 while we were there so there will be 5 of us competing together there next year! That’s just awesome! I met a new friend Ben Castro who finished his first Ironman in 10:57! He is an IronStud and his lovely girlfriend Staci both from Walnut Creek Cali were great to meet and I am so pleased to have new friends on the journey! Coouer d’Alene itself is a smaller city atmosphere with a great support of the race. The folks there are extremely friendly and the area is absolutely breathtaking. It’s a great place to visit if you get the chance and I would recommend staying at Coeur d’Alene Resort as that is the mecca of the city.

I know that some of my family and friends will get to Lake Placid and watch us there and I am wicked excited about that and know that will help as this will be the toughest test to date as the bike hills are somewhat intimidating…..

That’s enough for now

Talk to you all soon

Kevin :)
"

Reviewed by a: Repeat Participant for 2009

Wendy L.
Gillette, WY

  (06-29-2009)

"It’s been said that one of the most amazing athletic endeavors to watch is the mass swim start of an Ironman triathlon. I must also add, from recent personal experience that it is also the most frightening athletic endeavor I’ve ever participated in.

An Ironman is an extreme test of endurance involving three individual sports – a 2.4-mile open water swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. I am a recent convert to the sport of triathlon, competing in my first local sprint distance tri three years ago. Since then I have done a few sprint distances and two Olympic distance tri’s. The two Olympic distances also involved open water swims but with “wave” starts – age groups of 5-10 years – so about 60-100 people at a time. Nothing to compare to the 2300 athletes at Ironman – all starting at the same time and all going to the same place.

The setting is beautiful Coeur d’Alene, Idaho at the marina on Lake Coeur d’Alene. June 21, 2009, Father’s Day, starting point of Ironman CDA 2009, 7:00a.m. There are over 2,000 athletes, looking like a mass of black seals in our wetsuits, milling around on a ½ mile stretch of beach. Men with red swim caps, women with white swim caps, all indistinguishable to the thousands of spectators, family and friends who line the beach behind us. It is cloudy and cool with the water temperature actually being warmer than the air temp at about 67 degrees. The wind is blowing and the waves rolling in are big. I knew what to expect – sort of. I understood that it was going to be a crazed mass of arms and legs and bodies as we entered the lake and started along the long line of yellow and orange buoys that marked the race course. I knew I would get kicked and hit and pushed and pulled. Nothing I had read, nothing I had seen, nothing I had done so far ever, EVER prepared me for what happened when the starting gun went off.

I don’t know if I ran into the water under my own power or if I was just carried along by the mass of bodies around me. I dove in when I could and started to swim. Well, I tried to swim. I’ve never been IN a washing machine but I imagine that this is what it might feel like. I couldn’t catch my breath and every time I opened my mouth water went in. Arms and legs and bodies were everywhere around me, behind me, on top of me and the waves created by the mass of swimming humanity and urged on by the strong winds facing us seemed insurmountable. I was flailing and gasping for air and everywhere I turned was only worse. I drank enough water to hydrate me for the whole day! I panicked. And stopped.

On the verge of tears I treaded water while other athletes fought their way past. I wasn’t the only one stopped – others were obviously panic-stricken and fighting for composure all around me. It seemed like forever had passed, but I’m sure it was only a few seconds. I was scared enough that I thought about quitting. Right then and there, for a few moments, I was going to turn back. But I thought about all the people there supporting me and the ones at home following on the Internet. I thought about all the months and months of training; in the wind, the rain, the snow and the sacrifices of my family and time. I thought about how much money I had to put into the race with registration fees and travel expenses. I couldn’t quit now. So I took a deep breath, this time without water in it, and started to swim. I tried to get in a rhythm with the waves and to go through them, not fight over them. I kept the buoys always in my sights, keeping as straight a line as I could, fighting the feet in front of me, the hands behind me and the bodies beside me. Finally the pressure eased some, I was able to swim 8 or 10 strokes without hitting anyone else and then it would bunch up again. We got to the first turn finally and chaos resumed. We are already swimming 2.4 miles, no one wants to swim any extra and so everyone cuts the turn as closely as possible. Again we came to a standstill with everyone fighting to turn the same way. There were dozens and dozens of us in the same spot, grabbing and pulling and trying to find a clear lane to swim. Panic almost set in again as people fought to get moving. None of us realized that as we made the left hand turn we needed to just make a gradual turn, not a sharp turn. So the kayakers were there shouting at us to “go right, go right”. I kept waiting to feel one of their paddles knocking me on the head to get me back on course!

We made it around the two corner buoys and headed back toward the shore to finish our first lap. As we got to shore we had to get out of the water, run around a marker on shore and then get back in and do one more loop around the course. We took the few moments of being out of the water to adjust our goggles, catch a deep breath and start again. This time around it was spread out much better, although it still seemed that every 10 or 12 strokes someone else was in the way or swimming over me. I encountered several swimmers who were not good at sighting the buoys and they would come at you from an angle and swim right in front of you, messing up your direct line along the course. Then suddenly they would look up and realize they were going crooked. So they would turn the other direction, put their head down and fire off in the other direction, right back in front of me! I swear some of them must have swum an extra ½ mile or more. After what seemed an eternity (but was actually an hour and sixteen minutes)I made it back to shore, ran up through the crowd to the transition area, trying the whole time to unzip my wetsuit and peel it down to my waist. There were people waiting to assist me out of my wetsuit so I dropped to ground, they grabbed it and peeled it right off me like a banana. Then it was off to the bike course.

I survived the mass swim of the Ironman, even though it almost ended before it began. The doubts and the fears and the pain tried to overtake me but I fought them back and kept moving. They would come back again that day, and again. Relentless forward motion. I WILL BE an Ironman!

(to be continued)

If you'd like to read the remainder of my review of the bike and run portions of this race please visit my blog site at www.trailsandtriswyoming.blogspot.com

Happy training"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009

Geoff L.
San Mateo, CA

  (04-24-2009)

"This is a great 1st Ironman race. The course is very scenic and family friendly as i got to see my family rooting me on during several points of the bike and run. Coeur D'alene is a cool city and resembles a clean Tahoe. Volunteers and race producers were amazing lending to an awesome 1st Ironman experience. "

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2006