This is a really nice course and well suited for someone from Los Alamos. The bike has some decent hills on it, though none too tough, and the run is mostly flat, but with a decent little hill that you run up, then turn right around and run back down about ¾ into the loop (all three events are two loop). The lake is beautiful, and the bike course not only goes along the big Coeur d'Alene Lake, but also in the woods above Lake Hayden with nice views. The run is mostly along CdA Lake, with a brief part through a very nice section of the town and its beautiful homes.
CdA is easy to get to – fly into Spokane, WA, then rent a car for the half hour drive into CdA, ID. The lake was cool this year, ~61 degrees. This feels cold when you first get in, but once you get moving, you realize this is actually a great temperature to race in. I had borrowed Tina's goofy neoprene cap just in case, but was glad I decided against using it. A number of people had theirs on, though, so it's worth considering if you have trouble staying warm. It stays light out late into the evening and gets light very early, so no need for early morning flashlights, and only the very latecomers required glow sticks to finish. Race day was a bit windy, but at least the wind was blowing from the south which helped bring you back into shore on the swim, and push you up the longest hills on the bike.
The pros started at 6:25, the rest of us at 7:00. Which wasn't great for some of the slower pros, as they were just making the turn to start their second loop when the cannon went off for the age groupers. I had made a serious mistake and started in the middle of the middle of everyone for the mass beach start. This means that as we swam, everybody kept pinching and pinching till I really felt I was being squeezed to a point where I needed a break and could go no further on my own; but when I popped up to look for help, I realized there was no way I could get to the side of the swimming mass even if I tried, so I swam on. It didn't finally open for me until well after the turns at the far end of the first loop. Really scary. Given all that, I swam a 1:10 total and as always was grateful to be back on land – even more so for this race. This was clearly my fault, though, and could have easily been avoided by simply staying closer to one side, and more to the back at the very beginning.
The bike was beautiful. Decent surfaces for the most part, nice terrain to keep it interesting, and not too hot till the very end. Note that if you do this course – nearly every hill has a false summit, so just when you think you've gotten to the top, you really haven't. I averaged 20 mph for the first 80 miles, but there were still 32 to go! Ended up at 19.2mph – good enough for second fastest in my age group, though there were other women ahead of me to catch.
Into T2, I dropped my bike, grabbed my bag of stuff, and headed into the change tent. Looking up as I was entering it, I see Sister Madonna Buder standing at the entrance in a volunteer's shirt. So I said “Hi Sister,” and she followed me and another volunteer in and helped me get changed! (She's the 80 year old Ironman-competing nun who is routinely covered on the NBC Ironman shows for those of you who don't know). We chatted about her season, she wished me well, and I left her and the other volunteer with all of my sweaty bike gear to stuff back into the bag while I got slathered with more sunscreen and headed onto the run course. Yep, I left a legend to deal with my sweaty socks and helmet.
Out on the run course my legs felt great for the first few miles, plus I was happy to be off the bike. Of course, and unfortunately, that was a short-lived feeling, and I was soon plodding along. I was concerned about throwing up in a hot race again, so I really paid attention to the amount of Gatorade I was drinking and tried to focus on drinking for re-hydration only, not to just help me cool off (I think this is what I must have been guilty of at Deuces Wild, with such dire consequences). It was well over 80 degrees by this time, so it was a real issue. I saw Dan and the boys quite a few times during the run, as well as the TriSports.com crew who had come up to cheer a number of TS athletes (including the female co-owner of the company). Around mile 11 Dan told me the woman ahead of me was only 15 seconds in the lead, but in typical Amy fashion, my body decided that was right about the time I needed to find a Port-A-John, and it was time to further slow this silly pace anyway. Ah well.
Thus it was with great surprise that the next time I saw the guys, Dan said “she's right … there” and pointed to the woman I was about to pass. She must have been feeling even worse than me, as I ended up beating her by 17 minutes or something like that. Another 4+ hour marathon, 4:05 – ugh, even slower than Kona's 4:04 last October! Sure hope I can figure that out before Kona this year... Bottom line, I won my age group, though I was able to turn down the slot for Kona as I had already gotten one earlier in the year. I admit, it was nice to start the race without that extra pressure of needing to do well in order to race alongside Dan this year on the Big Island.
It was such a fun race, and great course, that while I stood in line the next morning with Dan who was signing up for next year's race, I thought what the heck, and signed up as well. And that is that ... my 2010 race season is now all caught up.
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