By Annemieke Hiemstra

First of all Coeur D'Alene is a beautiful area. Plenty of pines, clean air and clean water. The water temp was 68 degrees perfect for my full wetsuit. There were ~ 2,000 athletes registered for the race which made for a hectic mass swim start. This course was a unique experience for me in that it involved a looped course for the swim, the bike and the run. I found it a little odd to have to get up and run on the beach halfway through the swim only to jump back into the water. I ran with my fellow triathletes on the beach and had to laugh that we were all dizzy and bumping into each other. Once we were back into the water it was a bit of a wash machine adventure and I got pummeled pretty good. Such is the life of a triathlete. My swim time goal was 1:15-1:20 and I swam it in 1:12! I was pleasantly surprised and would like to give a shout out to Suzanne to thank her for her awesome swim plan and coaching.

I really enjoyed the bike course. It had a lot of variety and excluded the two mountain passes that I was familiar with in Canada's IM. There were a couple of good climbs with some nice descents. I got a little frazzled with some of the crazy navigation that took you through many residential neighborhoods and a dog track! At least it distracted you from the heat and fatigue. I got lapped by the first place male at mile 50. My spirit was crushed when I realized the "lead" car wasn't for me. Again, the bike course was a looped course. It was mentally draining to get back to the start and do it all over again. I found it somewhat disturbing to be consistently passed by men on the bike. My way of coping was to tell myself that I'm a better swimmer and it took them this long to catch up. I wasn't sure what my bike time would be. I was hoping for around 6 hours and ended up around 6:25 (oops!). I have no excuses, except I didn't bike enough before the race. Funny how that works!

On to the run! This is usually my strongest leg. I was hoping to eek out a10 minute marathon pace. Well, my first mile was an 8:30, then 9:20, then 9:45, then 10:00, 10:15, 10:30, 11:00, you get the picture? At mile two, I thought, forget it, I'm out! Then I started to think of a legitimate reason I had to quite and would my friends, family, and ducklings (athletes) really buy it? I couldn't come up with anything good besides feeling really, really tired and hot. Who wasn't?! So I told myself just make it to mile 8 and reevaluate. I felt better at mile 8 despite slowing down. Then I told myself make it to mile 13. Of course at mile 13 you have to head back out onto the looped course and do it all over again while hearing the announcer yell out finisher names. This was another crushed spirit moment but I decided to head out to mile 15. In order to look forward to something closer than the finish line I told myself that at mile 18 I can walk, but there was a downhill. I couldn't very well walk on a downhill, so I decided to keep on running and I'd walk the next up hill. That took me to mile 19, which is right before mile 20 which means just two times around greenlake and I'm done! At this point I'm done looking at my watch. There is no more playing with my pace, I've got just one speed and as long as I'm going forward I'm doing good. I was hoping for a 4:15 marathon, ended up with a 4:35, but mentally felt really good and proud to finish.

It's funny how these endurance races play with your mind. I had all these intentions of finishing each leg at a certain time. When I didn't meet these goals I knew the only way to keep up the motivation to finish was to keep it positive. You really visit some dark places on adventures such as these. Fortunately, I wrote down my race goals which included:
· Stay in the moment
· Race my own race, don't compare myself to other people
· Do your best
· Enjoy the spirit of the race and all the athletes around me

I revisited these goals several times which really did help me get to the finish line. Even with a slower time than my previous IM's, I felt that mentally this was really one of my better races. I didn't put so much pressure on myself for splits or finishing times. I had a wonderful support person, Doug. Doug flew in to Spokane, gave me tons of moral support before, during and after the race. I had a little crying fit before the race because I was so nervous and Doug was there to comfort me and help me get perspective on life and this race. (Believe it or not, the crying was part of the race plan. I've done it in several previous races and thought it just may happen again) Just knowing there's a loved one waiting for you at the finish line makes a huge difference in your psyche. Thank you Doug!

It's a crazy crowd that does this race. What I love about triathlon is that you can see every body type and age out there on the course and you never know who will pass you or who you will pass. Those hard bodies aren't always so fast!

This may sound silly, but I had forgotten how hard Ironman really can be. Even now as I'm revisiting my experience, a lot of the pain is fading and the joy is getting brighter and brighter.

I'm looking forward to a nice leisure summer. I'm done with my "training" for a while. I'll be watching Doug at the track and others at the Danskin. Thanks again to everyone for all of your support. Enjoy the summer!

Annemieke Hiemstra
National Head Coach
Team Danskin Training, LLC
www.TeamDanskinTraining.com
annemieke@earthlink.net