Ironman Coeur d’ Alene 2006
Jonathan Nixon

Pre Race

Leading up to the race I had 2 pretty decent nights sleep and was feeling very relaxed and rested. The night before the race I went to bed at 8:30 and tossed and turned until about 10:45. I slept uninterrupted until 3 am and then got another hour of intermittent sleep. I got out of bed a 4am, a half hour before my scheduled 4:30 alarm clock, feeling excited and ready to go. Had a breakfast of coffee, 2 egg beaters on a bagel, plus another half bagel with peanut butter and a 2 scoop Perpetuem. (Perpetuem is my liquid food that I use for the bike portion of the race). I showered, put sunscreen on, and at 5:30 walked over to the transition area/start area (2 blocks from where I was staying).

I checked the pressure of my tires, put my food (a 10 scoop Perpetuem, 2 Cliff bars (cut up into small pieces), and a flask of Hammer Gel (energy gel) on my bike. Then I went to check all of my transition bags and tried to zone out, relax and enjoy the scene. I looked for my family but couldn’t see them. Eventually I put my wet suit on, went through the starting gates/timing mats and joined the other athletes on the beach. I did a short test swim and then got in line for the start. I decided to start a little right of center, but fairly close to the front. My strategy was that it was better to get swum over than to try and swim through people. Somebody sang the national anthem and then for about 15 seconds everything got really quiet.

The Swim

At 7am the gun went off and we all charged into the water. I had never done a mass start before and this one lived up to all my pre race expectations. For the first 500 yards it was “gorilla swimming”. Head up, trying to steer clear of getting hit, kicked in the face, or damaged in some way. It was chaotic, but I kept calm and just swam as best I could. By the time we rounded the second buoy and started heading back to the beach we were able to get a little bit of clear water and get a rhythm going. We had to exit at the beach and then do the loop again. The second loop was a lot easier than the second. I stayed on some guys feet and had a decent swim. About 50 yards before the finish, the guy who I had been following stopped and did a breast stroke kick. I wasn’t concentrating and he kicked me right between the eyes. I survived and exited the water in 1hr 5 minutes, 33 seconds, 5 to 10 minutes faster than I had hoped for. As I exited the water I saw my family and my brother for the first time. I high fived them and ran up the beach into T-1. Whohoo, the day had started well.

T-1

Next I got to experience one of the perks of doing an Ironman. They have wet suit strippers. I entered the transition area and immediately had volunteers yelling at me to lie down. Two of then grabbed my wet suit and had it off me in seconds; Very cool!!! I grabbed my “swim to bike bag” and headed to the changing tent, dried myself off, put on my bike jersey, helmet, glasses, arm coolers, race belt with number, socks and bike shoes, hit the “porta potties” and then went in search of my bike. (7 minute change)

The Bike

I felt pretty relaxed heading out on the bike. I downed a bottle of water and then set into a relatively easy cadence. People were flying by me, yelling screaming for everyone else to get out of their way and in general behaving like this was an Olympic distance event. It was pretty crowded and the officials were out there monitoring the four bike length non drafting rule. After we hit the first climb it thinned out a bit and I was able to relax. Every 10 minutes I took a glug of water and every 20 minutes I took a small sip of Perpetuem. On the first loop I had to stop twice to pee which surprised me as I hadn’t been doing this on my long training rides. Each loop had approximately 2000 feet of climbing but there were also lots of twisty downhills and a couple of flat sections that unfortunately for the most part were into a slight headwind. The weirdest part of each loop was a ride around the Post Falls greyhound track. As I was going round it I yelled as loud as I could “And here comes Rusty!!!!!”.

After the first loop it started getting hot and for the first time I started noticing people looking fatigued. I felt OK and tried to keep a constant pace. I was feeling good enough that at mile 64 I elected to skip my “bike special needs bag”. I had enough Perpetuem left, so I felt no need to stop. The second loop was harder than the first and I think I was about 10 minutes slower than the first loop. I went through nine water bottles on the bike and had to pee one more time during the second loop. The other thing that I did was pour water over my arm coolers. I kept them moist for basically the whole of the second loop which really helped keep me cool. My guess is that for 15 of the last 20 miles we had a head wind. It wasn’t strong, but after 80 or 90 miles it definitely took its toll. I was very happy to see town again and was definitely ready to get off the bike. I finished the bike ride in 5 hrs, 49 minutes.

T-2

I jumped off my bike, handed it to the volunteers (they rack your bike for you, how nice is that!!!), found my “bike to run bag” and headed to the tent to get changed. 7 weeks before the race I fractured the head of the 4th metatarsal on my left foot. I was forced into a walking boot for 4 weeks and in an effort to allow the bone to heal did very little running leading up to the event. So, when I got to the changing tent the first thing I did was put a metatarsal pad under my left foot. I then applied blister shield, new socks, shoes, running shirt, running hat with a “sun flap/neck flap”, fuel belt, GPS device to measure my speed, applied more sunscreen, stuffed the pockets of my shorts with Hammer Gels and headed out. (5 minute change)

The Run

The first 2 miles of the run course are very shaded and as I headed out I felt pretty good. I had no idea how my foot was going to hold up, however my goal was to run 9 minute miles and try to do a 4 hour marathon. After a mile I looked down and saw that my race number had torn off from my race belt. I didn’t have any safety pins on me, so when I ran past Theresa I asked her to call Pete Alfino (my coach) who was at a spot a couple of miles down the road to see if he could get me some pins. At about 4 miles I saw Pete. He high fived me and in the process gave me a safety pin. I know that this probably qualifies as outside assistance but I didn’t care. I got my race number fixed and then headed out of town along a long section of road that ran along the lake. It was somewhere in this section that I realized that my goal of running 9 minute miles was not going to happen. It had got very hot (in the mid 90’s), there was no shade, and my legs were starting to get tight. When we hit the only significant hill on the course I was reduced to a walk and from mile 8 on I started focusing on simply getting to the next aid station (they had them every mile). I was doing a Hammer Gel every 4 miles and was also taking 2 Endurolyte tablets (basically salt and magnesium) every hour, and at each aid station I was drinking water and Gatorade. From mile 8 on I walked through every aid station, replenished my fuel belt with Gatorade and water and squeezed water sponges over my head. In the residential area’s, people had their sprinkler systems going and were spraying us down with hoses which was a life saver. I made it back to town just in time to see the lead male finishing the race. He got to go straight (to the finishing shoot) and I had to take a right and head out for loop number two. My family, coach, friends, strangers were all yelling encouragement telling you that you looked good or looked strong (Yeh right!!!). I was so tired that I couldn’t even say thanks or acknowledge them in some way and all I wanted to do was stop moving. I headed out for the second loop feeling like crap. Everything hurt and it was depressing to think that I still had a half marathon to go. I plodded on in a controlled shuffle and just kept telling myself not to stop. At mile 15 I got to the “run special needs bag” station and replenished my Hammer Gels and my Endurolyte tablets. I continued to walk through the aid stations but forced myself to start running again when I exited them. I could not believe the carnage that I saw out there. People throwing up, passed out under trees, crying, and the majority were walking. I was suffering as well and I am sure that I looked like death. At mile 22 I started drinking Coke at the aid stations. It gave me an immediate boost but it was short lived and after about 5 minutes I could feel myself crashing and had to hold on till I got to the next aid station, where I could get my next fix and repeat the process. I saw so many people that had been brought to their knees, and even that late in the race I wasn’t sure that my legs were going to get me to the end. My heart rate was very steady (in the low 130’s for the whole marathon) but the rest of me felt like hell. Eventually I made it onto Sherman street and could hear the announcer at the finish line. I saw my first coach Charlie Perez who high fived me and told me to keep going, I saw Pete Alfino who was yelling like crazy telling me how proud he was, and then I finally saw my family. Theresa was holding my youngest son Gregory who had fallen asleep, but my eldest Matthew was there with a huge smile on his face. I grabbed his hand and we ran down the finishing shoot together. I remember yelling and the announcer calling out my name. I will remember those final 100 yards for as long as I live and hopefully Matthew will remember them as well. I finished the marathon in 4 hrs 22 minutes and the race in 11 hrs 29 minutes.

Final thoughts

Although I bonked on the run, the sense on accomplishment when I was done was amazing. Training and doing this event has been a culmination of 3 years of smaller races. It started in May 2003 with the Memphis in May Olympic distance triathlon which I did through the Leukemia Society’s Team in Training Program. Training for that event introduced me to some incredible people who have become good friends. Since then I have done the Chicago Triathlon, Escape from Alcatraz, the Las Vegas marathon and a number of local Olympic and sprint distance triathlons. These were all done under the guidance of Charlie Perez who is one of my inspirations and was one of the main reasons that I adopted this wonderful new sport. Thanks Charlie!!!

In October 2005 I signed up with Pete Alfino to train me for this Ironman. Under Pete’s guidance I swan over 260,000 yards in the pool, biked over 2,800 miles and ran over 550 miles. Pete got me through my first Half Ironman (in California a few months ago) and did a fantastic job developing a training schedule for me, giving words of wisdom, tips for the race and was also out there on the course all day providing support and encouragement. Thanks Pete!!

Thanks to Matt Gibble for his amazing massage therapy, to Matt Snyder at the Boulder center for Sports Medicine for getting my stress fracture healed in the nick of time, to Steve Truesdale for dialing my bike in until it was in perfect condition, to Kelly Hardin for all the masters swim workouts, to the Melbournes for graciously putting me up in their spectacular home in Coeur dAlene, to all my fellow trainees/participants for all the long Saturday and Sunday training days, to my business partner Bill Farr for enduring months (years really) of having to listen to me yack on about triathlons and take off early from work to go swim, bike or run, and to everyone who has supported me in achieving this goal.

I have done all of this with the blessing of Theresa, my incredible wife, and the patience of my two boys Matthew and Gregory. In the last 3 years Theresa has not complained once and has constantly supported me. The training involved to do something like this is very invasive to your home life. It requires a lot of dedication and a lot of hours away from the family. She has been the one carting the boys to soccer, swimming, boy scouts, etc. On weekends she was often the only mom out there, and I will be indebted to her for a long long time. There is no way I could have done any of this without her unfailing love and encouragement. Thank you Theresa, I love you.