70.3 Coeur d'Alene Race Recap

You Determine How You Feel

5 days before race day I could not wear a closed toe shoe without serious discomfort. There it was in all its glory! A huge infected blister on my left pinky toe! I sat for a moment in my living room and laughed at the irony of the situation. I never had a blister like this ever, let alone five days before a seventy mile race. Rather than freak out and panic I had a little conversation with the universe and said, “Ok, you win. I get it. I hear you. Just let go”. I stayed off the bike and didn’t run for four days. I instead took the opportunity to leisurely ride my road bike in flip flops to a local pond down our greenbelt path for a couple relaxed swim sets. I visualized how great race day was going to be regardless of my foot leading into race morning.

Blister 4 days out

Race morning came and I was up at 4 am. Relaxed and focused I took to wrapping my pinky toe. It wasn’t perfect but it was way better than five days earlier. I slid my shoes on and could still feel some discomfort so I took the liberty of stabbing a hotel pen through the shoe fabric and created a small hole where my toe met the shoe fabric. This took the pressure off and made me feel much more relaxed about the 13.1 mile run leg of the race. Perfect! I was ready to go.

Always Another Level- Success is hard, be thankful

This past November when building my 2015-16 racing schedule I set CDA 70.3 as a priority 70.3 race on my calendar. I visualized this race as a breakthrough race to another level. For me, that next level was getting my first sub 5 hour result ever for this race distance on an honest and challenging 70.3 course. In my fitness build I stayed very consistent with my training blocks and I raced an olympic distance in late March, a sprint distance race (3rd overall) in mid April, St. George 70.3 in early May, and my first 100 mile time trial bike race (3rd overall) in early June.

Darren Hardy recently summed it up for me in his Darren Daily mentoring blog (darrendaily.com). He said, “every wall is another fence that thins the herd. Success is hard. Difficulty is what keeps out the weak, wannabes and pretenders. Be thankful.” So when I am running at a wall I will be thankful for the opportunity to get over it because each wall thins the herd, where fewer can hang, and the more success I will enjoy.

17 minute PR- My First Sub 5 hour 70.3 race result (4:49:09)

I did it! And I was so happy to achieve this result and celebrate it with my wife on our anniversary weekend trip to Coeur d'Alene. Having my coach at the event and racing a long side many Tritown Boise friends I train with was awesome. Also getting the news a couple days before that a childhood friend and professional triathlete Kendra Goffredo was making her first race since an injury sidelined her ten months ago really made it a special day. Cheers to all those pushing towards another level.