Race Report : 2007 Ironman Coeur d'Alene : Bike

This year in Coeur d'Alene marked the first year of an all new bike course. There are a number of reasons that I have heard for this, but they don't really matter to me. The old course took riders out to the Idaho/Washington state line with a fair amount of climbing and had pieces of the ride that in retrospect felt like unnecessary filler. There was a long piece past mile 35/85 (or so) that followed the centenial trail along the highway and caused riders to hit a decent headwind.

The new course took us out of Coeur d'Alene and in to the town of Hayden. This year's course was quite a bit harder. Though in looking at my polar altitude data from last year and comparing it to this year, it seems like there 4300 feet of climbing (30 miles or so) and last years course had 4600 feet of climbing over the same distance. Though there was 300 fewer feet of climbing I'd say that this course was harder, if only in my mind. I'd say that last year had the climbing over a shorter distance forcing riders this year to climb for a longer period of time.

The biggest change was that the course was far prettier than last year. To the uninitiated this might sound petty, but over a seven hour period having great stuff to look at makes the time that much better. The rolling hills were beautiful, and the long line of riders looked like ants climbing over them.

For me I had the opportunity to talk to several people over the ride. (Most of them were passing me). It was by all accounts, despite being difficult perhaps, a great ride. The weather we had was wonderful, mid 60's to low 70's with a small headwind for most of the ride and a longer stronger headwind right near the end of the ride. If they keep the course the way that it was and you intend to ride this race next year, I'd recommend longer sustained climbing as a large part of your training.

End result, last year 7:50~ish, this year 7:20 (and that's with 12 minutes worth of bathroom stops because of the cold weather and hydration planned for a warmer day).