![\"Elevation](\"http:\/\/www.tomheller.com\/images\/cda-elevation.jpg\" "\\"Elevation")
<\/a>Garmin results showing elevation and grade<\/p><\/div>\n
Approximately 2,310 athletes started this race, but only 2,144 would finish, and Sean Murphy, 44, of Seattle, WA would be pulled from the swim.\u00a0 He died two days later.<\/p>\n
I finished 2125 out of 2144 finishers in 16 hours, 51 minutes and 59 seconds, almost one hour longer than last year.<\/p>\n
The start of the race day saw beautiful weather.\u00a0 After a night of major thunderstorms and rain, the temperature at 7 a.m. was about 55F, with partly cloudy skies.\u00a0 The high temp never got above 80F, that I could tell from the thermometer at a local CDA bank.<\/p>\n
As the pro athletes started their second lap in the near 59F water of Lake Coeur d’Alene, the age groupers set off for the 2.4 mile swim.\u00a0 As always with the mass start, there are so many athletes in the water, that it’s nearly impossible to swim, at least with any kind of form that matches the hours of training.\u00a0 Wetsuits make it that much more difficult to use an efficient stroke.\u00a0 By the second lap, there were 2-3 foot waves caused by boats and steady winds.\u00a0 In the end, I finished my swim in 1:47:59.\u00a0 This was much slower than my anticipated time of 1:30:00.<\/p>\n
Out of the water and into transition, the volunteers struggled to peel the wetsuits off of the athletes.\u00a0 From there, it was time to pick up the bike gear bag and head into the changing tent.\u00a0 For me, it is just a matter of putting on bike shoes, arm warmers\/sun sleeves, helmet, sunglasses, and gloves.\u00a0 Exiting the changing tent, volunteers waited to slather sunscreen on our bodies to protect us from the hours of sun that were yet to come.\u00a0 Total transition time 14 minutes 11 seconds.<\/p>\n
My bike time last year in this race was 7:07:25, which is about 30 minutes slower than my usual time riding on the flats of Florida.\u00a0 This year my time would end up at 7:49:12.\u00a0 The bike course had changed from the previous years.\u00a0 Instead of navigating the hilly, curvy roads of Hayden Lake, the course instead took us South on highway 95.\u00a0 The new portion of the course included a 3 mile climb at 5% grade, and two, 2 mile climbs at 3% grade.\u00a0 For a Florida guy like myself, this seemed quite daunting.\u00a0 I managed to spin my way up these hills (multiple times because the course was two, 56-mile loops), but it really cut into my overall time.\u00a0 There were also four pit stops, with one taking nearly 8 minutes due to the line of athletes.\u00a0 Below are screen shots from my Garmin showing the map and the elevation\/grade.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Garmin results showing elevation and grade<\/p><\/div>\n