Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene

Coeur d’Alene has been one of my favorite races ever since I raced my first full-distance Ironman here in 2023; it has a lovely swim, a challenging bike course, and one of the best run courses in North America. While I DNF’d that first full-distance race, I’ve had good results at the 70.3 distance here—last year I was about five minutes away from qualifying for the World Championship. With St. George discontinued, this race immediately became my A race, my top priority for the year, and the one I would peak for.

I wanted to improve on that result, so my goal this year was simply to be faster than last year—anything under 5:30 would be a success. My stretch goal was qualifying for this year’s Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Nice, France; although the new qualification system had moved the goal posts significantly, with a good result and a little luck it was still possible one of the thirty-five slots available could roll down deep enough for me to snag it.

There’s always something going on with the weather in Coeur d’Alene. Last year, high winds on race day forced the swim to be shortened and made for a nerve-wracking bike leg; the year before, I got hit by a gnarly surprise hailstorm on the bike; and although I wasn’t there, 2021 was the infamous “Coeur de Flame,” with a high of 38.3°C and one of the highest DNF rates on record for a full Ironman. It’s enough of a recurring theme that at the end of my race report for last year’s race, I jokingly wondered what the weather would hold for this year.

The answer: Despite a threat of cold temperatures and rain in the days leading up to the race, it turned out to be an almost perfect day for racing.

After my disappointing result in St. George last month, I realized that the goals I had set for that race were a little too ambitious. That race is too early in the season for me to treat it as an A race, and I lost sight of my actual goal for this year, which is finishing Ironman Canada in August. That made me reassess what I wanted to get out of my next two races, in Boulder and Coeur d’Alene. Instead of treating them as races with specific results or ambitious times in mind, I decided to treat them as dress rehearsals to test my gear, pacing, nutrition and overall racing strategy before going to Penticton.