I just completed my first Ironman! I’ve been doing triathlons for years now. I’ve raced in every popular triathlon distance except for a full Ironman. This year I decided it was time to change that so I signed up for my first Ironman in Coeur d’Alene Idaho. Just thinking about the race made me feel slightly nauseous and my heart beat faster but I was curious to see if I could complete one, so I signed up and got to training.

All too soon it was time to head to Coeur d’Alene for the Ironman. My training had gone well for the most part with just a slight hiccup towards the end of the training block. I developed tendonitis in my hip and was banned from running for the last three weeks before the race. Whether or not I be able to complete the marathon at the end of the race was unknown.

Race morning dawned calm and clear and sunny even at 6am because it was northern Idaho in June. It was a beautiful day with temperatures that would eventually climb into the 80’s, but early morning was still nice and cool. I got everything set up at my bike and went to find my friend Alicia. We, with the help of my husband, got our wetsuits on and walked down to the lake where we met up with a few other friends. Alicia braided my hair as we waited in line to walk down to the water. Nerves were high but honestly at this point I was just ready to get the race over with.

Soon enough they let us walk down to the water and line up based on estimated swim finish time to start the race. Alicia and I joined our friends and we all gathered in a group hug right before we headed to the water. I stood at the water’s edge and when the buzzer went off for my turn to start the race, I pressed start on my watch and ran into the water and began to swim.

The water was beautiful. Cool, but not overly cold, and so clean feeling. I swam and swam and it actually wasn’t too bad! I’m a slow swimmer but can go forever at a certain awkward ugly looking pace so I told myself to just do that. People would bunch up and things would get a little crazy around each buoy, but then things would space out in between allowing for some nice consistent swimming. The course was two loops. After the first loop you run out of the water onto the beach, go through an archway, and head back in to swim the loop for a second time. I had been worried that I would not want to go again but I found myself really not minding it. I ran back in the water and swam a second loop with no issues. And suddenly I was finished, running out of the water. I had done it- swam 2.4 miles! Something I truly never thought would be possible for me. I remember thinking that no matter what happened the rest of the day I would always be proud that I swam that far.

In an Ironman race there is a volunteer to help you with getting off your swim gear and putting on your bike gear. So an amazing woman got my wetsuit off, handed me my shoes, sunglasses, helmet, asked if I had everything, gave me words of encouragement, and sent me on my way. I grabbed my bike and ran it out of transition.

When I reached the line to mount my bike, I hopped on and tried to pedal and nothing happened. I figured I must just have the bike in a hard gear so I tired again and still I could not move the pedals. A volunteer ran over to me and said he’d help me get on the bike but then he looked down and said- wait, your chains off. He pulled me over to the side and went to work getting the chain back on the gear but it was really jammed in, stuck to the side of the bike. He kept working on it and after a few minutes finally managed to get it unstuck and back on the gear. My savior! I’m not sure I would have been strong enough to do that myself. I thanked him profusely as he helped me on my bike that now worked and I pedaled off to start the 112 mile bike portion of the race.

Ironman Coeur d’Alene is known for its hilly bike course of which you get to do two loops. It consists of two separate out and backs. The first out and back is flat and goes through the town and follows the lake for some beautiful views. The second out and back is on a highway and is where the hills kick in. It’s honestly nothing horrible or too steep, but it’s just a lot of slow chugging away up hills. We had driven that part of the course the day before so I knew what to expect and it all felt pretty much as I thought it would. I chugged up those hills and tried to make myself go as fast as possible downhill- not my favorite thing to do.

Soon I was back to the flattish out and back section for a second lap when I began to realize that I’d made a mistake nutrition-wise. I had been drinking water at every aid station but not dumping extra into my bottles so I completely ran out of water. I still had about 5 miles to go until I reached a point 62 or so miles in where we had “special needs” bags waiting for us in which I had placed a refill of water and some liquid nutrition I was so thirsty and could feel myself getting that tingly dehydrated feeling and began to get worried but managed to make it to my special needs bag, filled up my bottle, and from then on made sure I refilled my water bottle at every single aid station. After that I was fine but definitely a lesson learned.

The second loop of the hilly section went well at first but around mile 85/90 or so I just felt slow and over it. It was windy there too which made progress feel even slower. I kept moving forward and suddenly came to a downhill section where moments earlier a rainstorm had passed by. It was no longer raining but the road was wet enough that the water sprayed up on me in a nice cool mist. Everyone around me, myself included, all sighed “awww” when we hit that section. It felt amazing! The wet road lasted for a few miles and completely revived me. I was happy after that and started to get very excited about the fact that I was about to complete the bike portion of the Ironman. Each section felt like such an accomplishment.

I rode into transition grinning and sat on the ground to get my running shoes and race bib on. I also pulled on a pair of compression socks. A lot of triathletes pee on the bike during such a long race but I just couldn’t, plus I was probably dehydrated the first half, but sitting on that ground it all came out. I was definitely re-hydrated and ready to run. I got up and began the 26.2 mile run of the Ironman.

My first thought as I began to run was- how in the world am I going to do this? Running felt horrible. I ran out with another girl and we made a turn past a group of people who yelled- looking good! She laughed and said to me, “we look good?” I told her, “well, I’m glad we look good because I sure don’t feel it”, and she agreed. But I figured as long as I kept moving forward I could complete the race now within the 17 hour time period even if that meant walking the entire thing. Just knowing that was an encouragement. Another encouragement was that my hip seemed ok! The bike ride had warmed it up.

The run course consisted of 3 loops through town and along the lake. This gave me lots of opportunities to see my husband, friends, and coach, all of whom shouted words of encouragement, asked how I was feeling, and gave me updates on my place in my age group. All was good until around mile 5 my stomach revolted and I quickly got to a port-a potty. After several minutes of not fun I felt good enough to get back to it and continued on my way. Luckily my stomach was fine from then on.

I settled into a pace that felt difficult but not impossible and just kept running. I walked through every aid station drinking some water, pouring the rest on my head, and dumping ice down my sports bra. Then I would start running again until the next aid station where I would repeat the process. About halfway through I began to add coke (the drink!!) to the ritual which tasted amazing at that point.

Towards the end of my second loop my calf’s started to cramp up some. I switched to Gatorade at the aid stations in hopes of staving off severe cramping which I could see had happened to many people out there. At this point more and more people were walking but I never felt like I had to, just kept running at a pace that felt doable.

I saw my coach at the beginning of the third lap and he informed me that if I kept running at the pace I was I should outrun 4 girls ahead of me in my age group’s ranking’s because they were running at a slower pace than me. I told him about my legs cramping some and he said- “this is the part of the race that feels like hell; just keep running.” And so I did. I kept running, my pace definitely slowing but kept the effort the same. I still walked through every aid station but at this point there were a few where I just dumped water on my head and didn’t drink because I was becoming water logged. The miles slowly ticked off.

Finally I made it to the split in the road that I had been waiting all day to get to. “To finish line” was written on the ground with a large arrow pointing to a spilt in the path away from the path that brought you to the second and third loop. I turned onto that path with a massive smile on my face- the finish line was right up ahead.

Only it wasn’t! At least not as close as I wanted it to be. I turned a corner into downtown Coeur d’Alene and there was one more hill for me to run up. So cruel! But I happened to be the only competitor at this section and the streets were absolutely packed with spectators all of whom were cheering me on. It was amazing and I could not stop smiling, even running up that one last hill. As I reach the top a guy yelled out- turn the corner and there’s the finish line. And he was right! I turned the corner and saw a nice downhill that ran into the red carpet Ironman finishing shoot. People were cheering and screaming all around me. I got in the shoot and gave high-fives to every person that stuck their hand out. Then I head the announcer say the words every first time Ironman competitor dreams of “Heather Goyette, you are an Ironman”. It was surreal and so amazing. I couldn’t believe I’d done it!

Because far fewer women compete in Ironman’s than men, certain races will offer more slots for woman to go to the World Championships in Kona Hawai’i (the birthplace of Ironman) and Coeur d’Alene was one of those races. With my place in my age group and those extra slots I was able to qualify for Kona. Another surreal moment!

I’m excited for Kona, but that’s not my favorite part. I loved to learn that I could really push myself in both training and the race to do things I wasn’t sure were possible. I loved the process, the hard work, the exhaustion, the pain, the eating all the things, and then whining about it all and getting up and doing a little more the next day. Such a sense of accomplishment. But truly my favorite part is the triathlon community. All are amazing people and athletes, everyone with their own story and reason for completing an Ironman. Every last one of them inspires me. It’s a community that I’m very proud to be a part of.