IM CDA on IMlive right now!

[Running Mommy]

The live video feed seems to be up and running at IM couer d'alene today. I'm watching the action on the bike course. Seems to be a pretty congested course. Kinda hard to avoid drafting IMO.
Mike Reilly said only one person didn't make it out of the water in time, and the last guy that did only had 12 seconds to spare!!
Anyhoo... if you need some Ironman mojo go on ironmanlive.com and check out the action.
If you want someone to cheer for there is a lady named carole from the weight watchers board #2424 and my friend Gail is 2429.

[Nanci]

What's the deal with women-only pros? I don't like that. (Yes, I know the man are going to be at LP).

Nanci

[Lise]

What's the deal with women-only pros? I don't like that. (Yes, I know the man are going to be at LP).

Nanci

Does that mean no male pros at CDA, and no female pros at LP? How odd.

[Running Mommy]

I guess they wanted to "showcase" the pro womens race, so they decided to do one big purse for the women and one for the men. Yeah, it's odd. I don't like it either! I look forward to seeing ALL the pros!! I used to love it when the big names would race Vineman. One yeah PNF (paula newby fraser) did VM and I was STOKED to see her in action!!

[colby]

There are at least one or two really narrow sections of the bike course where it goes on paved trail instead of road. Most of it, though, is on closed streets. Apparently it's considered a pretty flat course, which is pretty true for the most part. I do wonder what the other IM courses look like

Since we live so close to Ironman CdA (the western-most sections of the bike course pass within a few blocks of our house), I keep telling my husband someday he'll be watching me ride by I wish they did a 1/2 IM. At least then I could feel Iron-ish until I'm trained enough to consider the real thing.

There were a couple of newspaper articles about IM, which is cool for triathlon exposure. I was a little turned off by their reference to "plodders" when it comes to an Ironman, but they did acknowledge that any finish is a worthy finish (hell, even signing up for that matter). The article in the "big paper" about IM was a little bit about the medical perspective on triathlon, how your body is impacted during an IM.

I did see a great snippet in our local weekly, unrelated to IM:

Tri, Tri Again
You could tell there were a lot of rookies at the YMCA-sponsored Plunge Pedal Plod triathlon that started at Mission Pool on Saturday morning: bikes with fenders and kickstands, swimmers with huge goggles and baggy swim trunks, lots of murmured questions like "How far do we have to run, again?" (For the record: 3.5 miles, after a 500-meter swim and an 11-mile bike ride along Upriver Drive on a beautiful morning.) But the reason so many first-timer triathlons and women-only triathlons have sprung up is because too many rail-thin, hyper-competitive titanium cranks get their Spandex all in a twist while loudly describing how last week's training went.

And so, all you riders of heavy steel bikes with upright handlebars, you who don't fret about being in the aero position or hydrating properly — you who were literally miles and miles behind the leaders — we salute you. Because you're a long way down the road from watching hours of TV while munching potato chips.

(Copied and pasted from here: http://www.inlander.com/inlandway/302015209320187.php)