Every Ironman brings its own unique experiences, and this race was no exception. We opted to drive to this race rather than fly, largely due to the prohibitive costs of flying with a bike (it now costs $300 just to fly my bike!).  We started our trek Tuesday evening (June 16) and made it to Butte, Montana by Wednesday evening.  Everything was going well...until Thursday morning.  I slept well and woke up feeling great.  Then, as I was leaving the room, I dropped my key and bent down to pick it up, and promptly threw out my back in the process! This is not a good thing 3 days before an Ironman. I have a bad lower back and have done this before, but not for a couple years. It typically takes 7-10 days to heal.  In an instant, my race was in question. When we arrived in Coeur d'Alene, ID on Thursday afternoon I could barely walk. I limped into the tent where the Active Release Technique (ART) therapists were working and begged them for some help. They worked on me for about an hour and concluded, "Wow! You're pretty messed up!" Not the words one wants to hear just before the Ironman.  We called many people to pray, and I continued treatments on Friday and Saturday. We had a great IronPrayer service on Friday   evening. By Saturday, I was able to ride my bike and swim a little bit. I ran for a couple miles without too much pain, so I was optimistic for the race.  My back was largely pain-free on race day and I was again reminded of 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Race day held its share of hardships and difficulties, but overall was a good day. The weather was cool and windy. There was a pretty good chop on Lake Coeur d'Alene in the morning which made for an interesting 2.4 mile 2-loop swim. I swam the first loop in 39 minutes and the 2^nd loop in 44 minutes, for a total swim time of 1:23, my slowest Ironman swim to date. This was somewhat intentional, though, as I was really trying to keep a low heart rate with the hopes that my food and drink would digest better than in previous races. However, I drank a lot of water on the swim, which I think contributed to the gastric distress I again experienced later on in the day.

The 112 mile bike leg started out OK, but I started to get quite nauseous by mile 40. This isn't a good thing when there are still 72 miles to go!  I was quite disappointed about this because I thought the cool temperatures and a new nutrition plan would have eliminated the gastric distress that I've experienced in some other races. I tried to force fluids down for the remainder of the bike, but the nausea continued to worsen and I couldn't keep anything down for the last 30 miles or so. As usual, the steep hills seemed even steeper on the 2^nd loop of the