I am an Ironman

Well it finally happened. For the past months, indeed the year, I've been having this race hang over my head like a guillotine.

On Sunday June 27th at 7am i stood on the precipice of the most difficult experience of my life to date. I surveyed the crowd of over 2200 fellow participants, each suited for battle in their wetsuits and quickly took in the raw reality of what was about to happen to my body. To put it simply - if my body was someone else, a friend for example, rather then part of myself. Well I was about to kick the crap out of it.

Somewhere in the distance unheard by me, a gun shot went off. Suddenly the mass of 2200 neoprene wetsuits rushed into the cold waters of Lake Coeur d'Alene. I'm not a good swimmer - lets just make sure you know that. I just learned to swim a year ago. Swimming by yourself is tough, but swimming with 2000 people surrounding you is impossible. I really can't count how many elbows to the head, kicks to the arm that i got. Sometimes it was a struggle just to stay afloat. Somehow I came out of the water in 1hr19min. Super fast for me. Best part, I was feeling great and smiling!

After having my suit ripped off of me by some volunteers I made it out of the transition area in 6.5minutes. Not bad. Finally! On my bike, my favorite part. Or so i thought. I absolutely killed the first loop of the 112miles. Completed it in 2hr48min. But alas the second loop not so good. At about the 60mile mark disaster struck. My quads began to cramp. I tried to work around them, but then on one of the steeper hills in the course both of my knees completely locked up in a spasming cramp. I could do nothing but stop the bike and just stand there with knees bent, praying for them to release. After a minute they did. And I walked the hill. For the rest of the 52miles I biked through cramped legs. I had to lower my pace on straights, only able to reach my high gears on a few downhills. Then there was the uphills. I biked as slow as I could go with keeping my cadence high enough to not enact a cramp. However, they eventually seized. While the pain was nothing new, this time I refused to get off the bike. Often unclipping one foot while it cramped and pedaled with one foot to let it regain itself. I finished the last 52miles in 3.5hrs and had to get off the bike only once (shameful I know). I didn't know what made me pedal through that kind of pain, all I can remember the last 20miles was "Lord, get me off this God forsaken bike". In hindsight, Im not sure why I wanted that, because I next had to run 26.2miles.

Coming into the transition area, the dawning of the run came pretty quickly. Any hopes that the motion and operation of my legs in running being different then that of biking would save me from the cramps were quickly and effectively destroyed. I tied the shoestrings, and took one step to feel my right calf seized and my body jump into a hop/run. A form of running i would learn to perfect through the next 26.2miles. Running on cramped muscles in my legs is the most difficult experience I have ever gone through. I have heard the term "mind over matter" all my life, but never realized as I did Sunday. I could only hobble on my legs for 20-40 yards before my entire lower body spasmed and siezed up causing my run to diminish into a walk. This was the pattern that I followed for the rest of the race. After 26miles I turned the corner for the last .2mile downhill stretch through downtown Coeur d'alene.

"What's another .2miles of hell huh? Pain heals, toughen the F*&% up. Here i go"

With everything I had left in me, I sprinted. Within 50 steps my right thigh seized, but i kept the forward motion. 100 steps both calves go, somewhere around 200 steps the knee muscles are shot. But I was accustomed to the pain now, I knew i could keep my legs moving forward. The homestretch took me down a corridor with bleachers of spectators on either side, I know there was a roar of a crowd, a commentator saying that "Alec Cattain, you are an Ironman" but I couldn't hear it. I lifted my arms to either side, my legs didn't hurt anymore, they were an unstoppable machine, pushed forward by gravity, momentum, and shear will. I lifted my arms one last time, thanked the creator who made my body, and knew it wouldn't fail me. I crossed the finish line. 13hr18min.


Those are the words of the most painful and difficult experience I have ever done. I had to overcome a mental and physical barrier that I could not imagine. Its hard to capture in the moment what pushed me forward. Some of it was disappointment, in myself, in my friends, and in my family. I didn't want that. Some of it was the challenge, how bad did i want this? Can you do it?

But ultimately, a tribute to a God who created me uniquely and loved me enough to inspire me to do such things. It would have been great to have done the race without cramping, maybe get a better time, but I wouldn't have it any other way. My legs, the pain, provided more then an obstacle, it built my character.