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IM Coeur D'Alene or IM lake Placid? Help me choose
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I'm planning on doing one of these races in '21. I know that the course profiles and weather conditions are likely to be similar. Help me decide which is the better race. I live in Florida so travel will be involved with both.
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Re: IM Coeur D'Alene or IM lake Placid? Help me choose [crujones#33] [ In reply to ]
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I’ve done both and you can’t go wrong with either one. Both beautiful areas for a race, challenging courses and good crowd support on race day. If I had to pick one, I’d go with LP only where it’s closer for me to get to. Visiting the Olympic sites there is pretty cool also.



"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

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Re: IM Coeur D'Alene or IM lake Placid? Help me choose [crujones#33] [ In reply to ]
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I had same question, but since CDA is only every few years where LP is yearly my plan is CDA in 2021 and LP in 2022.
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Re: IM Coeur D'Alene or IM lake Placid? Help me choose [crujones#33] [ In reply to ]
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I've done both and you can't go wrong with either. All things being equal, I think I enjoyed LP a little more. A couple logistical things to consider: 1) LP is a longer drive from the airport, and 2) I found LP to be significantly more expensive.

Courses:
Swim: Advantage LP (barely)
CdA: Lake swim, cold and pretty wide open, beach start. The year I did it was very windy and choppy, but still a great swim.
LP: Amazing swim! Clear cold water, There's a cable running beneath the surface that everyone uses as a lane line, even if your not on it, you can trust that the mob is swimming straight and just sight of the swimmers around you.

Bike: advantage LP
CdA: the first out and back is a little technical, but is also pretty scenic along the lake. The portion on the highway is't the best course I've been on, but it's definitely not the worst. Wind can definitely be a factor on the out. Friends and family get to see you 3 times during the ride.
LP: Amazing loop. Couple of tough climbs, but generally a gorgeous ride with some decent flat areas to settle in. Freinds and family only get to see you once at the loop end/start.

Run: advantage CdA
CdA: Far, only one bad climb at the end of the out. Tons of fans partying along the route, and the parts with no fans are along the lake and is a nice run.
LP: Really hilly, multiple steep ups and downs on each loop. Great fans in town, but about half of each loop is very secluded on a back country road.

Transition/Friends & Family/Fans: Slight edge to LP because we enjoyed the town more as a whole.
CdA: Because of the double out and back or "figure 8" of the bike course, your F&F will see you more often. All in all, I think they saw me 8 times throughout the day and it was spread out pretty evenly. Town really gets behind the event and comes out to support it. Cost was pretty reasonable both for lodging and the local eateries. Finish line pretty cool, 5 lane wide road, slightly downhill and packed with fans and you have it mostly all to yourself, pretty damn memorable. Airfare was into Spokane and less than an hour drive to CdA.
LP: The Run course has tons of support in town and is also a double out and back (although one is really short). F&F saw me 8 times as well, but it is mostly during the run. Transition is pretty cool at the Olympic skating rink and the finish line is pretty epic. Cost is jacked up for IM weekend. Lodging is crazy expensive and sells out early, restaurants have alternate IM week menus with higher prices, transportation is most likely into Albany and then a 2+ hour drive.
Last edited by: HoustonAg: Sep 1, 20 12:47
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Re: IM Coeur D'Alene or IM lake Placid? Help me choose [crujones#33] [ In reply to ]
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I have done each 3 times. Really quite similar. Do you have kids? CdA is my wife's all time favorite for being with kids. All three times we rented a house walking distance to the start. There is a playground in the large park by the TA. It is easy to walk to the bagel shop, and around town. We stayed a week at both places each time . . . lots of good day excursions from both. You really can't go wrong. I'd probably do CdA if I could only go to one.

David
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Re: IM Coeur D'Alene or IM lake Placid? Help me choose [HoustonAg] [ In reply to ]
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Lake Placid is a better choice, the water at CDA can be excessively cold.
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Re: IM Coeur D'Alene or IM lake Placid? Help me choose [tcesni] [ In reply to ]
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How cold is excessively cold? Are we talking low-mid 50s? So colder than Pacific Ocean swim starts (e.g., Oceanside and Santa Cruz in high 50s / low 60s)? Or just colder than however it is you might define optimal?
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Re: IM Coeur D'Alene or IM lake Placid? Help me choose [wintershade] [ In reply to ]
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wintershade wrote:
How cold is excessively cold? Are we talking low-mid 50s? So colder than Pacific Ocean swim starts (e.g., Oceanside and Santa Cruz in high 50s / low 60s)? Or just colder than however it is you might define optimal?

I've done CdA twice and DNS but spectated a 3rd one. First time was mid 60s, 2nd one was 50 something. The year I didn't start was the heat wave whenever that was - 2015? The water was very warm, barely wetsuit legal.

Mid 60s is a good bet most of the time.
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Re: IM Coeur D'Alene or IM lake Placid? Help me choose [wintershade] [ In reply to ]
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Having lived about 4 miles from the IM CDA swim start for a number of years, I would say ‘excessively cold’ is a bit of an exaggeration. At the end of June most locals will have been out there for a month already. There was one year (2010 or 2011 I think) where it was super cold. But pretty much the very other year most people would be perfectly fine in a short sleeve wetsuit.

Matt
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Re: IM Coeur D'Alene or IM lake Placid? Help me choose [Chemist] [ In reply to ]
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Both courses are great. Lake Placid is an amazing town and insanely expensive the week of the race. Neither race will occur in 2021. Register after you have your vaccine.
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Re: IM Coeur D'Alene or IM lake Placid? Help me choose [HoustonAg] [ In reply to ]
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HoustonAg wrote:
I've done both and you can't go wrong with either. All things being equal, I think I enjoyed LP a little more. A couple logistical things to consider: 1) LP is a longer drive from the airport, and 2) I found LP to be significantly more expensive.

Courses:
Swim: Advantage LP (barely)
CdA: Lake swim, cold and pretty wide open, beach start. The year I did it was very windy and choppy, but still a great swim.
LP: Amazing swim! Clear cold water, There's a cable running beneath the surface that everyone uses as a lane line, even if your not on it, you can trust that the mob is swimming straight and just sight of the swimmers around you.

Bike: advantage LP
CdA: the first out and back is a little technical, but is also pretty scenic along the lake. The portion on the highway is't the best course I've been on, but it's definitely not the worst. Wind can definitely be a factor on the out. Friends and family get to see you 3 times during the ride.
LP: Amazing loop. Couple of tough climbs, but generally a gorgeous ride with some decent flat areas to settle in. Freinds and family only get to see you once at the loop end/start.

Run: advantage CdA
CdA: Far, only one bad climb at the end of the out. Tons of fans partying along the route, and the parts with no fans are along the lake and is a nice run.
LP: Really hilly, multiple steep ups and downs on each loop. Great fans in town, but about half of each loop is very secluded on a back country road.

Transition/Friends & Family/Fans: Slight edge to LP because we enjoyed the town more as a whole.
CdA: Because of the double out and back or "figure 8" of the bike course, your F&F will see you more often. All in all, I think they saw me 8 times throughout the day and it was spread out pretty evenly. Town really gets behind the event and comes out to support it. Cost was pretty reasonable both for lodging and the local eateries. Finish line pretty cool, 5 lane wide road, slightly downhill and packed with fans and you have it mostly all to yourself, pretty damn memorable. Airfare was into Spokane and less than an hour drive to CdA.
LP: The Run course has tons of support in town and is also a double out and back (although one is really short). F&F saw me 8 times as well, but it is mostly during the run. Transition is pretty cool at the Olympic skating rink and the finish line is pretty epic. Cost is jacked up for IM weekend. Lodging is crazy expensive and sells out early, restaurants have alternate IM week menus with higher prices, transportation is most likely into Albany and then a 2+ hour drive.

Also done both races and agree with this breakdown. The run at CdA is significantly more "fun," both as a racer and a spectator. The park that you do a circuit around at CdA at the end of each out and back is great for the family to hang out and see you while you run around it. I also remember a lot more people being out on the run course as a whole whereas LP had more "alone" time.

I also thought the LP bike course was harder due to a lot of climbing at the END of the bike versus CdA ends with a descent. It's nice to descend at the end of 112 miles and freshen up for the run instead of grinding into a headwind back to transition.

LP is also a much bigger race than CdA so the town is a lot busier. I raced CdA in 2017, the last year they had a full Ironman there and I think less than 1000 people started. Personally, I like a little less congestion and less Mdots when walking around town before and after so that was nice about CdA ;-).

Mark Saroni
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Re: IM Coeur D'Alene or IM lake Placid? Help me choose [wintershade] [ In reply to ]
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Generally water temps are 58-63 degrees in Cd'A in late June.
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