Home course, hot finish (with video)

COEUR d'ALENE - By finishing seventh in Sunday's Ironman Coeur d'Alene triathlon, Derek Garcia notched his best Ironman finish in his own backyard.

Garcia, a 2002 Coeur d'Alene High graduate, came through the finish line on Sherman Avenue with a time of 8 hours, 57 minutes and 57 seconds - the fastest triathlete from the local area in his fourth Ironman Coeur d'Alene, and second as a professional triathlete. He will spend this summer in Coeur d'Alene, before going to San Diego this fall, where he lives part of the year.

A strong professional male contingent represented the local area. Nathan Birdsall was second among local competitors and was overall (9:28.42), while Rick Floyd of Post Falls was the third area resident to finish and 14th overall (9:32.59). Floyd is a 2002 Post Falls High graduate and Birdsall is a 2005 Lakeland High graduate.

Coeur d'Alene's Danielle Parks, a non-professional who works at the cafe near Boardwalk Marina, was first among local female competitors in her third Ironman Coeur d'Alene. The 27-year-old was 11th in her 25-to-29 age group (12:04.49), which was her personal best in the race. Her husband, Tony Parks, also competed in the Ironman race.

"I am satisfied," Garcia said of his performance and placing. "Because you can't control what the other guys do. I pretty much got everything out of my body that I could and I wanted to finish higher. I wanted to finish in the top five in this race. But I'm not disappointed, I just have to keep working. Last year I was 12th and a lot further back and so I'm making progress. It's a hard sport."

With the exception of the early part of the swim portion, Garcia led the entire way among local males.

"Rick led for the first 100 meters of the swim and that's about it," Garcia said.

That doesn't mean Garcia, who also coaches athletes, didn't have his challenges part of the way.

"From the get-go, it was extremely windy," Garcia said. "I swim out here a lot. It's one of the choppiest days that I've been out there. And it was brutal on the bike, it was really windy. I went three or four minutes faster than last year on the bike course and the wind was really kicking out there."

Garcia said he will race in Ironman 70.3 Lake Stevens in Lake Stevens, Wash., and possibly Ironman Boulder on Aug. 3, plus next week he will go camping with his family in Priest Lake.

Floyd performed very well, considering Sunday was the 30-year-old's first Ironman race.

"It was harder than I thought it was going to be because of the wind," Floyd said. "The run course was amazing. The venue was a dream."

Floyd used to work at The Coeur d'Alene Resort as a bellhop. He became a professional triathlete last July and this was his third pro race.

"The first time I'd ever even heard about triathlon was when I came to watch this race in 2005," Floyd said. "Before that, I didn't even know what a triathlon was. I didn't want to come back until I could race it as a pro, so it took me a little longer than expected. It was more about the experience than the time the first time around."

At 27, Birdsall is in his second pro season. This was the North Idaho College nursing student's eighth Ironman and fifth one in Coeur d'Alene. This was his best time on the course and Birdsall said he plans on graduating from NIC this winter. Birdsall's personal best time was 9:24 in Arizona and Sunday's race was his best as a pro.

"The swim was a washing machine," Birdsall said. "The bike was really tough going south. The headwind when you are going south was really hard. But I got to the run, it was such a blast. I was pumped, it was the best race. I was always the last male pro out of the water."

Parks has lived in the area for eight years and is from Vancouver, British Columbia. Her husband Tony is a Post Falls High graduate.

"I feel really lucky to have this here," Parks said. "The support was awesome and everybody's great. The swim was awesome. It was cool, because it sucked going out, but on the way in it just kept taking you all the way in."

And Ironman Coeur d'Alene kept bringing plenty of local standouts in.