Are you ready for Ironman?
COEUR d’ALENE — It may be referred to as a “half Ironman,” but Sunday’s 70.3-mile sweatfest will start wet and end the same way.
Beginning at 6 a.m. at Coeur d’Alene’s City Park, more than 2,100 participants will begin their journey to complete a skin-chilling, energy-busting, three-event test of mettle called Ironman 70.3.
The swim phase of the triathlon begins on a 1.2-mile aqua course in Lake Coeur d’Alene. Athletes will have little more than an hour to finish the swim before transitioning to a 56-mile bicycle course that will take participants to a turnaround at Higgens Point, then back to U.S. 95, south to Setters, where competitors will once again turn around and head back to downtown Coeur d’Alene for a 13.1-mile run through the east side of town to Silver Beach and back.
The event will end downtown around 2:30 p.m., when the bulk of the participants will have crossed the finish line after — for some — 8½ hours of grinding.
Temperatures on race day are expected to be around 55 degrees at the starting line, climbing to a sunny 80 degrees at 2:30 p.m.
The first finishers are expected to arrive at downtown’s Sherman Avenue finish line before 10 a.m., but street sections throughout the race area will be closed until the competition is over.
That means downtown streets including Sherman Avenue from Second Street to 12th Street, parts of Lakeside and Mullan avenues, Government Way (from Northwest Boulevard to Garden Way) and Northwest Boulevard (from Lakeside to Hubbard Drive) will be closed or partially closed to traffic between 5:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
Congested road warnings will be in effect until 1 p.m. for U.S. 95 north of the Coeur d’Alene Casino to Coeur d’Alene’s Northwest Boulevard interchange, and for traffic on Coeur d’Alene Lake Drive from 5 to 9:30 a.m. for the bike portion of the race.
Run course road closures include parts of East Lakeshore Drive, sections of Front, 14th, 15th, 17th, 19th and Ash streets, as well as sections of Lost and Young avenues.
More than 12 countries and 42 states will be represented in Sunday’s event, with participants ranging in age from 18 to over 76.
An awards ceremony — and hydration fest — is set for 3 p.m. at City Park.