Hopes for full race power Ironman enthusiasm
LOREN BENOIT/Press file Athletes rush into Lake Coeur d’Alene at the start of the 2019 Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene at City Beach. The full Ironman race returns to Coeur d’Alene on June 27.
This year’s Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene hummed with an atypical buzz, as racers and visitors felt a different kind of excitement in the air.
“I hope we get it back,” Coeur d’Alene’s Derek Garcia said after crossing the finish line of the half-Ironman race Sunday morning.“It” is a complete course, a qualifier that doubles the 70.3 miles Ironman stages around the world, including Coeur d’Alene.
“A lot of us got into this for the full Ironman,” Garcia said. “I know they’re close ... I hope they can put it together for 2021.”
The iconic Coeur d’Alene race joined other Ironman cities in cutting the race in half in 2017 to 70.3 miles — a 1.2-mile swim, followed by a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run —because of event fatigue, which made recruiting volunteers and garnering community support more challenging.
As the North Idaho Sports Commission and the City of Coeur d’Alene negotiate with Ironman on a new contract, word leaked of negotiations including a full race returning to the area on a rotating three-year basis, starting in 2021.
“The City and the North Idaho Sports Commission have been working collaboratively with Ironman to explore possibilities of extending the future relationship in Coeur d’Alene,” Britt Bachtel-Browning, Vice President of the commission, said in a statement June 24. “We are hopeful and excited about the prospects but are still working out details. We will provide updates as soon as we have them.”
Since then, as negotiations progressed, little information has been released from any of the three parties involved. All state they are close. Athletes and support staffs attending Sunday’s race often spoke of the move as if it’s a done deal.
“It’ll be great for the race when it comes back,” Rick Reynolds, a Coeur d’Alene housing supporter of two racers, said Sunday afternoon. “This is already a jewel for Ironman athletes. Taking it back where it was before will just bring more attention and more racers and more revenue to the area.”
City officials warned, however, nothing is set in stone just yet.
“A lot of work to be done by the North Idaho Sports Commission in negotiating their deal with Ironman,” Mayor Steve Widmyer said via text Sunday. “It’s hard to say at this point.”