COEUR d'ALENE - Some parts of the wreck are foggy for Ken Marker, and other parts just aren't there.

For the life of him, the 71-year-old Hayden man can't recall the moments right after he crashed so badly on his $3,500 bicycle that the handlebars bent completely around.

"I hit like a sack of rocks," said Marker, whose goal to complete the Ironman Coeur d'Alene triathlon June 23 was quashed after his race-ending bicycle accident on the U.S. 95 Blackwell Bridge. "I was out cold."

He eventually came to and realized event volunteers were pulling him off the course. Bicyclists raced by. Cars in the adjacent traffic lane stopped.

The 28-foot-wide bridge is one of the narrowest points of the race, with two bicycle lanes and two traffic lanes taking up the entire crossing.

An accident there could clog the bridge or cause a pileup.

"They wanted me off the course," Marker said.

Eventually, Marker would get to a medical tent, though he doesn't remember who drove him. The ride over is a blur.

Since then, Marker's four broken ribs are healing nicely, he said, and surgery to repair his right shoulder is scheduled for July 31.

But one memory Marker maintains is crystal clear is pedaling down the sloping bridge and waving his arms at an oncoming motor home, which was hitting cones as it drove north, knocking them into Marker's southbound bike lane.

"All that was between me and traffic was cones," Marker said.

One of those flying cones hit Marker's bicycle, and that's when his race was over. Several witnesses corroborated Marker's account, but the motor home driver, perhaps unaware of the entire situation, never stopped.

Cars behind it did, however.

Claudia Brennan, driving with her son, stopped and called 911.

"He didn't run into the cone - the cone hit him," she said.

Rachael Kaitz, driving with her stepfather, Bill Edwards, also stopped when they saw Marker fall.

"They were coming out of there like cannon balls," Edwards said of the knocked-over cones, up to 15 of them by his count, at least four of which he said went sailing through the air. "These things were flying."

Passing inspection, drawing concern

On race day, bicycle traffic on the Blackwell Bridge crossing the Spokane River is reserved for the east side of the road. Six feet of lanes is split by cones for north and south travel, without room for shoulders, and the narrowness makes it one of two "no passing zones" for cyclists. Immediately west of those are the 11-foot traffic lanes.

Edwards was visiting from Nashville, Tenn., when he witnessed the accident. It was his first time as a spectator at the annual triathlon, which completed its 11th Coeur d'Alene running last month.

His first impression of the Blackwell Bridge crossing on the race course he classified as "sheer insanity."

"That is a narrow bridge to begin with," he said. "They need to address that. Somebody is going to get killed."

Marker agrees. He wants Ironman not only to address the bridge for future races, but wants the race put on by World Triathlon Corporation to cover the expenses he incurred from this year's accident, including bicycle repair - estimated at $1,400.

"They still have an obligation to provide me a safe course," he said. "That's what I paid that $700 entry fee for."

But paying for lost expenses won't happen, said Mac Cavasar, Ironman Coeur d'Alene race director.

He couldn't comment on the accident specifically, but pointed to the comprehensive waiver athletes must sign before participating. The waiver, he said, releases the corporation from liability issues on the closed course.

Even though the course meets federal and state transportation requirements and passes an engineer inspection each year, every athlete's safety on race day still can't be guaranteed, he said.

"This is an inherently dangerous sport," Cavasar said. "I hate to say it, but sometimes accidents like that happen."

The Idaho Transportation Department permits the race to use the highway for the 112-mile bike course. The 11-foot traffic lanes are actually how wide traffic lanes are on the bridge, but during the race they're reconfigured using cones to move the bike lanes to the same side of the road.

Engineers look at the race course as they do construction zones, said ITD District 1 Project Engineer Jerry Wilson.

AASHTO Roadside Design guidelines allow in some instances roads to be reduced to 9 feet, depending on location and traffic volume. Either way, he said, 11-foot lanes aren't uncommon.

Safe crossing?

Some Ironman racers don't think the bridge is a cause for concern - including one whose race also ended that day after a nasty spill after crossing it.

Shai Workman broke her pelvis and cracked her protective helmet nearly in half after crashing on her bicycle near Blackwell Island RV park, the southern crossing of the bridge.

She can't remember the fall, or what caused it, which she said was more than a little unnerving. But she doesn't believe the crossing was to blame, and she's ready to train for the race again once she heals.

"I personally felt safe," she said. "It's tight on the bridge, but when you go out on that course you're putting yourself in a dangerous situation - it's Ironman."

Cavasar said he filed "five or six" incident reports to WTC, essentially race-day accident writeups, from this year's event. That's down from years prior, he said, when the course used to go through residential Hayden, turning 40 some corners and crossing countless driveways.

A Press request to WTC for a copy of the incident reports as well as the number of reports from each of the last four years wasn't returned. Instead, WTC spokesperson Dan Burglund emailed a brief statement.

"There are numerous factors that go into deciding a course and all course changes are based off recommendations from law enforcement public safety officials," it said.

But is Coeur d'Alene's course dangerous?

Challenging, for sure.

As part of the request to WTC, The Press sought the number of incident reports for the last four races at Ironman Lake Placid, N.Y.

Coeur d'Alene's course, which treks up mountain passes, is widely considered challenging in the racing circle. Looking at finisher rates says that reputation is justified.

Of the 2,700 racers who started this year's Coeur d'Alene event, 2,300 finished, for a 15 percent dropout rate. By comparison, representatives at Lake Placid said only 5 percent drop out there.

Difficult - but dangerous?

"If I had to rate the safety I would say it is about even as the old course," said Derek Garcia, a professional racer from Post Falls. "I at no point felt unsafe or uncomfortable during the bike leg. That being said, I am a fairly experienced cyclist."

Changes ahead

Some tweaks to the course could be in place before next year's event.

Namely, bridge cones will likely be switched out to skinnier tubular markers.

Stephanie Hale, ITD District 1 permit coordinator, said law enforcement, state and race officials meet every year to review the race and said this year they discussed a number of things, including Ken Marker's cone accident.

Vehicle lane width will remain the same and ITD will continue to evaluate different options for delineating traffic.

"However alternate traffic control devices, candlesticks (tubular markers), will be used next year between the bike and vehicle lane," she wrote in an email, adding that someone will be stationed on the bridge to maintain the devices throughout the race. "All entities involved will continue to strive to keep the race as safe as possible."

Cavasar said the bridge is already a concentrated area for volunteers, listing more than 10 positions stationed there. He said they switched the course to the highway because of the race's growth year after year.

But the ordeal still leaves Marker with an unsatisfied feeling.

Idaho State Police didn't file a report on the accident, even though Marker reported it to the agency as a hit and run.

But officers see it as a cone versus bike accident on a closed race course, ISP Lt. Chris Schenk said. Even the motorist driving off doesn't warrant a citable offense. Witnesses estimated the driver was going as slow as 5 mph, while others said it was closer to 20 mph.

"There's just not much we can do," Lt. Schenk said. "We don't have anything to show anybody was wrong."

Then there's the reality of coming up short on a goal.

Marker, who attempted but didn't finish Ironman twice before this year's race, said he felt certain he would have finished this year. He trained well and swam faster than he expected on race day. Now he's unsure if he'll attempt the race again.

"I would have been better off," he said, "if they never would have put cones down."