Timberman 70.3
Our day started pretty early at 3:15 AM. I don’t think that any of us slept very well anyway anticipating the race. We ate quick, bushed teeth, last gear check, then off to transition which opened at 4:30. The direction we were staying in relative to the transition area and where everyone else was staying worked out really well. Since we were coming from the opposite direction we slipped right in without hardly any wait, pretty close up front too.
First order of business…. Get a coffee!! Then set up transition, pump up the tires, and load up nutrition on the bike etc. Stood in the port-o-potty line to take care of business and start to freak out because transition was about to close… Worked out ok and got my wetsuit on quick quick. Time to head to the swim start.
It was kind of chilly out but the wetsuit made up for it. The wet sand on the beach was COLD! Walked in the water because it was warmer there. Met up with a bunch of Cyclonauts. Sara and Andy came up to cheer which was freaking awesome. I gave Rick who was awaiting Dick’s start already in the raft a thumbs up and good race. Quick swim warm up, more to just get my head under water than anything else. 40 – 44 males were the 6th wave. We had about 185 people in our wave. By the time we were off there were 1400 people on the course; big race! Swim was good, albeit slow. My sighting sucked so I ended up off course. After the first turn we were swimming into to sun so that didn’t help. It really got choppy after turn 2 and it was hard to see the swim exit. Made it out in 43:44 which was about 4 minutes slower than I expected. The wetsuit strippers got to work on me… I think that I may have been able to get it off faster myself but who’s counting?
There was a little bit of a run to T1 and I ended up getting out of there in 3:24. Off on the Bike. My heart rate was jacked big time in the 170s initially. This course is 10 or so miles of hills, followed by 30 or so miles of flat to rolling, and then 10 miles of hills back to transition. It’s not exactly an out and back, but some portions have bikes in both directions. Eventually my HR settled down and I ended up at a 159 average for the bike. I wanted to be working pretty hard, but not so hard that I would blow up on the run. This is just under my steady state pace, and above tempo. I raced this race completely by feel so that’s just what it ended up being. Bike was 2:53:05 @ 19.4 mph. Saw a lot of Cyclonauts and passed Kevin and Cindy.
Felt pretty good. T2 was 2:37.
The run course is rolling with 2 loops of a 10K (about). Miles 1 and 2 were a sluggish 9:09 and 8:57. Mile 3 clocked in at 8:29 and from there on out I was at about 9:00 plus or minus for the duration. I saw EVERYBODY on the run course and felt very strong although a little slow. A lot of hand slapping with Mike, Dan, Kevin, Jill, Cindy, Dave, the other Kevin. It was freakin awesome. I cheered for the MRC guy that I always see at local races and fucking prick just kept plodding along without acknowledgement. That's ok because we roasted them in the FIRM points and the NE tri club championships. Maybe he shouldn’t be such an asshole.
The highlight of the run for me was seeing Sara and Andy close to the turnaround cheering like mad; this was an incredible boost and felt great. Got to the turnaround and Kevin M passed me, he was looking incredibly strong and made it look effortless. I saw Dan and him pretty close together and made it my goal to not get passed by Dan on the second loop. When I started out on the second loop I was starting to feel it. Didn’t quite hurt yet, but I knew it was coming. At the turnaround there was ‘Marti Gras street’ which was quite a pick me up which was good, because at mile 10 it started to hurt. Bad. I knew it would come, WTF, it was a ½ IM. It’s gonna hurt. I was able to keep it steady on the way back to the finish. There is 1 pretty good hill that I walked up, finished off my Infinit and committed to finish strong. I was hoping to see Sara and Andy again, and picked up the pace ahead of where they were last time. I don’t know why but it was incredibly important to look good going by them. They’re both incredible athletes; Sara qualified for Kona this year coming in 3rd in her AG at IMLP and Andy may very well have as well but was struck by GI issues at IMLP on the run. They weren’t there but the course was packed with cheering people so I kept the pace up. Now it hurt BAD, I took the left into the ¼ finish chute and my legs and stomach started to cramp up hard. I burned a few too many matches towards the end. To late now, too many people, can’t back off. The cramps are screwing up my stride now, and the last 50 M my legs are just screaming. And its done!! The ½ marathon time is 2:03:10 at 9:25 mm with a total time of 5:46:03. The cool thing is my goal time was 5:45:00. It’s amazing to me that I was able to predict it so close. Next ½ will be mooseman next season as a tune up for IMLP.
First order of business…. Get a coffee!! Then set up transition, pump up the tires, and load up nutrition on the bike etc. Stood in the port-o-potty line to take care of business and start to freak out because transition was about to close… Worked out ok and got my wetsuit on quick quick. Time to head to the swim start.
It was kind of chilly out but the wetsuit made up for it. The wet sand on the beach was COLD! Walked in the water because it was warmer there. Met up with a bunch of Cyclonauts. Sara and Andy came up to cheer which was freaking awesome. I gave Rick who was awaiting Dick’s start already in the raft a thumbs up and good race. Quick swim warm up, more to just get my head under water than anything else. 40 – 44 males were the 6th wave. We had about 185 people in our wave. By the time we were off there were 1400 people on the course; big race! Swim was good, albeit slow. My sighting sucked so I ended up off course. After the first turn we were swimming into to sun so that didn’t help. It really got choppy after turn 2 and it was hard to see the swim exit. Made it out in 43:44 which was about 4 minutes slower than I expected. The wetsuit strippers got to work on me… I think that I may have been able to get it off faster myself but who’s counting?
There was a little bit of a run to T1 and I ended up getting out of there in 3:24. Off on the Bike. My heart rate was jacked big time in the 170s initially. This course is 10 or so miles of hills, followed by 30 or so miles of flat to rolling, and then 10 miles of hills back to transition. It’s not exactly an out and back, but some portions have bikes in both directions. Eventually my HR settled down and I ended up at a 159 average for the bike. I wanted to be working pretty hard, but not so hard that I would blow up on the run. This is just under my steady state pace, and above tempo. I raced this race completely by feel so that’s just what it ended up being. Bike was 2:53:05 @ 19.4 mph. Saw a lot of Cyclonauts and passed Kevin and Cindy.
Felt pretty good. T2 was 2:37.
The run course is rolling with 2 loops of a 10K (about). Miles 1 and 2 were a sluggish 9:09 and 8:57. Mile 3 clocked in at 8:29 and from there on out I was at about 9:00 plus or minus for the duration. I saw EVERYBODY on the run course and felt very strong although a little slow. A lot of hand slapping with Mike, Dan, Kevin, Jill, Cindy, Dave, the other Kevin. It was freakin awesome. I cheered for the MRC guy that I always see at local races and fucking prick just kept plodding along without acknowledgement. That's ok because we roasted them in the FIRM points and the NE tri club championships. Maybe he shouldn’t be such an asshole.
The highlight of the run for me was seeing Sara and Andy close to the turnaround cheering like mad; this was an incredible boost and felt great. Got to the turnaround and Kevin M passed me, he was looking incredibly strong and made it look effortless. I saw Dan and him pretty close together and made it my goal to not get passed by Dan on the second loop. When I started out on the second loop I was starting to feel it. Didn’t quite hurt yet, but I knew it was coming. At the turnaround there was ‘Marti Gras street’ which was quite a pick me up which was good, because at mile 10 it started to hurt. Bad. I knew it would come, WTF, it was a ½ IM. It’s gonna hurt. I was able to keep it steady on the way back to the finish. There is 1 pretty good hill that I walked up, finished off my Infinit and committed to finish strong. I was hoping to see Sara and Andy again, and picked up the pace ahead of where they were last time. I don’t know why but it was incredibly important to look good going by them. They’re both incredible athletes; Sara qualified for Kona this year coming in 3rd in her AG at IMLP and Andy may very well have as well but was struck by GI issues at IMLP on the run. They weren’t there but the course was packed with cheering people so I kept the pace up. Now it hurt BAD, I took the left into the ¼ finish chute and my legs and stomach started to cramp up hard. I burned a few too many matches towards the end. To late now, too many people, can’t back off. The cramps are screwing up my stride now, and the last 50 M my legs are just screaming. And its done!! The ½ marathon time is 2:03:10 at 9:25 mm with a total time of 5:46:03. The cool thing is my goal time was 5:45:00. It’s amazing to me that I was able to predict it so close. Next ½ will be mooseman next season as a tune up for IMLP.
posted by George @ 2:09 PM
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