Timberman 70.3

Lessons learned: stick to a race plan, and follow it - nothing new on race day. Break each leg of the triathlon into segments. most important: stick to a training regimen consistently!!!

The weekend started with me obsessively checking the bike case and insides for damages as it came out of Boston Logan’s baggage claim. After breathing easy, we got through the car rental, and started our drive up to Gilford, New Hampshire – it started pouring! Great start to the weekend! The flight had arrived late, so we were unable to make it to the race site in time to attend the dinner with the pro’s. Bummer. Anyway, we made to the race site, and Timberfest began! It rained through the sprint, and it rained while I checked my bike in and tied plastic trash bags all over it, but the rain stopped race morning! It cooled down the course, and seemed to make the area so much prettier.

Swim: I began the swim with a pretty good attitude. I had set up transition, gone to the bathroom. Everything seemed set for a pretty good day. The swim was a three leg rectangular course - absolutely gorgeous! could see everyone in the crystal clear water! and the view was magnificent! could even see the buoys from underwater. For the first leg, my focus was to establish a rhythm, and I think I succeeded in doing that because I found a great guy to draft off of (we were fighting for a while, but I ended up just giving way, letting myself behind him, and drafting like a pro!). I did pass him later as my second leg was focused on reach. I had a pretty good rhythm going, felt great in the water (had a sleeveless wetsuit on, as the water was pretty warm around 75 degrees). I happened to stay on course for these two leges, but as I turned onto the third leg (focused on a strong kick), everything seemed to go a little haywire. My calf was acting up a little, and I also ended up about 20m off of the buoys, running into a kayak to correct my course, but I still came out of the water in 35:58 – 21/30 of my age group.

T1: T1 was where I accepted the fact that the day was going to be rough. I had felt a slight twitch in my calf during the swim, and the pain seemed to bloom as I ran out of the water and plopped down to give the wetsuit strippers some space to rip off the neoprene. As they did this, my right calf cramps up and I start squirming on the ground for about 2 seconds until I grit my teeth, grab my wetsuit, and limp away to my transition station. 3:41 in T1 – it was probably all the walking and the fact that I was putting on my garmin watch after fumbling around a little. How do people do this transition in under 2 minutes??

Bike: ohhh the bike ride. Damn, how I wish I had trained more consistently. The first 12 miles were hills. And I felt like I was right in the middle of the pack where I expected myself to be. The ride started great. I started fueling, took an endurolyte and a gel as soon as I got onto the bike followed by some Heed. I felt great on the 12 miles of the hills going out. The next 32 miles were also pretty strong as they were flat and fast! I felt great. Little did I know that around mile 50 – about 4 miles after I dropped my little capsule of endurolytes—would I bonk. I hit the wall hard. For much of the ride, I was out of aero, but I was still averaging about 20 mph for the ride. The last 6-10 miles of the bike ride were misery. My left calf this time tightened up and cramped like none other, and when I tried to stretch it, stand up on the bike, both my quad muscles cramped up, so I was essentially frozen on the bike going about 16 miles per hour and quickly slowing down as we approached a hill. HTFU right? Seems to be a pretty common phrase around these parts nowadays. Definitely used it to get through some of the tougher parts of the race. The longest training ride I had done was around 40 miles, so I was struck unexpectedly by the 50 mile mark monster. No worries. I was struggling to the finish, as all the people I had passed a couple minutes before started passing me again. Then I saw someone in my age group pass me (who I had passed about 20 minutes ago and hadn’t looked back), and I got kinda pissed. I ended up sprinting out of my saddle, gritting through the pain, unstrapping my shoes and feet and beating him to T2 before I lost all respect for myself. Good thing I sprinted to the finish because I finished the bike leg in 2:59:59 –I beat 3 hours!

T2: the bike ride left me in a mess. But I was so happy to be off the bike, I zoomed through T2. Parked my bike, tied my shoes, and took off. 2:27 for T2

Run: the run was 2 loops out and back course along the lake - i'm a sucker for runs along water. However, about .5 miles into the run, I couldn’t jog anymore. Both of my quads completely seized up (you may already know, but my nutrition for the 70.3 was SO inadequate). I was tiptoe-ing, trying to calm my legs and thinking about what I had gotten myself into, and to my lucky stars, two volunteer angels came running out of no where and offered my two endurolytes which I took down with a gulp of Gel. ugh!(does anyone want to make a sequel to the “its all about performance” music video with a follow up about how its actually “all about nutrition”?). as I walked it off, I knew I would finish. It was never a doubt in my mind. I’m too stubborn and too willing to hurt myself to get to the goal even if my training hadn’t been as intense as it should have been. As I started feeling better, I started jogging, but I had about 5 other separate occasions where I was reduced to feeble tiptoeing due to quad cramps. I got through the run, with a pretty sprint to the finish!! The pictures are online at http://www.asiorders.com/go.asp?58074481 I was number 1552 and you can see the insanity on my face as I am SOready to cross the finish line! And what is the cherry on top? But Chrissie Wellingon herself! She is standing there greeting all the finishers, and she actually put my finishers medal on me! I finished the run in 2:28:07, and my total time for my first 70.3 was 6:10:12. Something I’m perfectly ok with because I realized during the race that I was fit enough to do the race at least 30 minutes faster (if not more) just with some longer training rides and consistency!

Next time (oh yes, I’m already thinking about it!) I look forward to tearing that first time to shreds with a new PR!

Thanks to everyone on this forum- you probably remember me fretting, and I thank you all for helping me through it! but I got through! and I’m pretty sure I’ll be at Timberman again next year!

Cheers, and good racing.