Timberman - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The swim start was good. Being tall, I could actually run out past a bunch of the shorter guys who had to start swimming. I stuck tight to the buoys on the right and only passed each one by about a foot. At the first 90 degree right turn, I was right on the buoy. I felt good at this point, but as I rounded the buoy, I noticed the waves starting to pick up. I remembered there was some serious speed boat traffic off in the far distance when we were waiting for the swim to start and I figured the wake had finally come in. I would swim for about ten strokes and then not be able to breath for five or six strokes because waves would crash over me.
About half way I noticed someone to my left starting to gradually creep past me. I noted he was in my wave and that he had a suit with bright red arms, so I jumped on his feet. He was very easy to keep track of because of those red arms and I let him pull me to about 200 yards left and then picked it up a bit and swam past. The finish was a bit crazy, lots of bunching of athletes and I had to sight every two or three strokes to make sure I wasn't on top of anyone.

Not much...felt pretty good. Could have gone harder, but not sure at what point I would lose my form.

I came out of the water and there was a big line of people. Used the wetsuit strippers and they couldn't get my suit off my heels, so a bigger guy grabbed the suit and yanked it off. I couldn't run out of transition because of the line of people. Not a real big deal, I still had a long way to go! I had trouble clipping into my pedals and was frustrated.

Practice with getting into pedals more often

I went out pretty easy on the bike course. I wanted to get into the groove and see how my legs were feeling for the day. I ended up feeling great after mile 10 and was able to push it up the big hill pretty easily. The first male, Andy Potts came flying down that hill at about mach 10....I was impressed.

I felt great going down the back side of that hill and kept picking off one person after another. Only a few people would pass me on the down hills. I kept with a group of about five riders, each of us passing each other over the first half of the bike course. I saw the mile 20 marker, looked down and my watch clicked over to 1 hour. This was okay, but I expected faster, so I picked up speed a bit. It was gradual downhill at this point and I was easily riding 26 mph. I had finished a good portion of my nutrition and enough water to keep me hydrated.
At the turn around there was a bit of wind in my face, but I still felt great. My legs felt strong and no lactic acid had built up at all. I looked down at my watch, 1:20. Okay, my goal was 2:45 so I was on track. I knew the hills on the way back would take a bit of my speed out of me.
I was cruising along in about the center of the median, which was a good 10 ft wide. I looked up, there was a girl to the far right up ahead, I had no one behind me, so I pressed on to pass her. The next thing I knew, I hit something in the road. My front tire hopped to the left, sending me to the right. At this point, my right handle bar bumped the girl that I was passing at about the hip and I went down hard. I heard a large "POP" as I hit the ground. The backside of the left side of my head hit first, then the left side of my upper back and then my right hip. Sort of like a rolling cartwheel. For some reason I immediately stood up and grabbed my bike and got out of the breakdown lane. I can only estimate, but this whole accident and getting out of the median took all of about 3 seconds. I couldn't even tell you what the girl was wearing that I bumped. The only reason I know it was a girl is because she yelled out when I bumped her. She didn't fall and just kept going. The next five or six people to pass asked if I was all right and to my astonishment, I was fine. A little road rash, but nothing broken and only a little blood. I quickly found out that my front wheel was twisted and the tire was flat. Under more investigation...one of the three carbon "spokes" was cracked on one side. Crap...this really sucks. I changed the flat and gave the wheel a turn. Wobbly...but not too bad. It wasn't completely broken, so I gave it a 5mph test drive. Not too bad. I decided to press on. This little mishap wasn't going to ruin my months of training. I took it easy, not knowing if I hit a pot hole, whether or not my wheel would catastrophically fail and I would get a trispoke of carbon in the chest. I eventually rolled into transition and looked at my watch, 3:04. The second half had taken me 25 minutes longer. This was probably going to cost me my goal of 6 hrs. My spirit hadn't been crushed like my $175 helmet and $800 race wheel, but it was a bit banged up. First half 21mph/second half 16mph. Ouch.

Maybe not run over a water bottle!

T2 went smoothly. The cheering crowd and seeing my girlfriend helped me a ton. I was glad to get off the bike and out of that position that was killing my shoulders.

Well, I knew that this was going to be tough and I started out easy. Had to use the porta potty within the first mile. A bit too much water on the bike. I didn't care though, usually dehydrated at this point, I was happy to see that I over did that part. The first loop was all right, my legs felt all right, a bit sore, but not bad. I wanted to stick to about a 10 minute mile and with my little break, I looked at my watch after the first loop and saw 1:10. Okay, this was going to be dangerously close to missing my goal of 6 hrs at this point. I pressed on, but now my upper hamstrings and piriformis muscles were starting to scream at me. I decided to walk the aid stations for some relief. It worked a bit. About half way down towards the turnaround, my stomach decided to attack me and I ran into the porta potty. I though, this is just great, pretty much everything that could happen to me today has happened. I actually felt much better and pressed on. I looked down at my watch at the turn around 5:33. I had 27 minutes to run the last 3.275 miles. I thought to myself...well, that's basically 5k pace and figured, oh well, my goal is out the window, let's get this shit done. Mile marker 12 eventually came and I could hear the announcer calling out racers. This gave me a bit of lift and I cruised into the finish. Happy that I was done with my first HIM.

Nothing

Hugged Kate, received my medal and ate my face off.


My limited run training and a few "bumps" in the road.


Because this was my first 70.3, it was special, but the race was very organized and the volunteers on the bike course and run were fantastic. I had everything I needed to do well.