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 Swim
Comments: I started just behind the first row and in about the middle of my wave. Began swimming right on the start signal and was able to find my own space fairly quickly. For the first time in a swim, I could actually see the feet I was trying to follow. What a difference! I was able to do some nice drafting in sections of this swim, but after almost every buoy I found that the feet I was following would angle too sharply and start on a bad line towards the next buoy. So I had to forgo the drafting for large chucks of time as well. Going out to the first turn went fairly smoothly, but as we turned the chop became noticeably worse. You could feel yourself riding up and down the swells. And sighting became challenging due to this. Still, I felt OK most of the time. At the second (and last) turn, the swells that were coming right at us began to push from the side. Here it became more challenging as there were fast swimmers behind catching up and many slower swimmers from earlier waves that I was catching. I really had no idea how my swim was going time-wise. I felt good, but all the bouncing around from the water made it tough to tell what kind of pace that was putting me on. As I got closer to the end of the swim, I began to kick a little more to get the blood flowing to my legs before standing. When I did stand, I felt my right hamstring tighten and was afraid it was about to cramp. Fortunately it did not. And while I would notice the tightness a few times on the bike & run, it never got worse than that. As I passed the timing mat I hit my lap button on my watch and saw 33:xx. Awesome! Despite the conditions, I had come in at just about my "ideal" goal pace. And better, I felt really good! (After hitting the timing mat, I also changed my watch display to show lap time instead of running time. I did this only so I could see where I was on the bike later, but I would find this became a really good desciion on the run.) What would you do differently?: Nothing. I felt great getting out of the water which was my goal.  Transition 1
Comments: Had my stuff sitting inside a plastic trash bag to stay dry. Took my time once the wetsuit was off to make sure I had everything. Got my socks on without getting them too wet (like that would matter much soon) and tightened my shoes since I didn't want to worry about them on the hill which you hit immediately out of T1. What would you do differently?: Nothing. HIMs are too long to worry about a few seconds here.  Bike
Comments: There's a lot I could write about this ride but in short, I loved it! I really enjoyed the variety of terrain. The climbing, the descents and the flats were a great mix. I started out easy, but the climbing right out of T1 made it difficult to bring my HR down as low as I would have liked. Still, I could watch my watts and see that I was doing a good job of not pushing these early hills. I was generally passing people on the descents, but getting passed on the climbs--another sign that I was probably doing a good job of holding back at this point. My HR did trend down fairly steadily over the first 30min of the ride. My trip up the "Monstah" sent me up over my LT briefly, but I felt good and quickly recovered to z2 after that. Once I hit 106 (the "flat" portion of the course), I held in z2 and kept the watts in the low 200s (varying it somewhat according to the terrain). Somewhere out here the rain began to pick back up again, but it never really bothered me much at all. Also out here, I began to find a few riders who were from my AG and about my pace. There was no real drafting (saw very little of that on this course actually), but we traded positions several times over this stretch. One guy in particular stuck out since he had on a jersey with bright yellow in it. And he asked me if my PT was working on one of his passes. His apparently was not so I was glad I had gone with the more rain resistant model at that point. (With about 5mi to go though, mine would also stop working.) Coming back, I still felt good and now there were very few people passing me on either climbs or descents. I was pushing a bit harder on the climbs now and use the descents for recovery. But I did take it easier on the final climb before transition to just spin my legs easy and get ready for the run. I drank my 2 bottles of Gu2O and 1 Gatorade Endurance I picked up. I ate roughly 9 gels and took a couple Endurolytes (mostly because of some tightness I still felt in my right hammy as I was hoping to ward off any cramping). What would you do differently?: Nothing. Again, I felt good on this ride and got to the run feeling strong. That was my goal. Transition 2
Comments: Ran in my bike shoes since there was no reason to make my socks any worse than they already were (probably hard to do much worse at that point, but that was my rationalization anyway). Removed my helmet and glasses (no need for them today on the run) and tossed them into the plastic bag. Took the bike shoes off and slipped on my running shoes. Emptied my pockes of everthing but my Endurolytes, grabbed my race belt and running cap. Then I was off. What would you do differently?: Again, I could save a few seconds but really don't see the reason at this stage. Better to be sure I've got everything set in a race of this distance.  Run
Comments: I actually started this run in z1 and hit the first mile in just over 8min. I would have worried that I was going too fast if my HR weren't so low. For most of the next 5-6mi, I stayed in mid z2 other than on the hills and my pace was generally in the 7:40-7:50 area. Since it was cool and wet, I didn't feel the need to stop at every aid station (I think there were 15 on this run!). But I did take something at most and would walk to drink. I took one gel and a few Endurolytes at one point when I felt my hamstring tighten again. Once I finished the first loop, I began to up the effort a little and was runnning mostly in z3. I was still feeling good and I put up a few miles around 7:20. Near the turn-around the second time, I caught up to the guy from the bike with the bright yellow on his jersey (he had passed me on the first loop) and wished him luck. At 10mi I began pushing a little more and was touching z4. I was beginning to tire, but still felt good for this stage of the race (much better than my first HIM last year). But I think the combination of getting tired and trying to run harder causes me to break form and I got some side stitching again. I had to take 2 or 3 brief walk breaks to get the stitch out of the way. During this time yellow jersey man and I traded positioning a few times. He asked if I was trying to sandbag him and I told him it was just a side-stitch. I caught back up to him with a little over a mile to go. His pace was faster now and I was running stride-for stride with him. "How bad do you want it?", I asked. He answered, "How's bad's your side stitch?" and took off. He got about 30 yards or so on me but then held there. I started accelerating at the 12mi marker and as I passed him I said, "It's feeling much better now, thanks!" I pushed at a pretty solid pace the rest of the way in, but he passed me at a sprint in the last 100 yards and got me by 4sec. What would you do differently?: Look over my shoulder and see if I should try to sprint? :-) No, not really. This run went as well as I could have hoped and I'm not sure I had anything left for a sprint at that point anyway. Even with the side stitch, my last 1/4 was my fastest and I negative split the run. Post race
Warm down: Went to get my chip off and saw my sister sitting down gettng hers removed. She had held me off and finished just ahead of me. Congratulated Mr. Yellow Jersey who was also there--his name is Scott. As I left the finishing area I went to check my total time. As I had shifted the display to lap time, I was only watching my HR and the time for each mile split during the run--no total for the run or overall. As I checked the total time I saw 4:59:18. Even if I had messed up the start & stop points a little, I had broken 5hrs! I let out a loud whoop and pumped my fists in the air. I had not expected a result like that and I actually think not being aware of it probably helped. My sister and I tried to get a message, but the line was too long so we settled for a walk in the water to cool our legs off. I then went to clean up my transition area and thank Scott for helping to push me over those final miles. We got our Jordan's ice cream (yum!) and some other food. I thought about getting my free beer, but decided to wait until I got home and showered. Ran into a few of the BTers (Mark, Joel, Steve, John) and went to check the results. My sister finished 8th in her AG and had the option of a slot to the 70.3 WC. She decided not to take it, but once again she had a great race as well. I'm going to have to work hard to stay ahead of her at LP next year. What limited your ability to perform faster: Faster? I'm sure I can get faster with more training, but I'm not sure I could have gone much faster on this day. The support on this course was great. Especially considering the conditions were far worse for them than for those of us racing. My family was amazing--my wife, 3 kids, 2 sisters, my parents and my in-laws. They hung out near B. Mae's on the bike course wearing matching bright green shirts, yelling screaming, ringing cow bells. Then they moved over to near the turn-around on the run course and stayed there for all 4 passes by both my sister and me. They were a huge boost and I can't thank them enough for hanging out there despite the conditions. They also deserve some of the thanks in helping me hit my time. Event comments: All the accolades this race receives are well deserved. Anyone with the chance should try to do it. The volunteers were amazing and this was in bad conditions. The course is great. And the RD is the best in the business. Last updated: 2005-12-05 12:00 AM
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United States
EndorFun
68F / 20C
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 135/1414
Age Group = M35-39
Age Group Rank = 28/221
Sorry for the delay and the length. There's a lot I'd like to remember about this race though. :-)
Arrived in NH on Thursday afternoon so plenty of time to rest from the drive. Weather was beautiful that day. Drove the bike course on Fri and then did the first 3 & last 3 miles of the course to spin the legs out and test out a couple of the hills--felt good. Weather was again amazing.
On Sat., my sister (who arrived on Fri. night) and I did an easy test swim at Ellacoya. Water was nice and clear, though a bit choppier than I had expected. We did an easy run after that on the first part of the run course, took care of registration and went to rack the bikes. Met up with Rob, Mark, Max, Joel & Sunny at B.Mae's on the way--always nice to meet a few more BT faces. Weather this day was a bit overcast--actually perfect for racing. However, as we racked the bikes, the first drops of the predicted rains began to fall.
Awoke at @4:30. It was only raining very lightly at this point, though it had rained harder overnight. Perhaps the worst was behind us. Had 2 Ensure Plus, a Clif bar, an OJ and a cup of coffee. At about 5am, the rains began to pick up and soon it began to pour again--oh, well!
Picked my sister up a little before 6am and headed to B.Mae's to catch the shuttle bus. Our driver apparently wasn't aware that he was allowed to take the "back" way into the park through the run course, so we sat in traffic with all the cars until a little after 6:30. My sister and I decided to get out and walk the last 1/4mi. in case they actually decided to start the race on time (7am).
Got to transition and set up my things inside a plastic trash bag in an attempt to keep things somewhat dry. It became clear that we weren't going to start on time since there were dozens of cars still trying to get into the park at 7am. I had planned to wait to put on my wetsuit since my start time was about 45min after the first wave, but decided it would actually help keep me warm in the cold rain. So donned it early and headed over to the swim start area once they announced that the race would start about 40min late. Bumped into Mark & Rob again. So along with my sister, I had a few people to help me pass the time until my wave started and help keep the race anxiety at bay.
Got into the water for a few minutes, warmed the wetsuit and took some strokes to loosen up and check my goggles (had a bit of panic as they started leaking water at first, but they just weren't adjusted properly). Other than that, I was planning on "warming-up" in the swim.