Ironman 70.3 Timberman - Triathlon

Considering how little I had swum in the past year, I did amazingly well. It helps that I'm really comfortable swimming in open water, and I'm much more comfortable swimming in a crowd. It doesn't even bother me when people touch me anymore. I didn't get out of breath in the first few hundred yards at all. I definitely could have swum faster but in light of my lack of training I felt that I had to conserve energy. At one point a girl who was in the wave ahead of me bobbed up ahead with her arms in the air, asking for help. The kayak got to her quickly. This was only in the first leg of the swim. She must have panicked.

Another slow transition for me, but I wasn't in any hurry. I did notice that I didn't feel shaky the way I usually do heading out of the swim.

Started out a little slow, but quickly got into a groove. Big Red was humming along, and I really started to hammer it on the long straight section. Unfortunately I had to stop after only about ten miles to pee, and two times more after that. I only drank about two bottles of water and half of a gatorade, but that is apparently more than I need. I was flying along, though, in between stops and was starting to think I should ease off a bit because I wanted to save for the run. I was averaging over 19mph for the first 30 miles. Unfortunately, my bike fell over during one of the stops; I also got sand in my cleats and had to stop a few hundred yards away to get it out so I could clip in. Based on the difference between my Garman time and the official time, I figure I lost almost ten minutes in stops. Somewhere between 30 and 40 miles, I saw Liz and the boys and got inspired, then discovered that I couldn't drop into the small ring anymore. Jonny passed me a little after that. At about 40 miles, the lack of low gear was starting to hurt me, especially because I now found that I wasn't shifting smoothly into the big rings on my cassette either, just as I got into the hills. I saw one of my twitter friends at around mile 40, but although I was managing to keep up, I stopped to see what the problem with my gears was. It looked like both derailleur cables were crimped, which meant that fixing them wasn't possible on the course. I pressed on, but eased off considerably, knowing that the largest hills were ahead. My legs started to get really tired in miles 45-50, and I was discouraged about a second consecutive year of mechanical issues slowing me down. The combination of these things made me wonder how much walking I was going to end up having to do on the run. It was a fun ride overall, though, despite another year of issues with the bladder and the bike. And note-- there are way too many riders who can't hold a line on the bike, weaving in and out, which is tough when it's a crowded course like Timberman. I did do well with nutrition-- I ate a power bar in sections and drank a little gatorade. No gels.

Obviously, I need to train more. I really only had two months of good bike riding this year. I still did well, though, although needed more time in aero in training. I should be more careful about not letting my bike fall over when I stop, and now I know to tap the sand out of my cleats before hopping on the bike. I guess that I can drink less than I do, especially on a day when it wasn't very warm. The sun came out a bit during the bike, but there was thin cloud cover much of the time.

The guy next to me in transition had racked his bike in my spot, and covered his spot with a huge gear bag. My only option was to put my wheel on his bag, after sliding his bike over for room. I wasted a few moments thinking about going to the other side of the rack and moving it, but that would've been too much. What an idiot. I also struggled a bit with getting my VFFs on. Sometimes my toes just slide right into place, but on this day they weren't cooperating at all.

Not sure how to deal with the racking issue. I obviously still need to get going more quickly in transition.

When I started the run, I felt really tired and thought that it was going to be a long day. Still, I was running faster than I wanted to, so kept trying to slow myself down to conserve energy-- I would deliberately hang behind people that I usually would pass in an effort to keep my pace down. I still was under 10 min for the first few miles, which was faster than I wanted to. I had no issues with blisters at all this year; my feet felt fine. The sharp right knee pain which I'd felt the night before was nowhere in evidence; more proof that any pains that show up in the last week before the race aren't anything to worry about. It was mile 7 before I realized that I was doing pretty well and I let myself think that this is the point in most half-marathons where I start to slow down. I did struggle for a few miles here, but passing Jon three times (he was ahead, going in the other direction) helped, as did getting compliments on my shoes and my running posture (the result of my shoes). I also saw a guy running in Luna sandals! No completely barefoot people this year. As I approached the turnaround for the last time, I heard one of the runners exclaim excitedly, "Is that beer??" and sure enough the spectators were handing out cups of some very tasty microbrew. This girl next to me and I looked at each other, shrugged, grabbed beers and drank them. What the hell, only 3 miles or so to go. During those three miles, my mood, possibly fortified with alcohol (not normally considered a PED), got steadily better, until I found myself grinning throughout most of the last mile. I sprinted down the chute to the finish, definitely the best I've ever felt during that stretch. Andy Potts, who had won the race, was there to put on my medal.

Again, to start, I needed to train more. I only ran 100 miles once all year, the last month of training. With that, I felt that the run went great, especially considering how I felt coming off the bike. I did have to stop once to pee, which I'd like to eliminate somehow. It's clear I could've pushed myself harder, but given my lack of training, I had no idea I could do as well as I did on this run.

Walked around, found Jon, walked into the lake, which was chilly, then went to get food.


Not enough training.


I really had no business doing as well as I did, yet I easily could've done better with more effort. I love this race, and having a place one mile from transition was a huge bonus. It was great getting to walk down to watch the Sprint race on Saturday morning. I was pretty tired the rest of the day, and a little stiff on Monday, but by Tuesday I basically felt fine. I guess I'll do Timberman again next year.