Ironman 70.3 Timberman - Triathlon

i started out to the far left of the start wave. It was very shallow for the first 25 yards or so. ran through the water. then dove in and swam. started swimming ok.

hit the first lifegaurd and he's banging on his kayak saying, can't go left. get as close as you can to the buoy. i had to stop and wait and go around him. then continued on.

i never felt i was pushing myself. i had to stop a few times due to the swim never really clearing out till the homestretch. some slower swimmers from other waves, that i had to go around. I swam almost exactly the pace i swam in training. while this was slower than i know i can go. i feel good as i only got back in the pool in the middle of may.

had no problems sighting or with navigation except for the couple of times i decidecided to draft off of a swimmer. I found i would swim straight and they wouldn't. I stopped drafting and just swam as i normally do.

finally found clear water and realized i had to pee. i tried to go, but just couldn't. i tried doing the breast stroke. then i rembembered there were port a potties right on the way to my spot in T1. so i just continued swimming and would go in transition. that probably cost me a minute total.

not start swimming until May. Way too long of an offseason. I can probably not bike or run. but I should swim at least two times a week during the winter.

either learn to pee while in freestyle or just go in transition.

used the wet suit strippers and headed to the port a pottie. realized i forgot to hit my lap button on my garmin. did it there.

dropped my wetsuit, put on my garmin on my bike, shoes, race belt, clif shots in my jersey, glasses, and helmet. looked down and made sure i had everything.

nothing. good transition. although, my garmin holder was at an odd angle, so had a little bit of difficulty clipping it in. maybe practice clipping in from different angles?

had a little difficulty clipping in, but nothing drastic

realized about a 1/4 mile in, i didn't hit the lap button before mounting my bike. On the face of it, i did good. i missed my goal of 3 hours by only 10 minutes. Considering I am bad at hills and this course is littered with them. i am happy with it.

I had my garmin autolap every five miles and at the autolap, i would drink skratchlabs

holy god. new hampshire needs to fix their roads. On the road back to Ellacoya, I saw almost a rider a mile on the side fixing flats.

I lost one of my water bottles holding skratch labs at mile 6. When you see a pothole and all sorts of nutrition and other debris around it, it's probably best to go around it.

So i grabbed a powerbar perform at first aid station. i don't think i drank enough. Not sure it was because of the bottle loss. My drinking every five miles was a good strategy. I just didn't execute. i only took a sip, instead of what i was doing in training, taking three big gulps, the roads were bad, and it seemed like I was holding my water bottle while trying to navigate potholes, corners, turns, or other riders.

No idea how i did not get a flat. Some sections were just brutal.

Hills. Not good at them. Should have done hill repeats at work during my lunch break. Again, i'm pretty happy with the ride, as i just missed my goal time. I did great on the descents topping out at 42 mph. netween the rough roads, and some of the nervous riders, I did not feel comfortable on the aero bars, so I got on the handles and tucked down. able to keep my speed under control.

nutrition. had a powerbar wafer at mile 10, and mile 30. had clif shots at mile 50. this might not have been enough calories, but i had a very difficult time chocking the powerbars down. i had no problem in training. so not sure why i couldn't eat them. probably wasn't drinking enough.

need to change my hydration set up. my aero drink was gettting lose on my aerobars. i had to readjust them at about mile 30. also need to rethink my hydration/nutrition strategy.

hills. Should have done hill repeats at work where it is fairly hilly. Fitness wise i felt great getting off the bike.

get a speedfill for the frame and just stick with skratchlabs in there.

Good transtion. had a quick chat with a guy who came in right behind me. more of a holy *&$#) that happened comments.

put my socks and shoes on, grabbed my hat, and my nathan bottle. put gu's in my jersey and forgot my clif shots.

maybe put the clif shots across the shoes or put all those clif shots in my jersey for the bike.

i did not have a chance to put the clif shots in my wetsuit in race conditions prior to timberman. Wasn't about to try it for the first time during the race.

Yikes. I ran out of transition, and climbed the little hill out of transtion and saw my wife and son, then instantly heard my Hr monitor screeching. I decided to slow down see if i could calm it down.

I had to pee at around the half mile mark. someone came out of a port a potty and I ran to it and went. that was the last time i peed until later that night.

My HR would just not settle down. I had to walk the hills.of which there were three. I sipped my nathan bottle with nuun in it. every 1/2 mile. I would also grab water at every aid station. ate gu at mile 5 and mile 9.

i got caught up in a group of volunteers from make a wish. they were helping push and motivate runners. ran alongside for a bit, but couldn't keep pace. hr was going up, up and then knee started to twinge at about mile 10. backed off and would run till i got to a hill and then walk. also avoided the aid stations. just pushed on.

not sure what happened. in training, my brick runs were done at 9 min/mile paces. i would get off a 30 mile bike ride and run a 7:38 mile and have to force myself to run a 9. hr was never bad. of course, where i live, no hills. so maybe that had something to do with it. or my hydration nutriciton was off.

need to do more brick runs. i only did two in the lead up to Timberman. I was worried this would burn me out.

it seems like the split long runs didn't work. or it could have been dehydration. i peed at around 12;00. then i didn't pee again until 9 pm.

i felt the most confidant on my run going into Timberman. Which is usually my worst. So this was a bad run. I knew I wasn't going to come in much under 2 hours. i was hoping to not have to walk at all. i only walked the hills through a few of the aid stations, and occassionally, just to settle my hr.

Got my medal from Andy Potts. don't remember anyone taking my chip, and got a bottle of water at the finish line.

went to go get food and had to stop and sit down. which turned into lying down. stretched a bit.

ventured over to get food. saw my wife and son, who i only saw coming in on the bike and the first loop of the run.

started shivering. went into transition and took off my tri shirt and put on my sweatshirt. went back to get food. the smell of the barbeque chicken was making me nauseous.

i grabbed everything but the chicken and the baked potato, which my wife told me she heard people say was gross. felt a little better.

walked around a bit, stretched some more. got my stuff and headed back to gunstock.


dehydration. i think my hydration plan was right on. it seemed to work in training. but i didn't execute. didn't drink enough at each lap.

not sure i will camp again for this race. too much stress packing for a race and everything you need for a weekend of camping. also, difficult to get a good nights rest when others that are camping have nothing to do with the race or are athelets that are celebrating completing the sprint race.


Great race. Fantastic volunteers.

Only real complaint is, on some of the downhills. either have volunteers further up the hill or put signs up saying to slow down. it seemed like you didn't have enough warning on a sharp turn after a step downhill. of course, an athlete should know the course. did not have time to drive the course prior.

Challenging bike course, but fun. Hills were my limiter.