Timberman - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The swim started off spectacularly, for me. I seeded myself up front to the right, I was able to find some feet moving my speed, and I felt good.

Until the first buoy, I made the turn and fell apart in the swells. My breathing went to hell, sighting was lame and form was disastrous.



I need to put in more time in the pool and do some open-water training. My swim performance was a clear reflection of my swim training.

I shoed up in transition. The last time I tried to pre-clip my shoes, I fumbled around forever trying to get into them.

Clip-in was uneventful.

I need to be considerably more organized in transition setup.

I live in the Monadnock region of NH, so my training is on hilly terrain. Good thing, as this course would have disassembled me otherwise.

Overdistance training would have given me more legs coming off the bike. Of course, more run training would have probably been helpful...

Not sure what to say, except that I was fairly well smoked on the run. I ran the vast majority of loop one, walking the steeps and aid stations. By loop two I was just in "relentless forward motion" mode. I kept moving, but running was not really in the cards. Then I met up with "Liz from Connecticut" and we just walked and talked. I kept the pace at a stride, and got in by the cut-off.

More consistent run training.

I loaded up the Jeep and got my two-hour ride home started.


Limited swim and run training naturally limited my race performance. I justified focusing on the bike, but it clearly wasn't enough.

I'll aim for a more balanced training regimen.


The Timberman is a first-rate event. I was under-trained for HIM distance and this is a challenging course.