Timberman - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Okay, I know my time for the swim was pretty decent, but this was actually my worst swim in a tri ever. I had positioned myself in the front line of the swim start, as I always do. But, while waiting for the gun to go off, my goggles started fogging up. They were brand new goggles, so I think it was a result of the goggles being so cold from the air, and then the heat coming off my face. They weren’t too bad, so I figured I’d leave them be. The gun went off, and I was off. I got a really good jump and there was absolutely no kicking, punching, being swum over, etc. The only thing that happened was that I was constantly kicking someone behind me. I felt awful, but there was nothing I could do about it, and I couldn’t believe how long she put up with it.

Shortly after the starting, my goggles got worse and I couldn’t see the buoys, so I figured I’d just follow the girls ahead of me. But soon, the goggles were so bad that I couldn’t even see two feet in front of me when I looked up to sight, so I had to stop and wipe the fog out of my goggles. Bummer.

Then, we got to the first turn. We were supposed to turn 90 degrees, but I apparently only made it about 70 degrees. I don’t know what happened at that point. We were swimming into the sun, so I couldn’t really see the buoys up ahead. I think I was sighting off a kayaker who I thought was supposed to be to my right, like the buoys, but he was apparently supposed to be to my left. I was breathing to my left on every other stroke and at one point saw a guy from the wave ahead of me just treading water and looking at me with this dumbstruck look. After getting 2 or 3 looks at him, his face was enough to make me stop swimming. So, I stopped, looked around and saw that I was WAY off course. Bummer again. I was too far left, so I had to swim right to get back on course. Then, I went a little too far right, but not too bad. I have absolutely no concept of the passage of time when in the water, so I was seriously fearing that I had been out there forever and was going to be slower than 40 mins. I was getting all bummed out, but kept trudging along.

Then, we hit the second turn buoy and headed back to the beach. At that point, the water was much rougher than it had been for the other portions of the swim. My mom later told me that the water was visibly a lot rougher for the last 10 mins of my swim than it was for the beginning of the swim. Anyway, it was smacking me in my face, I swallowed some, etc., but could tell I was swimming well and I was passing a lot of people. I hate when I stand up too early at the end of the swim, so I swam until the water was so shallow I couldn’t swim anymore. It was a good decision as I was passing quite a few people who had already started running. Anyway, when I finally stood up out of the water, I checked my watch and saw 35 something. WOHOO!!! I had just had my worst swim ever, but was nowhere near the horrible swim I thought I was having. I didn’t cross the timing pad until after 36 mins, but that’s okay. Anyway, I was super excited about the swim, so I took off through T2.

Clear the fog out of my goggles before the swim start. And, not get lost out there. That was the first time I had ever gone off course in a swim, so I hope it was just a fluke. I’m not really sure what caused it besides just confusion on my part as to what I was looking at in the water.

They had wetsuit strippers at this race. I am pretty quick at removing my wetsuit, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to use them or not. My plan was to just decide as I ran past them. As I ran past the strippers, there were two young boys (12 maybe) standing there ready to go, so I flopped down, and off came the suit. They were awesome and wetsuit stripping is awesome. The whole process took maybe 2 seconds. I loved it.

I proceeded to run to my transition spot, and when I got there I realized I felt sick to my stomach. I had a smorgasbord set up at my TA (just a bunch of random food I threw down there in case I felt I needed something new/different/additional as I came through a transition. Nothing appealed to me, so I didn’t eat. I decided not to wear the arm warmers I had out (good choice). So, I took a second just to make sure I hadn’t missed something, and then I was off.

I spent a lot more time at my transition spot than I usually do. I don’t know why I thought so much about it, but it wasn’t a big deal. This was my longest race ever, so I wanted to make sure I did everything right.

Alright, back to the nauseous stomach I discovered in T1. Now, I don’t know if maybe I got seasick at the end of the swim or if it’s because I swallowed some water, but I battled a sick stomach the entire ride. It totally sucked. I had to force every ounce of water, Gatorade, and gel down my throat. I did not feel well at all. As a matter of fact, about half way through the ride, I actually went a half hour without taking in anything. I don’t know if that hurt me at all, but I just couldn’t stand to put another thing in my stomach. But, I did stick to my nutrition plan in terms of taking a gel every 30 mins. My water and Gatorade consumption was definitely lower than it should have been. Good thing it wasn’t hotter out or would have paid dearly for that. I only took in like 60-70% of the fluids I should have. I had some emergency food in my bento box – fig newtons and half a powerbar – but they didn’t help either. I had some fig newtons, but no desire to touch the power bar.

Alright, back to the race. Besides the sick stomach, I felt great starting off the bike. I had been really nervous about the hills since I train in the flats, but the visions I had in my head were actually worse than what the hills were. Now granted, it’s a hilly course, and even the really good AGers say that it’s a tough course, but it wasn’t the steep mountainous terrain that I had somehow created in my head.

My goal was to take it easy for the first 12 miles. So, I figured I would just do each climb at a pace that left me not dying at the top, but able to pedal hard and keep going. The first climb out of TA wasn’t too bad. I think a lot of people struggled to find their cycling legs, but mine were there, so I went up it and passed quite a few people, but wasn’t tired at the top. Then we had a few climbs and downhills and stuff. The toughest part was the section from when you turn onto Hounsell and before you reach 106. There was this one pretty long and fairly steep climb. I went up it at about 7 mph. I was getting passed by people, but also passed a fair amount, so I felt good. A lot of people were breathing very heavily and really struggling, but I was feeling good the entire time. I mean, it wasn’t a walk in the park, but my training had prepared me for these climbs and I was doing a good job at pacing myself. Eventually, we reached 106, where we had about 14 miles of flats before reaching the turnaround, and then another 14 miles of flats after the turnaround before reaching the hills again.

This flat section was where I really had to play it smart. I was getting passed left and right and it totally sucked. The bike is my strength and at sprints and Olys, I am normally doing the passing. I actually had to repeat out loud to myself a few times: “Lauren, just race your race.” It was tough to not pick up the pace a bit and ride like I can. But, I had my first-ever half marathon coming up, so I needed to plan for that. The ride went pretty well up to the turn around. I was still battling the nausea and getting bummed about being passed so much, but I was remaining on target and hit the turnaround in the window of time I wanted to hit it.

After the turnaround is where things got bad for a bit. The wind had picked up, so that 14-mile stretch back to the hills was tough. It actually took me 6 minutes longer than the same stretch took after the hills and before the turnaround. The wind was slowing me down, and I could not take the sick stomach anymore. It was right after the turnaround that I had decided to go the 30 mins with no fluid/gel/food intake. I was not feeling well. The stomach was sick, my head was starting to hurt, and the stupid wind was making my pace fall. For about 3 or 4 minutes, I was mentally checked out and couldn’t see any way I could go on to run the half marathon…not with that nausea.

I was getting really frustrated and down on myself, but then I saw the Hoyts coming in the opposite direction, and that snapped me out of it and got me back into the right frame of mind mentally. I didn’t do much for my stomach, but a lot for the mind.

Eventually, I hit the hills again and it was GREAT. It got me out of aero and I think that made my stomach feel better. I had also been worried that my nutrition was not good, but I totally had all the energy I needed for the climbing in those last 12 miles. There were some fun descents in there as well. But, I was just so excited how sitting up was helping my stomach. Wohoo!! Maybe I’d be able to run after all. I had paced myself very well and the climbing on the way back wasn’t really any tougher to endure than the climbing at the beginning was.

Eventually, I made it back to the park. I was a bit bummed I didn’t go under 3 hours for the bike, but I guess I was close enough.

Not much. There was nothing I could do about the stomach as it started before I got on the bike. I just had to suck it up and use what I had with me to keep me fueled and keep my stomach in check. I wish I didn’t break down mentally for those few minutes after the turnaround, but I don’t think it really hurt me too much. I would have broken 3 hours probably if that didn’t happen, but I guess it wasn’t a bit deal overall. It was a nearly six hour race and I only had about 3-4 minutes in which my mind contained negative thoughts…I guess it’s okay.

This was actually the coolest T2 ever! Run Out runs parallel to the finishing chute, and as I was running out of T2, the winner, Simon Lessing, was coming to the finish. So, I got to watch him finish and that was just really cool. I was approaching the finish line as he was (running in opposite directions), so I actually had the best view in the house. It was just really cool to see that and hear all the excitement, and it was the best way to start out the half marathon.

Not much.

Well, being upright for a bit (end of ride, T2) helped my stomach a lot, and I was feeling pretty good heading out for the run. And, my legs felt great. My pacing on the bike had paid off.

Since my nutrition wasn’t great on the bike, I decided to take water and Gatorade at every aid station on the run…which I think amounted to like 13 of them. Haha. In sprints and Olys I don’t even stop at aid stations (or maybe once or twice at an Oly), so this was new to me…especially to take two drinks at each. But, the last thing I needed to was to suffer because of nutrition. I also took in three gels on the run. I hadn’t planned on needing that many, but my stomach was fine with them, so I used them. Every once in a while I would feel a little nauseous or hungry, but it wasn’t bad and for the most part, my stomach felt fine.

I felt great starting out the run. I figured I would run the first loop comfortably, and then if I had it in me, I would pick it up for the second loop. I was still feeling great after the first loop, so I did “pick it up” at the start of the second. Unfortunately, I think that while my effort was greater, my pace was no faster. Haha. At the 8-mile mark, my left quad got really tight, but it didn’t slow me down too much. The wheels didn’t really come off until the 10-mile mark. But I still had a decent last 3 miles.

Oddly enough, I didn’t look at my watch much on the run. I barely looked at it at all on the first loop, and on the 2nd, I just kept looking at my total time and would do the backwards math to make sure I could break six hours. I never once hit the lap button.

I was actually really excited on this run. The run has always been my worst sport and my biggest struggle, and was something I was never good at. So the fact that I was running a half marathon was just so cool to me. And, I was doing it after a 1.2-mile swim and 56-mile bike. That was awesome! And, I had run the whole half marathon at a faster pace than I ran my 5Ks during my first season of tris. How cool is that?!?!?! Granted, it was more than 2 minutes per mile slower than my current 5K race pace, but still. And yeah, I didn’t reach my run goal (was hoping to be closer to two hours), and maybe if I was tougher I would have run it a little faster, but I was still proud of myself. It’s the first time I was really filled with pride about what I was actually doing out there on the course.

Oh, and the run was really cool. There was just so much going on between the aid stations and the residents and the music, etc., that you were really able to keep your mind off the run.

We were able to get our run splits at four points on the run, so I guess they were each at 3.275 miles. Here’s mine:

1: 30:01 (9:09/mile)
2: 31:39 (9:40/mile)
3: 33:03 (10:05/mile)
4: 34:25 (10:30/mile)


Besides maybe run faster, which I don’t even know if that was possible, nothing. My nutrition was good and I think the game-time decision to do water and G-ade at every aid station was a good one.

Walked around a bit and headed for the ice baths. Yes, they had ice baths. Now, they certainly didn’t meet my standards of ice bath temps, but they were colder than the lake so opted to sit in one. You could sit two people in each ice bath, so some guy sat with me and we chatted a bit. I needed his help standing up or else my one hammie would have cramped up pretty badly. Then, he goes, “Do you want a picture?” I figured he saw my mom standing there with the camera and was offering to take a picture of me and my mom. But, instead, he grabbed one of the race photographers and asked her to take a picture of me and him. LOL. I guess she thought we were girlfriend and boyfriend or something, because she made us go stand on the beach so we could get a lovely shot in front of the lake. It was so funny. So, if any of you look at my official race photos and see me standing on the beach with some guy with his arm around me, keep in mind I have no clue who this guy is. I don’t even know his name and honestly, I doubt I could even pick him out of a line up. Oh well. It was cool meeting new people up there.


Lack of experience at this distance, my awful swim, and my inability to run well. But, overall, I think it was a good race. If I hadn’t gotten lost on the swim or had to fix my goggles, I would have been out of the water a minute or so faster I think. I also probably could have have pushed it up a notch on the bike without it affecting my run much. And, when I say a notch, I mean like finishing the bike less than 5 minutes faster. I wouldn’t have risked anything more than that with it being my first HIM and first race in hills. I still wonder if I could have pushed that run a little harder, but I am not beating myself up over it. I’m very happy with my performance overall, and consider it a good first HIM performance.


This was a great race. The course was awesome, the lake was beautiful, and the volunteers were just the greatest. I would just suggest they get more port-o-pots for down by the TA. I’ve done smaller races with just as many pots. A 25-min wait was a little crazy and stressful. But, otherwise, everything was good. Oh, and that traffic jam sucked at the beginning…no one really knows what happened there. Apparently it was a first. Oh well.