Timberman - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I started off fine with no kicks or significant bumps. After 5-10 minutes I didn't really see anyone near me in the water. I can't believe this didn't clue me into the fact that I was off course, but it didn't! STUPID. Next time, David, when you're alone after 5-10 minutes, it means you've swam crooked you silly head! I guess I didn't think I was too off course b/c I kept sighting pretty regularly off the triangular buoy that marked the corner and it looked like I was fine. I think I got off course pretty early and then b/c the intermediate buoys marking the side of the rectangle were so far off we were all ignoring them. Had they been correct I might have realized I had gone off course early, and corrected earlier. Oh well. Might have cost me a minute or two only.

After round the first buoy, we had to stare into the sun and I couldn't really see the buoys but I just kept trying to swim towards the middle of the pack of swimmers in front of me. That worked well and I found me groove and settled in. The rest of the swim went great save for one fairly bad choking episode after about 30-35 minutes. I inhaled some water and started choking pretty badly. I had to tread water for about 30-45 seconds before I could fully regain my composure. It was little scary, but since I had experienced this in training I was prepared!

Overall, I'm happy with my swim, a PR for this distance. The wetsuit really helps and it didn't seem to restrict my shoulders as much this time, nor did it chafe my neck as before. So all is good. A great start to the day!

Pay attention to my surroundings!

First time being wetsuit stripped! It was fast and easy. Love'd it.

This bike course was fun. Coming out of T1, my HR was sky high in the 180s! I tried ease up some to let it come down, but it wanted to GO! So, I went with it and it slowly came back down into the 160s. The hills were not as bad as I had expected and its always comforting to be struggling up them with other people. Actually though, the toughest hill up 107 wasn't as long as it looked. I did wish I had bigger cog in the back, but I only had to grind for a couple of minutes at most. I couldn't hear my watch beep to remind me to drink but I had practiced enough to pretty much know when to drink.

Once on 106, the course flattened out a bit and everyone was flying. It was a blast. I was loving the cooler temps and remember thinking that this could end up being one of my best races because of the given conditions. I was maintaining 23-24 mph for miles on end. Only after the turnaround did I realize that this was tailwind aided! Doohh!! The way back definitely was tougher as the road never seemed quite flat, but always either a short downhill or a steady and slight uphill section. Plus the head wind really started to pick up, and my speed dropped to 17-18 mph.

The hills in the last 10 miles did not seem as bad going this direction, and the downhills were fun and a little scary as I was occasionally afraid that I'd have a mechanical problem with my bike after re-assembling it the day before.

In the end, this was a great bike split for me despite missing a half bike PR by 8 seconds. For the first time, I also raced this leg more by feel that HR. I would check my HR occasionally, but I wouldn't stress about it and I just went off RPE. I'm really happy that I'm getting experienced enough to do this.



Not much

Had some trouble putting my left shoe on, but no big deal.

This was really a tale of 2 laps for me. The first lap felt great. I had slowed down the last 1-2 miles on the bike to allow my HR to come down, and I had stopped taking in calories that last 15-20 minutes so my stomach would settle. This worked great as I started the run strong. I ran the first 4 miles at about 7:45 pace, probably too fast looking back, but I was feeling great! My HR was pretty high, but I my RPE was in check so I went with it. I took a gel at about 20 minutes and I kept taking water at the aid stations. All was well for the first lap. I saw my wife and Ingrid (Greg's wife) back near transition and that gave me a boost.

However, as soon as I headed back out for the 2nd lap, I started to feel pretty tired. My RPE was much higher and slowed down a little to about 8:30 pace or so. I was starving and my stomach felt like it was eating itself. I had experienced this before at other races too. However, my intensity was so high that I knew that I wouldn't be able to process any solid food and I didn't want to risk bloating or cramping, so I didn't eat and just dealt with the hunger. Climbing the hills was really tough on this loops and I even walked for a few seconds on a couple of them.

I really had to bear all of my mental strength to keep from fading hard. This was the toughest part of the race for me, but fortunately my mind was strong and I kept a good focus. This was my A race and I really wanted to give it my all. I did and I can look back and be proud of my performance, a half run split PR by 18 minutes!

Try to take in more calories. 2 gels for almost 2 hrs wasn't enough.

I felt pretty bad afterwards and I was a little afraid that I might be dehydrated, but I kept walking around and after a few minutes and tons of food I started to feel a lot better


This was an amazing race. Keith puts on good event, not just a race. The festival at Gunstock was good. I especially enjoyed the pro race forum where we all got to ask pros such as Desire, Simon Lessing, Michael Lovato, and Kate Major questions.

The lake was really clear and a pleasure to swim in. The bike course was challenging but not severely so, and the run course was probably the best supported of any race I've done. But perhaps, the best thing about the race is the area itself. This lakes region of NH is simply amazing and my wife and I had a great time exploring it.

At about 5pm back at our condo, we ran into another racer who was just coming back from the Clearwater/World Championship 70.3 slot allocation and he was excited b/c he got a slot. I asked him what his time was and he said 5:35 and he was M30-34! That means, I would have GOTTEN A SLOT had a stayed for the roll-down! Now, I don't know if I would've accepted it anyway as I've already done 2 destination races this year, plus I'm doing Longhorn in Oct and Clearwater is a month later and costs $295! But still it's kinda cool to think that I would have qualified!