Tupper Lake Tinman Triathlon - Half Iron Distance - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

In the coral with the other green caps I see a lot of nervous faces. Me being me I decide to see how many high-5’s I can give out before the race starts. I think I set a new record. As I wade down into the water I am standing next to guy wearing one of those goggle mask things, you know the ones that are about 5x too big for your face, funny stuff. Few more high fives and we are off.

My swim was fairly uneventfully. No punched kayaks, minimal punching/kicking and I was in Tupper lake the entire time. The only noteworthy story was at the turnaround buoy. As I approach the turnaround a lady in a kayak tells me “go right, go right around the buoy.” I have to go right around the buoy? That seems dumb I am on the left side and will run into people. She quickly realized her mistake and said go around the buoy to the left side. Why do I find ways to have interactions with kayakers during swims?

Coming into shore was nice, it was a little overcast so the sun was not shining in our eyes as everyone had told me it would. I am out of the water pretty much where I expected to be.


Learn to draft … oh and being able to swim faster would be nice too.

Into transition I had no problems. Wetsuit off, socks and shoes on, helmet, sunglasses and I am off. I didn’t even get stuck waiting for traffic as others did.

Nada this was good T1 for me.

On the bike and I am off. I decide to take it easy for the first couple miles until I get over that first hill. Legs are feeling really good and I have my nutrition strategy. Every 5 miles eat a fig newman, every 20 min take a hit of gel from one of my flasks and sip on water and Accelerade/Gatorade throughout the race and two salt tabs every hour. I ended up finishing 6 fig newmans, 1.75 flasks of beer gel, 1 bottle of Accelerade, 5 aero bottles full of water and 6 salt tabs. I think that was about right.

The course is an out and back, I found out afterwards it trends downhill on the way out and uphill on the way back. The way out felt great, nice high cadence, good speed and climbed the hills with no problems, I really felt like I was holding back. About mile 25 I decide it is time to step it up a little I shift up a few gears keeping a nice cadence and really start moving a good pace (for me at least). Right before the turnaround I hear, and feel a pop in my knee. That’s not good. Now I am twitching in pain every time I make a down stroke with my right leg, about 90 times a minute. It is not so bad that I think I need to stop so I will just slow down a little a see how it feels. I make the turnaround in 1:24, well below my goal time, now can I get back at the same speed?

The way back was tough there were a lot of times when I was just letting my right leg go along for the ride, I guess those one legged pedaling drills on the trainer were good for something. I tried to get out of the saddle on the one of the climbs on the way back and nearly fell over as my leg decided it did not want to hold me up. About mile 40 I entered my “dark place” you know the one where you start second guessing yourself. I heard of it before the race, but have never experienced it myself. Can I finish this race? Can I finish a longer race? Why am I doing this? Am I even going to be able to run on this leg? I am yelling at another hill as I climb in pain. On the decent I hit a butterfly doing 30MPH in aero and almost dump the bike. Wipe the guts off my face and start the next climb and drop my chain. That was a bad 5 miles.

Mile 45 I remember hearing about others having those negative thoughts and finally get back to my normal semi-insane self. MMM fig newman, yep those are tasty. Now if only I could get someone to hand me a Guinness life would be good. Beer gel, close enough today.

I struggle getting up the hills, and the knee is really hurting but I just keep pushing hoping that I can at least walk the half marathon that is coming up. I run into Joe on one of the last climbs and he says “can you believe we pay to do this?” he has done this race about 15 times. Not wanting to get a drafting penalty I let him go and don’t catch him on the bike. After the last climb I just spin through town and back into transition.


Wear butterfly guard, do they make that yet?

Another good transition for me.

see T1

Jogging out of transition I feel really good. JB asked me to think about if I would rather do another bike loop or run the half marathon. I see JB and yell my easily made decision, half marathon over another bike loop all day. They announce my name as I run out of T2 and I do a little Rocky arms in the air job. I give a double flex pose for the lady with the camera and I am off. Knee feels okay and I am going to be able to do this race. I am high on life.

I look at my garmin and it tells me I am running 7 min miles. SLOW DOWN I will die if I try to run this pace. Fortunately, there is a huge two mile hill about a quarter mile out of transition. I didn’t check out the run course before the race so this was a bit of a surprise. I see a lot of people walking up this hill, there may have even been a team of sherpas and mountain goats hanging around. The nice thing about this hill is that it forced me to start running at my desired race pace. The bad thing is that I should have went a little slower up that hill. I see Chad running back, there is another high-5.

Around mile 4 or 5 I catch back up to Joe and chat a little and then keep on running. At about mile 6 we run through a little sandy area leading into a different part of town. A little girl has a hose so I tell her to spray me, which she does with a big smile on her face. Give the little girl a high-5 and around the corner I go. A lady is sitting in the back of her truck and yells “your amazing” to witch I respond without missing a beat “that’s what she said.” I hear a few laughs behind me. Nice to know that “dark place” is officially gone, and I am back to my comic relief self.

Mile 8 we head into some trails for about 2 miles. This was tough the ground was wet, the sun was beating and it felt like being in a tropical rain forest in there. I was behind a few people running a little slower than I wanted to so I move to the side, hurdle a few bushes, trip on a tree branch and realize maybe I should just slow down too. Out of the rain forest we are back on the road and there is good size hill. Time for a walk, start running again and there is another short, but steep hill. I see a few people walking, but I just got done walking so I decide to sprint to the top. At the top I want to walk again but feel like I can’t being that I just ran by a group of about 10 people. I keep pushing on, slowly, put pushing on. I take some nice leisurely strolls through the remaining aid stations, drinking Gatorade, water and eating oranges. No I will not take that pretzel rod, seriously who wants a pretzel rod in this heat? It would be like eating sawdust.

I see JB and Richey and they tell me I have about 2 miles left, at least I think that is who they are and that is what they said. I just keep pushing back to town. With about a half mile left Joe comes running by me down the hill into town and tells me to step it up. I already did step it up! I try to move a little faster but my legs are telling me that this is top speed right now. I see the finish line. One last push and it was all worth it!


Start off a little slower, slow my pace up hills

Chatted a little with Joe at the finish line and limped over to the lake to cool off. I love getting back in the lake after a race.


Knee pain, number of hills and Celine Dion


Post race meal was no good. I am not sure if it was the quality of the food or I just did not want to eat that soon after the race.