1st 4:12:49

     Swim   27:22     (5th)
     Bike     2:21:39  (1st)
     Run     1:20:48  (1st)

Zip lining down Gunstock, climbing on the Monkey Trunks fort, jumping out of the sky onto a giant air pillow or maybe riding the water dodgems. This is what's running through my mind prior to race start. Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire is an amazing place. I had no idea of its beauty before I arrived. Our arrival wasn't all smooth sailing though with our 9am flight from Denver being cancelled and the next available flight to Manchester Airport not leaving until 5:30pm arriving near midnight. That'd be almost 10hrs waiting in Denver airport then with the drive out to Gilford, it'd be the early hours of Saturday morning before we get our head on a pillow. Far from perfect prep. We had to come up with some other plan. So instead, we flew to Boston on a 10:30 flight. We changed our rental car pick up from Manchester to Boston and drove two and a half hours to Gilford. We grabbed dinner along the way and managed to get to our hotel just after 9pm. It was worth it when we saw the place in daylight Saturday morning.

Sunday morning I got a good warm up in the clear waters of Lake Winnipesaukee prior to race start. As the horn sounded I took off fast, quickly jumping on someone's feet. I didn't need to sight at first as the water was so was clear I could see the kicking feet in front of me. The girl I was sitting on soon slowed so I went around her to discover I'd been dropped from the pack. I surged ahead solo till I caught the group of 3 girls at the first turn bouy (~600m). I would spend the rest of the swim with this group (trailing the amazing super swimmer Amanda Stevens). As I practiced sitting on feet (something I unfortunately very rarely get to do) I realized just how much easier it is. I started to think maybe I can go around the girls and try to minimize my gap to Amanda. But once I moved wide I realized I'm not going any faster than them so I tucked back in and conserved energy. 

Four of us came out of the water together, trailing Amanda by almost 3mins. On this course, out of T1, there's little time to put your feet in your bike shoes before hitting the first climb. It's maybe a hundred metres from mount line to the climb! The first climb is around 6%. I got into a good rhythm and pulled away from the other girls on the hunt for Amanda. The course is full of rolling hills, some quite long so even though I was still a couple of minutes behind at 30km I could actually see Amanda up the road. She had a couple pro men (that she probably smoked in the swim) near her but her bright orange Rudy Project helmet stood out like a neon light bulb. Another 10 or so km and one of the pro men dropped off and I passed by. Just when I thought I was closing in, Amanda would disappear around a corner. At 53km I finally made the pass. It was then back up the long gradual (maybe 2%) climb. I couldn't drop Amanda and at 58km she took back the lead. Another few km's and we hit a steeper incline so I passed again and started to slowly pull ahead. 

With about 20k to go, the urge to pee was becoming too great. I was now officially busting! I couldn't save it for the run - there's no way I can pee while running - and I didn't want to waste time in a porta-loo. And if I hold on I might get stomach pains. I HAVE to go. It's pretty hard to go when your pushing hard though. I need to relax. With less than 15km to go I approach the top of climb, the other side is straight down! Perfect. I get up some speed before throwing my weight forward over my bars to fly down the other side. I can now stop pedaling and relax!

Onto the run I had only around 45seconds lead. This was only my third IM 70.3 distance for the year, my first being Geelong early in the year after I crashed out in my previous race and was still sore, and my second was two weeks ago in Boulder at altitude. The rest of my races this year have been all odd distances. So, what pace could I run? What pace was I capable of? This was the main reason for racing Timberman 70.3. I wanted a good hit out before Vegas, to see what pace felt comfortable. 3:45/km was the benchmark I was after and it felt good. I ticked off the km's - super even and in control. A few friendly spectators offered some advice along the way "you've got it, relax, enjoy it, take it easy". I guess mentally I could relax but I still wanted to keep a solid pace to the finish to make a good session out of it. To make sure the pace would be fine all the way to the end and to see how I pulled up after. The run course was nice, two out and back laps with rolling hills throughout, tall trees on either side, lots of spectators and I think one of the loudest, happiest bunch of volunteers at the aid stations. My Garmin beeped '20km' just as I hit the '12mile' marker. That's not right. 1600m to go? You tricked me... My Garmin measured the course to be an extra 610m long. At least we know we covered the distance on this one! Definitely putting this on my list again for next year. Loved the course, the atmosphere and especially the location!

   

    1st    4:04:36   (course record)


    Swim  6th  27:26
    Bike    1st   2:12:16  (bike course record)
    Run    1st   1:22:38

If anyone knows Boulder and their water safety policies you'll know that it's almost impossible to get a 'safe' warm-up done before the race while 2000-odd triathletes attempt to warm-up in the one available 40x40m roped off box. Chaos. I tried it! I then opted to jump up and down on the spot instead, swinging my arms around like wind mills in an attempt to replicate some sort of swimming movement. This year however it was a beach start instead of deep water. I much prefer this. Just that 10m run down to the water followed by some dolphin dives helps me get warmed up before it's head down for the next 27 or so minutes.

The pro men took off first with the pro women 3min behind. The race organizers not only changed the bike course to one 90km loop this year instead of two laps but they also sent the age groupers off 10min behind so as to not interfere with our race. GREAT ideas! As I began swimming, I found myself sandwiched between two girls who I wish swapped sides before we started. The girl on my right wanted to go left and the girl on my left wanted to go right. I just wanted to get outa there. After a few hundred metres I finally pulled ahead. Pheeww! Clear water. But clear water it was indeed. I couldn't see anyone up ahead. Damn! How far behind am I? I panicked a little thinking I was 5 or so minutes behind but I also enjoyed just swimming in clear, still, open water on my own. No bashing. No trying to follow someone. Just me on my own practicing my own sighting. And Boulder definitely did a good job with plenty of sighting buoys. 

As I ran out of the water and into T1 I listened nervously to Barry on the mic who was about to announce how far down I was. Just before he said it I was saying to myself "3 minutes, please say 3 minutes" but in my head I was sure it was going to be 5. After all, I had Amanda Stevens, I think the fastest swimmer in long course triathlon in my race as well as 2012 IM and IM 70.3 World Champ and super swimmer also, Leanda Cave. Barry continues "...and Mel Hauschildt is now in T1, Mel set the bike course record last year here, she is definitely one to watch and she is... 2 1/2minutes down on the leaders". My face lit up. That was music to my ears. I jumped on Shivy and took off up the road to catch them. The first 8km is all a gradual climb - just around 2% but enough of a climb that if you bolt out of the water and smash the first 8km you could really put yourself in a hole for the rest of the ride. As I was only 2 1/2minutes down it was easier for me to control myself at the start. 

At 18km I passed Leanda on a small climb. I felt great, still on my bars, powering up the climb. Leanda was up out of her saddle. This gave me a confidence boost that I was riding well. At around 35km I saw Jared and he yelled out 40seconds. "40seconds" I thought... "to who?". I assumed Amanda must be further up the road than that...it must be someone else just up ahead that I can see. But at 41km I passed Amanda and then saw the lead motorcycle up the road. I'm in the lead? Awesome! What to do now? Either relax a little and try to make the run easier by being fresher off the bike? Or push the bike hard and make the run easier by having a good lead? I opted for the second option. I tend to think I run the same off a hard bike or a steadier bike anyway. I may as well get a good lead.

The bike course was great. The roads are smooth. There are nice rolling hills and the scenery is beautiful. It was just me out there on my own. No age groupers to contend with. Just me and Shivy in the fresh, thin air of Boulder. The only part where I could see my competition was an out and back section we did to make up some kms. A gradual climb up Niwot St before a sharp u-turn back down. I saw I had a decent lead but kept pushing the pace. As I jumped off Shivy and ran into T2 Barry's loud cheerful voice was again beaming from the mic. "Wow! Our first female into T2 is Mel Hauschildt, not only did she catch up 2 1/2 minutes, she put another few minutes into the next girl! And this isn't even her strongest leg, just look at her, she's a runner!" Barry was awesome. If you were ever going through a tough patch he was sure to get you out of it by making you feel great.

Helmet off, socks and shoes on. Salty the Yeti (my trusty 'dessert' GU gel) in my pocket, visor and race belt in hand. And I'm out of there. Boulder 70.3 run course is one of my favorite. The only bitumen you run on is in and out of transition. The rest of the run is all dirt/gravel trails. I love it. One of the big reasons I love training here in Boulder is for their awesome dirt running trails. So we head out of the Reservoir over some rolling hills on a dirt road where you'll spot just as many top pro triathletes spectating as there are in the race. A u-turn and then back into the Res via some narrower gravel trails and then along the water back into transition for another lap. I had my Garmin 910XT flashing km splits to me so I could control my pace. Also out on the course was the great photographer Timothy Carlson who would apologize for interrupting me as he'd take several photos of me running. I couldn't help but smile at him. Jared would also pop up and instead of telling me how far down I was he didn't know what to say... "your just out for your Sunday long run". I kinda laughed to myself... so maybe they're not catching back up I thought.

The last 2km was probably the toughest mentally. It's where I do my 2km reps in training and it's dead straight. You can just see the end but it drags on forever. Finally I see the chute... That's when you get this extra burst of energy, like you could just keep going. The crowd somehow does that. The waving arms all hanging over the barriers hoping to get a high 5, the commentator screaming over the mic. It's an amazing feeling. I crossed the line in 4:04:36, 12min 51sec ahead of Leanda in 2nd and with a new course record. A bike course record and the perfect way to start the US season after arriving to the States just a few weeks ago.

Jared was at the finish... again no idea how. I last saw him 3km out. He's just a show off...must've ran back faster than me or taken some cross-country short cut somewhere. Also there waiting was my awesome Boulder Homestay hosts who have helped me out since my first time here in 2011. Jevgenij and his young son Teo, who, by the way destroyed the field in the IronKids the previous day!

A big thanks to Eric from Specialized for getting my bike ready to roll! GU nutrition for your awesome nutrition out on course as well as the whole IM team - race organisers, officials, sponsors and volunteers for doing such a well-polished job. Thanks Barry for your commentary, Jared for...where do I start...coaching, massaging, looking after me! My manager, Phil Stoneman and all of my sponsors for your tremendous support!