photo by Randy Sadler 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.
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.
photo by Randy Sadler 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!
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!
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