Race #15 New Hampshire TIMBERMAN

I was asked by a reporter why I chose the Timberman and the best I could come up with is;

"Who doesn't want to be a Timberman!"


Friday August 20, 2010

Headed out early and had a long uneventful day of Travel.  I am on the PowerTri team and a fellow team member and athlete Kim was kind enough to pick me up from the airport and let me crash in the house that their Tri team (THE BAY STATE) rented for the weekend.  I was giddy like a school girl with the thought of not having to stay by myself and race solo.  Even though triathlon is an individual sport it is still way nice to have "teammates" there to cheer on and see before during and after the race.  It was a further drive than I thought from the airport and became even more grateful for the lift.  It was late when we got to the house and all the athletes had gone to sleep.  Kim was a SUPER host and had a plate of food already made for me.  Motel 6 just doesn't have this kind of service... I can assure you!

Bay State Tri Team

Saturday August 21, 2010

This crew wakes up early and I am still on Utah time!  Everyone was up at the crack of dawn really excited for check in I guess.  I wondered what everyone's hurry was as check in didn't even open till 10 and most of them had check in the day before.  Come to find out there was a sprint race today and they had some friends racing.  So half the crew took off early and went to watch the race.  We hung back for just a bit and ate a good breakfast (thanks again Kim)  We too headed out to see the sprint race and get the competitive juices flowing.  The race was good and gave us a good preview of the race site.  We ended up swimming the sprint course twice (back and forth).  The water was clear and very shallow at points.  It was a perfect chance to pretend I was a good swimmer and practice my dolphins dive - I see the pro's do it all the time coming out of the water.  After the swim we ran the sprint run course.  I thought to myself I should be doing a lot of sprints and not half Ironman races - that would be way easier!

After lunch we headed to check in.  Routine stuff here BUT I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Rick and Dick Hoyt!  What a lucky 2 weeks.  Madonna Buder and the Hoyts!!!!

Ma and the Hoyts - LEGENDS

After check in we got all of our bikes ready and took them to transition.  Before checking them in we rode the run course and did any last minute adjustments to the bikes.  I really enjoy biking the run course prior to the event.  It gives me a great mental view of what is about to come.  The slope of the hills are much better to judge on a bike that in a car.  This course seemed like it would be pretty good with only a few hills to deal with.  The day ended with a group dinner and us guessing what our time would be for the race.  We all threw in 5 bucks and the closest guess of their own time wins the pot.  Easy money I thought and guessed 4:50:12 (this may have been an unfair game to play :)

Sunday August 22, 2010

RACE DAY - man I just love race day.  The house was buzzing with energy as we headed to the race site.  Kim and I were in the last two waves of the day leaving over 1:30 after the pro's.  I am getting used to this and enjoyed watching the pro's race.  Crissy Wellington is an absolute stud!  I was at the swim exit and she had caught some of the pro men in the swim and exited the water before them - incredible!!  Andy Potts torched the men's field and was out of transition and on his bike before his closest competition was out of the water.  The name of the game in triathlon is "outta site, outta mind'

Team PowerTri before Timberman 70.3

Andy Potts with no one else in sight

New Hampshire 1.2 mile swim- 33:26;  The weather was overcast but no rain yet.   We lined up in the shallow waters and all started to dolphin dive till we reached the deeper waters.  I swam hard and felt pretty good.  My goal here was to not have Kim pass me from the wave behind.  Only one girl passed me and it wasn't Kim - whew!  She did however come out third in her wave- AWESOME.  This is Kim's first attempt at the half distance.  She dominates her region in the Sprint and Olympic distances.

Why do I always look dead after the swim??

New Hampshire 56 mile bike ride- 2:31:24; I wouldn't call this course rolling rolls.  I would call it hill segments.  The first 11 miles was mostly up and the next 11 were mostly down.  This was the same on the way back in with suctions of up and down.  The long downhill sections were fun as you could maintain a fairly high speed.  At about mile 40 for me it started to rain.  The rain doesn't bother me for the most part except for on the steep downhill sections.  On these sections the rain hurt my face.  The sun was hiding but I was glad I had my sunglasses in my jersey.  I put those bad boys on and although I could not see as well the pain from the welting rain stopped.  I felt this was a good time on a challenging course.

Take notes on that position! Whew!

New Hampshire 13.1 mile run- 1:41:16;  The rain had stopped and the weather looked like it was going to be perfect for this run.  I felt good coming off the bike and hoped to continue to feel that way for the duration.  I have been struggling on the run and needed a good experience for no other reason than mental confidence.  This was a "mostly" flat run course with 2 hills run both ways on each of the two laps.  I went out at a conservative pave wanting to have a strong finish.  With the first lap down I still felt solid and picked up the pace just a little making sure to stay in complete control.  I saw the Bay State crew spread out along the course and I was trying to run them all down but some of them just had too big of a lead on me!  Erik posted the second fastest time to me finishing only 2 minutes behind me.  He had too big of a lead with the wave starts and his sheer speed made it hard for me to catch him.  I looked down at my watch and with 2 miles to go I knew I was close to my guessed time if I picked up my pace just a bit more.  I never know what my swim time is during the race as I don't wear a watch during this leg.... maybe I should.  I picked it up and ran the last mile just under a 7 minute mile.  I crossed the line, looked up at the clock and knew I was real close to my guessed time.  Everyone in our group finished strong with no issues and everyone had the race they expected.  Turns out I know my abilities and posted a final time of 4:50:17 which is FIVE SECONDS over my guess of 4:50:12.  Looks like you guys picked the wrong guy to play that game with.  I was lucky to get that close as one of the other girls was only 18 seconds off of her guess.

I'll I'm missing is a gold chain and some hair on my chest!  I call this shot Big Pimpin

This was a great event and I really enjoyed the nice people and the area.  I would do this race again and would have to land this race in my top 5.  I think I will rank the races best to worst when I am all done.....