Timberman - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

First time racing this distance so took it pretty easily and felt relaxed for the entire swim. My form was a bit variable, but navigation was great with some really good buoy roundings. Like some others I found the final leg of the swim a little difficult to stay on course possibly due to the occasional waves / wake.

Yet again managed not to hook up on any good drafts :(

Swimming in such a clear, warm lake was great and it was fun seeing so many fish (doesn't happen much in my Manhattan pool!)

Very little, I could have pushed harder but given my form was variable I don't know how much difference it would have really made to my time. Just need to keep practicing technique.

T1 was pretty smooth. First time I had used wetsuit strippers although I'm not convinced it saved me any time (particularly as the poor girls trying to strip my suit had clearly misjudged how tall I was so it took them three goes to actually strip the suit). Hats off to them though, I finished in the middle of the last wave and I imagine they were pretty tired by the time I got there.

My bike was racked right by the swim exit so I had a fair run to get to the mount area. It would have definitely saved me time and energy if I could have run barefoot. This is the first time where I could really see the advantage of being able to mount with the shoes already on the bike. Another skill to learn over the next couple of seasons.

Felt strong on the bike for the entire course. Didn't suffer from any discomfort and felt very fresh at the end of the ride. I am a heavy sweater so I drank a lot more than I have in previous races (1.5 bottles Infinit, 3 bottles Gatorade, 2 bottles water) to help avoid serious dehydration on the run. Also took 3 Gu gels.
I had not planned to go this fast but started cat and mousing with a TriLife guy and then found I was sustaining a better speed while still holding low zone 3 HR. When I looked at my HR data later I was really pleased with how I had controlled my max HR by spinning the hills.

Although I was very pleased with my time, I think I could have pushed a little harder and maybe gained another 0.5 MPH without any (further!) detriment to the run.

Practice nutrition using all course ingredients before the race, see below...

Once I was 20 yds clear of the dismount line I pulled to the side and took my shoes off so I could complete the run to the far corner of transition. This is not something I would have normally done as usually there isn't enough room to stop while not obstructing someone else, however there was room and it made it much faster to get to my rack space. Hmmm - so much faster that I mistook someones rack position who had the same running shoes as mine. Racked my bike efficiently and then looked down to find I was about 20'away from my actual position. How much of an idiot did I feel! Anyway, quickly moved further up but probably lost 20 seconds in the confusion.

Put socks on for the first time in a transition which went fine.

Look at the rack numbers not just the clothing on the ground!

I sat down on the ground to put my socks on, I think this also lost me a bit of time.

The first three miles of the run felt great. I was holding around 8:40, right on plan and my HR was stable in low Z2. Although it was getting hot (my Achilles heal) I thought I was going to have a good run. As planned I walked all the aid stations so I could take a full cup a fluid down each time and this seemed to be going well.

So all was good until between mile 4-5 when I started getting discomfort in the middle of my stomach, causing me to slow down a little. By mile 6 I was feeling such discomfort that I had to walk for a few minutes. I ran again, pain got worse, so walked again and on it went. Somehow the combination of Infinit, Gatorade and Gu had given me some kind of bad integestion that I had never had before. My money is on the Gatorade as I never use the stuff normally. My legs felt reasonably good, my breathing was controlled but I just couldn't get over the stomach discomfort.

I felt like I walked most of the second loop and was really disappointed when I went over two hours. Another physical problem that began at the end of mile 10 was my toes felt like they were being pushed into the toebox of my shoes and my middle toenails were getting really sore. Never had this before and can only put it down to shuffling / running slower than I ever do in training which radically altered my gait.

On the positive side, my HR never got out of control in the heat and the reality was that a lot of people were suffering and my time wasn't a disaster.

Practice the nutrition using the ingredients provided on the course!

Try and keep my focus and not be distracted by others. There were so many people walking that I didn't feel so bad walking myself. This is a dangerous weakness, and as I step up to full IM next year I need to make sure I don't fall into this trap again.

Got my medal from Chrissie which was cool. Went and sat for 20 mins in the lake to cool down.


In the end it was really a nutrition thing. I should have been able to knock 10 mins off my run if I hadn't got such bad stomach pain. But even given this I got a time that I was really please with.


First trip to NH for me and the course was great, really enjoyed it.

Great atmosphere race which I would love to do again.