2008 Timberman Race Report

As my A- race for this season, I was really looking forward to Timberman, a race in the Ironman 70.3 series, as several of my tri buddies were making the trip to New Hampshire to do the race. The Growling Geckos made a strong showing up North, I must say. Pictures are here.

My friend Carolyn and I headed out on a long drive Thursday afternoon. We stopped about half-way and spent the night at Fort Dix Army Base near Trenton, NJ. She is retired military, so we got a room for pretty cheap. After eight quick hours of sleep, we were on the road again to Gilford, NH.

We got in around 5 pm, picked up our packets, and joined some other buddies for dinner. After an excellent steak and seafood chowder, I was sleeping soundly. We did see a skunk in the hotel parking lot on the walk back from dinner … perhaps a bit of foreshadowing?

The next day, we took a short swim in the beautiful lake that was nearby the hotel, then a quick bike and quick run. We dropped our bikes off and pretty much just kept it low key for the day. My race stuff was packed by 5 pm, which must be some sort of record for me.

I didn’t sleep very well the night before the race, which is unusual for me. Oh well … Up at 4 to get some coffee in me and we headed down to the race site at 5. I had a good spot in transition, right on the end and right beside the wet suit strippers and the end of the swim, along with the start of the run. The only negative was that I would have to push my bike a long way through transition twice.

The swim kind of sucked out the outset as my goggles filled with water twice and I had to flip on my back to try to re-suction them. I need some new ones, these are doing this too often of late. Anyway, finally got on some feet and cruised. 36 minutes was slower than normal, but I felt like I hadn’t used much energy, so that was good.

The bike started out with about 10 miles of hills, some of which were steep climbs. I didn’t realize how steep until I actually was huffing up them. Descents were also a key for this race, and unfortunately, because my wave started dead last, over an hour after the start of the race, the folks around me weren’t exactly comfortable flying downhill at 50 MPH.

After the group of the hills, I saw the race leader, Andy Potts come by, and good lord was he flying. It really made me appreciate how fast the pros are going. I was working hard on the bike at this point, as the middle miles were pretty much flat into a cross-wind. When I got to the turnaround, I looked at my bike computer, expecting to see a 20-plus MPH average. Guess I should have checked earlier. It was 19.2 I think. My heart rate was where I wanted though, so I was was still feeling OK about things. I picked it up on the way back and negative split it barely. More hills over the last 10 and I was so glad to get off of that thing, but then it seems I always am at races.

I was still feeling decent when I came of the bike. I started picking people off on the run immediately after transition. After about mile three, my hamstring cramped up and it was downhill from there. I took 6-8 Endurolytes during the bike, but I wasn’t aware that the sodium in them was so low. I normally take Succeed, which has 340 mg of sodium, three times that of Endurolytes, so I screwed myself. Rookie mistake cost me what might have been a decent run. Instead I ran until I cramped, walked and stretched until it went away, repeat. My arms were cramping, which means it was obviously chemical. I think I just have a very high sweat rate and I lose a bunch of sodium.

So, 5:40 or so, when I was hoping for a PR (5:14). I did meet both the second place female after the race, as she was slinging her bag on her back, hopping on her bike to ride back to her car. I was riding back to the hotel. She said hello and I knew immediately she was a pro. Amanda Stevens, a very fast young lady, for those who care about that sort of thing. Also met Chrissie Wellington at the post-race dinner. Also very cool. She smoked the course in 4:11 or something ridiculous.

After a pretty cool meal of lobster and more chowder, I went too bed. Other folks stayed up and had the Growling Gecko awards, won by my pal Tony Mostek who smoked it in 4:57, but I was whooped. We then got up and hit the road from Gilford at 6:30 am and I arrived home at 11:30 pm after dropping the rental off. I drove the whole way, 800 miles, Boston, New York, Trenton, Baltimore, D.C., Richmond. It was an epic drive. We did stop at one of the 5 million Dunkin’ Donuts we saw and bought a value pack of Munchkins, so all was not lost.

IM Florida draws closer. Lots of training, for me, over the next seven weeks. Ran six Saturday, rode 80 Sunday, ran seven today with the kids in the stroller for the first time. I think I have found a new training tool for Ironman. Strength is crucial I think on the run, so adding 50 pounds of babies in a 20 pound stroller seems like a pretty good tactic. The babies are still unsure, but they hung in there until about mile 5, then they were ready for a snack. Two gels and some Fruit Punch Gatorade and they were back in the game.