Timberman 70.3 Race Report

Swim (36:34) PR
The swim start got delayed by about 30 minutes due to a car accident out on the bike course. Luckily the water was listed at 75 degrees, so spending the extra time waiting was not too bad. The swim here always makes me a bit nervous b/c lake winnipesaukee can be a sheet of glass or it can be quite rough. This makes 3 straight years that I have had great conditions, lets keep our fingers crossed that next year will make 4 straight years. Overall the swim went well. I set a PR by about 3 1/2 minutes over last years swim. The only disappointing aspect was that it took me a solid 1/3 of a mile or so, just before the first turn buoy, before I was able to settle into my rhythm. Not quite sure why, coming off such a great swim at lake placid, but I guess that is just the way it goes. The conditions were fine, it felt a little wavy on the stretch that runs parallel with the beach, but nothing too bad. Coming back to shore I took a gulp or two of lake winnipesaukee, but a little e.coli never hurt anyone! (there was a posting a few days before the race about a high count of e.coli). But when I came out of the water and saw 36:30 on my watch I knew I had a 1.2 mile swim PR and was looking forward to getting on the bike!

T1 (2:54)
T1 one went pretty smooth, the wetsuit strippers had a little issue getting my wetsuit around my ankles, but nothing to worry about. I got my socks on pretty quickly, that is something that tends to give me trouble at times, I think the baby powder definately helps.

Bike (3:05:20) (18.1 MPH)
So the bike, the last two years I averaged 19.1 and 19 MPH on this course. Coming off lake placid just 4 weeks ago, I was going into in with a goal of 18 or so MPH. The bike was going great, the first 12 miles out to 106 were rolling by, I felt really strong going up the marsh hill monster. Going out 106 is usually very fun b/c you usually get to see the pro's coming flying by in the other direction. I hit the turn around at 106 and I was still having a great ride, songs were coming in and out of my head and the miles were just flying by. I hit the 40 mile mark in just under 2 hours, I was averaging 20.2 MPH and was thinking I might be setting a bike PR here as well.

Around mile 43 that all changed as the rear of my bike felt a bit bouncy. I thought can it be, a flat for the first time in my 4 years of racing? At the leavitt turn off at mile 44, before hit the final 12 miles of climbs and descents back to ellacoya, I thought I would dismount and check. Low and behold my tire was running flat. So, I begin to empty my spare, CO2 etc... and get to work. I ride tubies which means they are glued on. The volunteers radioed in that I needed bike support and they told me they were just around the corner and would be here in a second. That made me feel good, but I figured I should get started anyway, why waste any time. Maybe 6-7 minutes later I finally get the flat tire ripped off my wheel (yes no support yet) then maybe another 6-7 minutes later I finally get my spare on and partially inflated (yes no support yet) I also managed to rip of a hugh piece of skin on my thumb while forcing the tire on, nothing like adding insult to injury and what happened to bike support being here in a second? As I am tightening my rear skewer here comes support, they give it a quick once over, top off my tire pressure, and 17 minutes later I am back riding.

The long and short of it was even with a 17 minute delay, I still beat my expected pace, but after seeing the SRM data that for the actually time I was riding (pre and post flat) I actually ripped of a 2:41:58 bike split at 20MPH, that would have been a nice PR to have :-(

T2 (2:26)
Nothing special to report here accept getting my sneakers on without being able to use my right thumb was not easy!

Run (2:13:31) (10:12 mile)
My run defintatley wasn't great. Maybe I pushed to hard those final 12 miles in trying to make up some of the lost time, maybe it was doing an Ironman 4 weeks prior, I am not sure. I stopped at mile 2 for a pit stop which helped, but by mile 4 I just wasn't feeling it. I actually tried cola for the first time at mile 5 and 6 in hopes of a little pick me up, but I can't say it had a big effect. So I decided to just plug along and deal with the highs and lows of the run. Around mile 10 or 11 I ran into a guy that trains at my gym that I often talk to about triathlon. I believe this was his first half-ironman. I am embarassed to say, but I don't even know his name, but I hope he had a great race. So I had not looked at my running time until about my 12 and by my calculation I decided that I couldn't hit my goal of going sub-6 hour so I decided to stop and walk the last aid station why I get a quick drink. So I am back to running and tried to finish strong, which I think I did, and I crossed the line in 6:00:44 :-( I guess I should have skipped the last aid station.

Afterwards
Overall I am happy, Swim PR, Could have been bike PR minus the flat and only missing my goal by 44 seconds. Soon after I had my normal post half-ironman stomach pains but thanks to my wife, I think we might have found the remedy ICE CREAM. I had a small cup of coffee flavored soft serve ice cream and felt so much better. As always I have to say thank you to my wife Laura, she gets up a 4:00am and comes out and supports me throughout the whole day. She finds me at all of the different legs of the race and takes pictures and cheers, she is just the best! She also managed to get a post race pic of Chrissie Wellington and I, which was cool since I met Chrissie last year at a deli/pizza shop here in Gilford and was able to talk with her for a few minutes. I will hopefully post it soon to my website at http://www.kenclebak.com/.