Timberman 70.3 2010 Race Report

Going into this race, I wasn’t expecting much. This was my first time doing Timberman and Justin’s second (it was actually his 70.3 debut back in 2007 so I think it was an exciting time for him to return to the scene of the crime). I was calm. I hadn’t taken a real taper as my A race is mid-September, so I was looking to race well but certainly did not have any high expectations.

Justin and I arrived at race check-in around 3:45pm on Saturday. Right off the bat I fell into a rotten mood. First, what’s up with K Swiss’ shirt sizing? As with every race, I marked off a size small and when they handed me my shirt I gave it a quick glance and asked with all seriousness, “is this a kid’s shirt?” It looked like the perfect size for my 9 year old niece. They assured it was a woman’s size small and said I would have to come back at 7pm when everyone has checked in to exchange it for a different size. Screw that, way too much effort; I just won’t be wearing it around (which is too bad cause they were nice shirts). Second, we ran into the expo shop to pick up a pair of yankz shoe laces for me and saw that they were charging $5 for a Timberman water bottle (which they typically give you for free in your goody-bag, but not this year). All the other ridiculously overpriced branded items in the expo made me want to ban these races forever – I hate seeing money hungry corporations. Then, as we left, I stopped by the information tent to ask how much tickets were for the pasta dinner. There response: “We don’t have any information about the dinner, it’s not run by us so we don’t know” GIVE ME A BREAK! Really?! The freakin’ pasta dinner is put on by the police department where the proceeds go to a cause and because they're not getting any of the money they’re not going to give out any information about it? Christ, so ridiculous!! A bit ticked off, we went to transition, set up our bikes and made our way to Applebee’s (where we had the most boring dinners ever but healthy nonetheless) and then our hotel. We were in bed around 8pm. Wakeup was 4:20am and we were out door at 5am.We lucked out on parking and got a spot across the street from transition – happy we didn’t have to wait in the shuttle lines after the race! As for weather, it was an overcast day, high 60’s at race start with some sprinkles that arrived later during the bike and run.

Swim
[Liz- 39:41,  Justin- 44:31]
Last weekend I tried on some wetsuits at a local tri shop. I was in the market for a new one because I hate the one I was using. One suit I tried was the QuintanaRoo Hydrofull suit and I fell in love – the easiest, most comfortable suit I’ve ever tried on. That night we did some internet searching and found the suit for a nice price and ordered it. I received it in the mail on Friday, hours before heading out the door! I was a bit concerned about doing my first swim in the suit at the race, but luckily I had no issues. It felt awesome. I did dolphin dives up to the first bouy since it was so shallow, after which I caught a groove and just swam. I got stuck in a couple jams before the first turnaround and the waters were choppy so it wasn’t ideal but either way, I think this was the fastest half swim I’ve ever done so I was happy with what I posted. I’m just ready to get faster because the swim really hurts my time.

T1
[Liz- 2:15,  Justin- 2:57]
I ran into transition just behind Justin. Fairly quickly, I was out and on the bike.

Bike
[Liz- 3:00:04 for 18.7 mph,  Justin- 2:57:55 for 18.9 mph]
I was expecting the bike course to be a lot more difficult than it actually was. To my surprise I was able to hold a decent pace for most of the ride. There were a lot of false flats which I am really good at going fast on. What I’m not really good at going fast on are hills and for each one that I approached I was passed over and over again. Hills drive me absolutely crazy and I’ve decided that hills need to be a major focus of mine for next season. If I can conquer hills, I’d be pretty fast on the bike. It started sprinkling halfway through the bike but thankfully, it just sprinkled. My stomach started getting weak at mile 36 so I decided to skip on taking more GU’s. Justin passed me (surprise, surprise…on a hill) somewhere around miles 40-45. I caught him again on a downhill (he’s a big ol’ chicken and was breaking down a hill because the roads were wet from the rain) but only to get passed by him again on an uphill… haha. At mile 52-ish, I decided to take a 2x caffeine GU to help me make it through the run. I wanted to throw up the second I took it and told myself I wouldn’t take anymore GU’s until absolutely necessary for the remainder of the race.

T2
[Liz- 2:33,  Justin- 2:30]
I was happy to be off the bike. I threw my sneaks on, pulled my hair into a pony-tail, left the sunglasses behind and started my run. As I was leaving transition, fellow CREW member Grant told me Jus was just ahead of me and to go get him. Happy he didn’t make up too much time, my next goal was to catch Justin ;)

Run
[Liz- 1:54:41 for 8:46 min/mile,  Justin- 2:04:28 for 9:31 min/mile]
With every race, I tell myself to run the first mile or two at a nice and easy pace. I can catch my breath, undo the numbness in my feet and get my running legs together. This is exactly what I did this race only to find out my fastest running was the first several miles! The first 3 miles I apparently paced an 8:14min/mile! Surprised again, the run course was not too difficult. I caught Justin somewhere between mile 2 or 3, chatted quickly, and was off. The run was pretty uneventful. They had plenty of water stations and food along the course which was really nice. 13.1 miles of running (no stopping to walk for me!) and I finished with a personal best! I was SUPER excited. I waited at the finish to see Justin run threw and get awarded his finishers medal from Chrissie Wellington which was super awesome.

Final
[Liz- 5:39:14,  Justin- 5:51:58]
This is the fastest half I’ve ever done and I can’t wait to see what I can do in next month’s race. I am still unsure of how many girls were in my age group (official results haven’t been posted where they tell you) but there were over 100 and I placed 25th – which I’m really excited about. I have been training really hard and hope that with some more serious workouts, I'll be in a good position to finish my last tri of the season strong. Justin posted a great time even though he was in a calorie deficit most of the race. Congrats, Justin! We need to find some better race day fueling as GU’s don’t seem to be doing it for us anymore.

We headed to the food tent and filled our plates with food. However, I only ate the clam chowder, roll and banana in the pic below... everything else went into the trash.

Parting thoughts
I had a lot of fun racing Timberman. Take out the greediness that makes up these races and the “God’s gift” athletes that seemed to flock to this race and I’d have to say it was a beautiful race and well organized. I had a great time. The drive was a little too much for me, especially our drive home which took over 11 hours thanks to heavy rain and major traffic. All-in-all it was a successful day and happy I came out to race! I received a text from my brother congratulating me on the finish and said he’s bringing the competition next season… need to be doing 5:20’s – BRING IT!!!!