I raced Timberman 70.3 last weekend (well, two weekends ago now) and being that I secured a decent result I think I can justify writing a real race report!
After spending the majority of the weekend stuffing calories into my face at local pizza and ice cream shops and driving my rented Suburu Outback around New Hampshire, race day finally arrived. A typical Ironman 70.3 race morning ensued – drive to the host hotel and take a school bus to the race site (ugghhhhhh).
The gun went off and we all started dolphin diving into the shallow waters of Lake Winnipesaukee. David Kahn got out very, very fast and got a gap almost immediately. I couldn’t close it and ended up red-lining all the way to the first buoy and never found his feet. However, in my struggles I managed to gap everyone else in the field and was alone in second. This wasn’t how I envisioned my race starting but it could have been worse. I exited the water in second, 45 seconds down from Kahn and about 30s up from the main group.
My personal photographer that travels with me was MIA this weekend, so I’ll use these blurry screenshots. Sorry!
After fumbling through T1 (in Ironman races you have to put on a race belt before the bike, and I definitely need to practice putting the aero helmet on) I was off onto the bike. Joe Gambles and Leon Griffon blew by me at around mile two. I went with them for a few minutes but my watts were at a level that was completely unsustainable for 2+ hours, so I dropped from the pace. I was disappointed to not be able to go with them, but regrouped and reminded myself to ride my own race. Around mile ten I was passed by Matt Lieto and Rich Allen. This pace proved to be perfect and I “mentally” paced off these two for the majority of the ride – riding well outside the draft zone of course! Although Jimmy Riccitello was not at this race, images of him pulling a red card on careless athletes flashed through my mind.
Shimano recently sent me a Di2 upgrade kit, and it was awesome on the rolling hills of New Hampshire. Being able to shift out on the brake levers is indispensable on rolling courses. In the end I turned in a power average on the high end of my goal wattage AND as a bonus David Kahn (swim leader) appeared out of nowhere in the last few miles of the bike. My run legs were feeling good heading into this race so I knew the podium was well within reach.
The run turned out to be not much of a race for me. By mile two I was third on the course. I was running well and by the second turn around (mile 9.5) I was solidly in third – 10+ minutes down from second and 4+ minutes up on fourth. Then the wheels fell off. I forgot to put a gel flask in transition to carry on the run so I took what was left of my gel flask from my bike but this wasn’t enough to carry me through 13.1 miles. I didn’t lose any places from the mistake, it was just a bit of extra suffering to cap off the day. I won’t make that mistake again – next time it might matter!
It was great to get on the podium and get a good result. Now I need to carry the momentum into the last few races of the season – Buffalo ITU, Rev3 Anderson and Rev3 Venice.