Timberman Relay
Yesterday was the Timberman Ironman 70.3 race up in New Hampshire. It's always a great race put on by Keith Jordan and Endorfun, and this year proved to be no different. For the first time though, I was there to do a relay instead of tackling the whole distance solo.
My brother would do the swim, I would handle the cycling responsibilities, and my sister-in-law would bring it home in the run. Given that my training for the past several weeks was almost 100% focused on running, I was a little concerned going in that I would not have enough time in the saddle. 56 miles may not seem like a lot, but when your long ride since June is about 30 miles, you might be in trouble.
Woke up at about 5 or so and drove with Geoff and Kat down to the transition area. There was really no reason for us to be there that early, except that we wanted a good parking spot for later on. The motel we were in was only about a mile from the start of the race, so if we needed anything, it was in close proximity. Got a bagel with some peanut butter and choked it down with a cup of coffee to get the plumbin' hummin'. Sure enough, no worries there, so I jogged back to the motel to take care of business while simultaneously warming the legs up. Gotta love multitasking.
So anyway, the race was supposed to get underway at 7am. Most races start a little on the late side, and this was no exception. Probably 15 min or so past 7, the first wave went off. The relays were in wave 11 which meant a good long wait before I'd be riding. So much for the warm-up. The bullpen where relay participants were corralled was filled with BTT folks - we had 4 or 5 relays in the race, which meant that we had some friendly faces around us. Geoff came out of the water in about 31 minutes - not bad, and in looking at the splits for other folks, pretty respectable. I bent down to remove his chip, put it on myself and was off.
Being in a wave so near the back of the race meant one thing - TRAFFIC - and lots of it. I was passing people basically from the start of the ride until the end. Played leapfrog with a couple guys almost all day long, careful not to draft, but always keeping them in site.
The first half was fast - there were times when I felt like I was softpedalling, going 32-34mph. Hit the turnaround and discovered why, as we had a nice tailwind on the way out. Speeds dropped like a stone because of the wind, and also because it's a lot of uphill back into town. Had to stop and take a leak at around mile 50... so many people flew by me, I questioned that decision afterwards. Came into transition and racked my bike, ran to the bullpen and handed off to Katherine.
Kat had a great run - PR'ed by about 4 minutes, on a really difficult course no less, all while on antibiotics that are making her nauseous all the time. It will be interesting to see what she can do in a stand alone Half-Mary at some point.
Had a great time after the race hanging out with BTT folks and cheering on all of my fellow competitors. Ran into Leslie and some folks from the GMM team, who I can imagine would be some great training partners if I lived up north.
Alas, the day had to come to an end - packed up the car and headed home for a nice dinner with Jenn. I mentioned to her that the fire is burning again - that the past several months that I have been unintentionally taking off must have been good for me. Now I just need to carry this enthusiasm through the winter - this will be of vital importance to a good race at Placid next year.
My brother would do the swim, I would handle the cycling responsibilities, and my sister-in-law would bring it home in the run. Given that my training for the past several weeks was almost 100% focused on running, I was a little concerned going in that I would not have enough time in the saddle. 56 miles may not seem like a lot, but when your long ride since June is about 30 miles, you might be in trouble.
Woke up at about 5 or so and drove with Geoff and Kat down to the transition area. There was really no reason for us to be there that early, except that we wanted a good parking spot for later on. The motel we were in was only about a mile from the start of the race, so if we needed anything, it was in close proximity. Got a bagel with some peanut butter and choked it down with a cup of coffee to get the plumbin' hummin'. Sure enough, no worries there, so I jogged back to the motel to take care of business while simultaneously warming the legs up. Gotta love multitasking.
So anyway, the race was supposed to get underway at 7am. Most races start a little on the late side, and this was no exception. Probably 15 min or so past 7, the first wave went off. The relays were in wave 11 which meant a good long wait before I'd be riding. So much for the warm-up. The bullpen where relay participants were corralled was filled with BTT folks - we had 4 or 5 relays in the race, which meant that we had some friendly faces around us. Geoff came out of the water in about 31 minutes - not bad, and in looking at the splits for other folks, pretty respectable. I bent down to remove his chip, put it on myself and was off.
Being in a wave so near the back of the race meant one thing - TRAFFIC - and lots of it. I was passing people basically from the start of the ride until the end. Played leapfrog with a couple guys almost all day long, careful not to draft, but always keeping them in site.
The first half was fast - there were times when I felt like I was softpedalling, going 32-34mph. Hit the turnaround and discovered why, as we had a nice tailwind on the way out. Speeds dropped like a stone because of the wind, and also because it's a lot of uphill back into town. Had to stop and take a leak at around mile 50... so many people flew by me, I questioned that decision afterwards. Came into transition and racked my bike, ran to the bullpen and handed off to Katherine.
Kat had a great run - PR'ed by about 4 minutes, on a really difficult course no less, all while on antibiotics that are making her nauseous all the time. It will be interesting to see what she can do in a stand alone Half-Mary at some point.
Had a great time after the race hanging out with BTT folks and cheering on all of my fellow competitors. Ran into Leslie and some folks from the GMM team, who I can imagine would be some great training partners if I lived up north.
Alas, the day had to come to an end - packed up the car and headed home for a nice dinner with Jenn. I mentioned to her that the fire is burning again - that the past several months that I have been unintentionally taking off must have been good for me. Now I just need to carry this enthusiasm through the winter - this will be of vital importance to a good race at Placid next year.
posted by Mike Hollywood at 10:25 AM
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