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Timberman Half-IM report
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All,

Timberman is an absolutely fantastic half-ironman. Great location, very well organized & run, and a challenging course. If you're reading this in the archive because you're trying to decide whether to sign up, stop reading and go register!

First of all, the Lake Winnepesauke area in New Hampshire is a fantastic area for a vacation or just a weekend. There's tons of watersports and hiking and family activities. There are some relatively good restaurants in the area, as well as neat little diners and typical fast-food joints. The Meadowbrook Farm concert arena near the race had Ani DiFranco, Garrison Keiler, the Allman Brothers, and Bob Dylan all performing within four days of race day. The race literature listed a number of nearby hotels but didn't give any reviews. We ended up staying at the Misty Harbor hotel, which has big suites with kitchens in the rooms, and was about 3 miles from the race. I'd recommend it, and will be staying there again next year.

The race course is almost ideal. It's challenging, but it gives you lots of opportunities to go fast and hard. The swim is a square 0.4 out, 0.4 over, and 0.4 back. That means that to get to the swim start, you have to walk 0.4 miles over from the swim finish at the transition area. The lake was very calm with very little current and very little wind. Water temps was in the low 70s, so it had enough of a chill to make the wetsuit comfortable but not enough to feel cold at all. After the swim there's a quick hill then a few miles of downhill/flat so you can get your breath back before starting some decent climbing. This being New Hampshire, there were quite a few steep uphills followed directly by steep downhills followed directly by very sharp turns at the bottom of the hill. The course is 28 miles out, then back over almost the same course, with the first/last 10 miles or so being pretty hilly and the middle 18x2 on rolling hills where you can get up some decent speed. Well paved roads, decent amount of shoulder in most places. Overall a great ride. Run course is 3.25 miles out then back, mostly along the shore of the lake. That means you do the out-and-back twice, with a pass by the transition area after the first time that gives you the extra 0.1 miles. Two great things about this arrangement: you see everybody, because you cover the same ground four times. And it feels like there are aid stations everywhere because it doesn't take all that many to do a good job covering the course. Volunteers and race neighbors were excellent and very encouraging. Just because the run is next to the lake, it's NOT flat. In fact, it's high enough above the lake to give some excellent views, and has some decent ups and downs that you definetly feel after the bike (well I certainly did!). Finish line and post-race food was great, lots of friendly people cheering and eating.

My personal race was pretty good. This was my goal race for the year, and my second half-ironman. My goal was to finish between 5:30 and 5:45. Since cycling is my weakest event and knowing this would be a hilly course, I focused my training efforts on the bike, hoping that my abilities in the swim and the run wouldn't suffer from lack of focus. That strategy mostly paid off. I had a 36 min swim, which is about 2-3 mins slower than I would have liked but I'm still pretty happy with it. I set a hard pace for myself on the bike, pushing aggressively up the hills and maintaining a pretty high level of effort throughout. This was the first bike race where I found I could actually pass some people -- although as often as not they passed me back a few miles later. I gave it my all on the bike -- by the end I could not have ridden up another New Hampshire hill. But I ended up finishing the bike in 3:02, which is a PR for me and about 10 minutes better than I thought that I could have done. Of course, that meant that the run *hurt*. It was a struggle the whole way through, and I had to stop and walk at four of the aid stations because I simply couldn't run any further. I only allowed myself a count of 60 before I ran again, and gatorade and water saw me through. Once again, I gave it my all on the run, and by the end I could not have run any further -- I didn't even have a finish line sprint in me. I was very suprised to finish the run in 1:54. I thought I had blown it completely and had been running much more slowly. Total race time 5:38:55, which I'm very happy for. The big lesson for me is that I need to do more bricks. My legs were shot after the bike.

As a final note, we spent the week after the race on vacation near Bar Harbor, and I took the opportunity to ride the 18 mile park loop road through Acadia National Park. It is absolutely hands down the most gorgeous ride I've been on. I caught it on a clear 65 degree morning with no wind, and the views over the ocean were absolutely unbelievable. I finished up the loop at Jordan Pond House, with tea and popovers with wife and kid, and I was in heaven.

Lee
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