Short verson
33:xx
2:30:xx
1:45:xx
4:55:xx
Long version
My parents took the kids early friday am so the wife and I got on the road early and drove across VT to NH. Went out to Gunstock . Operation was totally impressive, KJ has every detail covered. Registered and then checked out the race site and tried to drive the bike course. Got kinda lost but saw most of it. It was raining very hard on and off, weather report for the weekend was sketchy at best. Went to the “champions dinner” on friday night as my wife wanted to hear Chrissie Wllington speak. As we were getting food she was right behind us. She is super nice and really went out of her way to stand there and chat and be nice. Can’t say enough how genuinely nice she was. Completely awesome.
Her speech was awesome
Lovato’s speech was great as well, that dude may have a future in stand up
Went back to town and watched the Yankees crush the Red Socks much to the dismay of all the biker dudes in the bar.
Went down to the sprint with Jenny early. My sister and I were thinking "I wonder if there will be anywhere to get coffee. Remember how I mentioned that KJ had covered the details?
Check out these really cool bike support cycles
The man himself
Jenny did awesome. It was her second ever tri. First time after learning to freestyle this winter and first time racing, third time ever riding outside with bike shoes and pedals. She pretty much crushed it.
Happy at the finish
Even after the sprint there was a beer garden margarita tent with live music. Yep at 8:30 in the morning. Like I said, the details were covered.
Went out to dinner with some of the boys Saturday night. Yoda, Kdw, Me and ML
Hung out and watched the Red Socks MURDER the Yankees…much to the great satisfaction of all the biker dudes in the bar.
Left the hotel at 5. About 2 miles from transition ran into a huge dead stop traffic jam. Usually people exaggerate how bad traffic is…not in this case. We did manage to get one of the last few parking spots. Still had a ton o time as there was a delay to the start becuase of a traffic accident out on the bike course.
Was very lazily making my way over to the swim start when I realized that they had started. My wave was all in the water except for me. Crap. Still had about 3 minutes when I got into the water as there was a long delay between the older men/women and the first 35-39 men.
Swim was uneventful. Found some feet and sat there. Only issue was that the guy would pull a scissor kick thing when he sighted. Oh well. Rough at the start and then spread out. Used my patented “just wait for it to be over” technique. Used very little energy on the swim. Sorry to that older lady that both the guy I was drafting off of and I swan over the top of. By the time I realized what was happening it was over. Hit the mat in 33 and change, perfect. On the long run into T1
Had no intention of using the strippers. For whatever reason it seemed like a good idea when I got there. Wasted time doing it and managed to have a nasty cramp in my right calf. Limped away, very weird but was not a factor later on.
Bike was not very crowded at all. Did not see an official all day but did not see anyone drafting either. Passed people steadily but never too much traffic. Got passed by a guy in my AG on the hills around mile 10. Yo Yo’d with him for a while and then he got away til the start of the run. Felt like I was taking it really easy but as no one was passing me figurered that was a good thing. It was getting hot and I was thinking about the “find oppurtunities to do less work” thing on the bike gears chart. Was really easy to see the watts on my new Garmin 310. Had it set to display only watts and had it on the underside of my writst. Big display right out at the end of the bars. Thing is a really cool toy.
I felt good so I pushed a little harder on the second half. The ride went by very quickly. It is certainly not a fast bike course. Pretty big hills, lots of false flats and too many turns. I figurered after I melted later on the run that I must have overcooked the watts on the bike. Nope. That was not the problem.
Duration: 2:30:57
Work: 2151 kJ
TSS: 156.1 (intensity factor 0.788)
Norm Power: 248
VI: 1.04
Distance: 55.579 mi
Elevation Gain: 5219 ft
Elevation Loss: 5189 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (7 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 858 238 watts
Heart Rate: 143 182 165 bpm
Cadence: 32 218 91 rpm
Speed: 0 50.5 22.1 mph
Really was pretty good bike execution. Was ready to get off the bike but not feeling too bad. We had all been expecting rain and clouds. It was clear and sunny and getting hot in a hurry. Looked at the watch and if I hit my goal of running 1:30 I would be in under 4:40. That went out the window in a hurry.
Off and running:
About a mile into the run I saw Chrissie coming the other way finishing her first loop. Figurered that she would pass me. Then I was Potts on his second loop. That dude is a machine. I was running 7:15-7:30 and it felt like a stoopid easy pace. All was going well. It was getting hot so I fugurered I would try and “do no harm” on the first loop. Saw lots of EN folks, really nice to have the team out there, even when you are suffering. No one was really running all that fast . Running by the finish line at the end of the first loop was really demoralizing for me. Chrissie was a couple hundred yards behind me at that point and the crowd was loud. Really wanted to “accidentally” run down the finishing chute. I can usually play nice mental tricks with myself and keep it rolling. Nothing was really working and I started walking the aid stations. Sucked but I just did not care enough to suffer the needed amount. 7:30’s turned to 8:30’s. About that time I realized I had not peed all day which is really unusual for me. Drank a bunch of water at the next few stations and then kinda made myself go. Very dark yellow, not good at all. Just kinda limped it in from there. Got passed by a Kdw and Dev with about a mile to go. Did not really matter that they started 20 minutes behind me I decided to try and hang on for dear life. Had a decent closing mile. Kdw Dev and I crossed the line within seconds of each other. I think Dev was trying to ruin his finishers photo. I would have done better on the run but Kyle took 2 waters at the last aid station and then knocked all the rest of the cups out of the volunteers hands 
Felt near death at the finish. Almost passed out. Sat in the lake for a while and I was ok. Not really happy about crap run execution. Here is the run file.
Duration: 1:45:50
rTSS: 144 (0.853)
NGP: 7:33 (213.3 m/min)
Distance: 13.315 mi
Elevation Gain: 3193 ft
Elevation Loss: 3171 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (22 ft)
Min Max Avg
Heart Rate: 125 185 161 bpm
Speed: 0.9 14.9 7.6 mph
Pace 4:01 64:22 7:56 min/mi
Altitude: 493 706 575 ft
7:21
7:23
7:16
7:30
7:35
7:31
7:50
8:24
8:35
8:35
8:30
9:39
7:24
Well my goal for the year was to run 1:30 off the bike. That did not come close to happening. Granted sunday was not a PR day with the heat and humidity but I basically just buggered it. Nutrition was fine. Maybe I needed some more water but I was really OK. Needed some more suckitupituide and did not have it to draw on. I knew that I was gonna be pissed at myself when I was walking out there just did not care quite enough to keep rolling. As many of you know once you give in a little it gets easier and easier to keep walking.
Here are some folks who know nothing about that:
BTW 3:51 is freakin crazy. In his speech at the line he said that he was gonna shut it down as he had a good lead and he has some big races coming up but it was so hot he figurered if he ran fast it would be over sooner. Uhhh OK.
Had a few drinks with Kdw, ML and Yoda in the beer tent. Really is a cool race. My only suggestion for KJ is to have the beer garden on an elevated platform over looking the finish line. Awesome race.
Went up to the Timberfest party Lobsterfest thing. It was pouring so the firewooks/smores/live music outside party thing was a bust. Went back to the same place and watched the Yankees beat the Red Sox with a bunch of boston tri folks, so at least that worked out .
Great weekend and think I will go back next year and get revenge on the run course
