Last year tupper was my first half and I just wanted to survive it. Went 5:40 and finished feeling like I could have gone a lot harder. This year went up trying to see what I could do with my LP base. Ended up with going more than 40 minutes faster, very happy with the result.
Drove up with my friend Seth, great day, just nice to not be working. Met up with my sister in tupper and went to the expo. Drove back to Long Lake where we were staying and had dinner at the hotel. Decided not to have the pork loin wrapped in bacon. Who wraps pork in bacon? Met up with Murphys Law, Tyler Durden and Parkito and had another beer. Up early and had a nice little ST caravan to tupper in the morning. Ran into mtlrunner who said that camping was hateful.
First half of the swim was great. Easy to see, felt smooth, thought the work siting was paying off. Made the turn and could not see anything despite the dark goggles. Could only swim in the general direction where the others were. Could not see the buoys until I was within 50 feet of them or so. Seemed to take forever to get back. swim 36:24 (last year was 37:30).
Good transition and off on the bike. Concentrated on getting the heartrate down and relaxing in the first few miles. All of those six plus hour solo training rides have paid off and I felt like I could push it a bit without hurting myself. Passed my sister within a few miles. A few people passed me and were yelling. One yelled something about cheating and another said something about counting to three someone yelled out a number that was not mine, I was confused. Finally a sat up to look around and someone hit my wheel. Scared the hell out of me. I guess I had a “friend” on my wheel. I saw her a lot for the rest of the ride and think that she eventually got nabbed by the draft marshal. Murphy’s Law went by me like I was standing still at about mile 22. Made the turn feeling good. Seems like it is easier heading back into town. Nice thing about the bike at tupper is that you never have to touch the breaks . Felt great and was moving fast eased up a bit the last few miles and started thinking about running. bike 2:42:45 last year was 2:59:20.
Headed out on the run. Had planned on eating gel at the start of the run and then another at half way but only had one. Saw my wife and babies and gave my little girl a high five. Stomach was feeling a bit rough so I ate the gel that I had. Just took a little water at the first few stations and it settled down. Sat tyler-d headed the other way and he looked strong. I was passing people a felt like I was running well. Splits were around 7:30 for the first five or so and I thought I could hold onto that. Ran over the funky sand rr tracks part and decided that I would pick it up a bit. Decided I better eat something else so I grabbed a gel at the next station. It was apple something hammer gel. Tasted like apple pie filling, no clue who would want a gel that tasted like an apple pie. Realized that I was still feeling good at mile 10 and thought I could hold on. Last couple of miles went by fast, last couple of hundred yards running on the grass felt like 10 miles. Went through the line with 192 showing on the hr monitor. run 1:34:57 holy crap! 7:15 miles, last year was 1:53:53.
Total time 4:58:48, a 40 plus minute pr. Nice confidence boost going into LP. Think it was a good day for our whole Long Lake scary hotel group as I think everyone pr’d including my friend seth who took nearly 2 hours off his harriman time.
