Shapin Up | Race Recap: Timberman Ironman 70.3

For months you’ve been reading along as I prepped for my first Ironman 70.3 and this past weekend it actually happened! With so much anticipation and training, I couldn’t wait for the race…and also for the race to be over so I could stop stressing about it.

My overall sentiment after the race was that it was AWESOME. Leading up to it I felt like I hadn’t trained enough and wouldn’t be prepared for what was ahead of me, but I’m happy to report that when I got to the starting line, I felt confident, happy and ready. The stress leading up to the day washed away with the beautiful blue waters of Lake Winnipesaukee and I was able to race hard and enjoy the ride.

Read on for all the details about my Ironman 70.3 experience. It’s a long one, so feel free to skip around to different sections or read the whole thing!

Friday

Friday afternoon MM, Ollie and I loaded up the car to head to New Hampshire. We rented a house via AirBnB and arrived late, had a snack then went to bed.

Saturday

Saturday morning we all went over to see some of Matt’s family in another part of New Hampshire and spent some time by the lake.

[tried to get Ollie in the water, no such luck]

Next we headed to the Ironman Village for athlete check in and bike drop off. First we went to the village to get my race packet and check out the vendors. The mini village was cute and very easy to navigate. I grabbed my race packet and we jumped back in the car to head about 15 minutes away to the bike drop off.

Before entering the transition zone there was a bike mechanic area. I hadn’t had my bike checked since I got it earlier this summer so I decided to have the mechanics do a quick check. At other races this is complimentary but here a full check was $55. I figured it was worth the money to make sure everything was running smoothly, especially because the bike had just spent 5+ hours strapped to the top of our car.

While we waited for the bike to be taken care, MM and I walked around the transition zone and looked at the lake with the race buoys set up. Maybe this was a bad idea because the buoys looked SO FAR AWAY. We both kinda freaked out about how far this swim looked. On the bright side, the water looked really nice! About 40 minutes later my bike was ready to go into transition.

[no swimming? if you insist!]

As this was happening, a huge storm cloud approached so instead of taking my time in transition to set up my bike and check out the area, I ran in, dropped the bike and sprinted out, as it was announced over the loud speaker that transition would be closing until the storm passed and everyone should quickly make their way to their cars. Yikes, made it just in time.

I’m used to the NYC Tri where you are forced to sit through a 30 minute briefing about the course and the rules. This one…not so much. Literally all you had to do was sign your paper work, drop your bike off and go. It is obvious where you run in and out, plus during the race you can follow the crowds, it’s not that complicated. It was a different experience to not really know what was coming but I knew when it was race time, it would come together.

Friday night we went to Italian Farmhouse, I had pasta with grilled chicken, fresh tomatoes and marinara sauce, plus tons of warm bread, yum. After dinner we went back to the house so I could prep all my gear and get a good(ish) nights rest. At 10:30pm lights were out and all my gear was ready to go for our early morning wake up.

Sunday

Pre-Race

At 3:45am my alarm went off. Omg so early, but I wanted enough time to eat, do my hair (a perfect race-day braid is a must), double check my gear and get to the race start before the closer parking lot filled up. Ollie was particularly confused by this early wake up call but he was a good sport. We loaded up the car and at 4:15am were headed to the race. We arrived by 4:55am, plenty of time to park and assemble my transition zone.

[Ollie asking as the sun rose, um how long is this race?]

I majorly overpacked my little zone. I don’t know what on earth I’d need 5 water bottles for, but better safe than sorry! I organized my area as best I could and looked around to see other racers with much sparser set ups. Note to self, less is more sometimes.

By 6ish I was out of transition and hanging with MM and Ollie by the swim start. My wave didn’t start until 7:35am so we stood around, made some bathroom trips, ate some food and mentally prepared. Before the race I ate a banana with almond butter, an energy gel and a couple of sport beans. Looking back I realize that this was not enough food, but more on that later.

As my wave approached, I applied body glide and my wetsuit and lined up with the rest of the women, 30-34. I chatted with a bunch of friendly first-timers as we reassured each other this would be fun.

Swim

At 7:33 my group made our way into waist deep water to wait for our start. My wave had about 100 women in it. Finally they counted down and we were off. We all did a little swan dive into the water and started swimming. The second I started my swim I got elbowed hard in the mouth/nose and thought for a second I had a bloody nose and a bruised face. Fortunately it was fine and the pain went away within a minute. All I had to do was find my smooth and steady rhythm and go with it.

The swim went straight out, took a right turn, went straight, then another right to bring us back to the shore. I was told it was helpful to count the buoys to pass the time so that’s what I did. I also counted my strokes, every 10 strokes I looked up to sight and make sure I was going in a straight line. I kept with this pattern, staying calm, and felt pretty strong.

We passed the first turn and I still felt good, but it got harder at this point. The sun was now shining in my eyes and I couldn’t see the buoys ahead of me so I used the people around me to make me feel like I was headed in the right direction but I had no idea how many buoys it would be until the next turn. It felt like forever. Also by now, the wave behind us started catching up and I saw a lot of bright orange swim caps passing me. This was discouraging but I looked around and still saw plenty of light blue caps (my group) around me to ease my nerves.

Finally the second turn came. As this happened, white swim caps started catching up to me, but then I also saw a whole rainbow of colored caps ahead, meaning I was passing groups that were ahead of me, while also being passed by groups behind me. It got crowded and the last straightaway still felt like an eternity and I started to get really hungry (swimming makes me hungry in general but this was also a sign I didn’t eat enough before the race). Along the way I got kicked, hit, and people were swimming right into me, but I stayed focused. Eventually I could start to see the bottom of the lake and knew it was almost over.

[wetsuit hotness]

Finally my feet hit the bottom and I jumped up and started to run out of the water. Along the waters edge I saw my parents, MM’s dad, MM and Ollie cheering me on. I glanced at my watch and was very happy with my time. I was hoping to do it under 50 minutes and was proud to see that happened.

Swim Time: 46:48

Transition 1:

After the swim, I took off the top part of my wetsuit then there are wetsuit strippers (amazzzzzing), you lay on the ground and guys pull the wetsuit off you. After that, I ran into my transition zone, grabbed a Cliff Coconut Banana gel because I was ravenous at this point, got my bike gear on, did a quick spray of sunscreen and ran out of the transition with 56 miles ahead of me.

Transition 1 Time: 3:55

Bike

I was nervous for the bike ride. Never in my life had I biked 56 miles without stopping. Not to mention my longest training ride this year topped off at 40 miles. For the bike I didn’t want to push so hard that the run would be impossible, but I did want to keep a strong steady pace. I had my watch set to beep every 20 minutes to remind me to eat and drink. I’ve heard nutrition during the bike ride is one of the trickiest parts of the race so every 20 minutes I made sure to eat and drink. Figuring out what snack I’d eat next helped to pass the time 🙂

Every 5 miles were marked on the course and while it was a long ride, I felt like the time passed pretty quickly. Some roads were nicely paved, some super bumpy. There were some really steep climbs but nothing I couldn’t handle. The lowest point in my ride was mile 30 when I realized that I had the equivalent of the NYC Triathlon bike course left, a course that always felt long.

I trudged along and another low point of the bike ride was when I saw a part of the running course filled with runners. I wasn’t even done with my bike and I could see a ton of runners looking totally miserable and slow. It was a hot day and these people did not look happy, I knew I had this coming for me soon too.

The one loop bike ride came to an end, I ran my bike into transition and prepped for the run.

Bike time: 3:18:55

Tranition 2

In this transition I packed my pockets with nutrition, grabbed a little vial of salt to eat during the run, changed my shoes and took off. I had planned to put on compression sleeves for my tight calves but after liteally 1 second of trying to pull one on I gave up. It was so hard because I was sweaty, they are tight and I was tired. It didn’t seem worth the energy so off I went.

Transition Time: 3:00

Run

Finally the run! Typically in a triathlon I’m thriled to be at the run and the end is in sight. While I was still excited to be at the run,the end was at least 2 hours away. My pace was SLOW to start, my legs felt heavy and exhausted. The heat was beating down. I had to go to the bathroom during the end of the bike ride so as soon as I saw a row of porter pottties, I paused to go. They were all being used so I waited which in hindsight was dumb because there were tons of them along the race course. I could have kept running until I found one without a wait but at the time I didn’t know when the next one would come and I didn’t want to lose my chance (there were NO bathroom opportunities on the bike course). After that quickie stop I felt a zillion times better (also this was a good sign that I had been doing a good job of drinking water along the way, something I typically stink at).

The run was a mix of heaven and hell. The course was an out and back twice, meaning you were covering the same terrain 4 times, not cool. When you start the run, the first mile marker you see is mile 7 even though you are on mile 0, that is a terrible feeling.

The run course was SO well staffed with people cheering and passing out water and nutrition. This could not have been better staffed. Also neighborhood folks were on their front lawn spraying us with hoses and sprinklers, amazing. I felt pretty slow for about the first 4 miles then got into the groove. I tried to pick up my pace and managed to stay in the mid 9’s. At times I felt like I was going faster but in reality, not so much. Parts of the run were really pretty, offering us gorgeous views of the bright blue lake, but other parts were up hills, one part on a main road and less enjoyable.

At mile 6.5 you are about to start your second loop. This part is seriously horrible because you see the finish line, you are running towards it, then at the last second you turn to start your second loop, why!! The second loop wasn’t as bad as the first. I saw my family and MM + Ollie a few times which always helps. I kept eating salt and gu to keep me going, plus I grabbed water at nearly every water stop and walked for a couple of seconds to get a good sip. Other stations passed out cold wet sponges which I stuffed into the back of my shirt on my neck to keep me cool.

I started to pick the pace up with about a mile or two to go. As I entered the finisher shoot I saw my family and waved, then Matt yelled at me, “You still have people to pass!” (maybe my competitive nature is rubbing off on him!) so I took off in a serious sprint and within the last few yards passed 3-4 other racers, and crossed the finish with a smile.

Run Time: 2:05:11

Total Time: 6:17:59

Post-Race Feelings

After the race I have to say that I felt really good. I expected to be in more pain and yes, I was tired, but overall I felt good, so much better than I ever would have expected. I knew I could finish the race but I didn’t think I’d feel so strong along the way and afterwards. I celebrated with pizza and ice cream, followed by more pizza and ice cream & many more delicious treats.

[part of my cheering section]

As I was training for the 70.3 I kept saying I would never do another because the time commitment was too much and I didn’t feel as if I properly trained. After doing the race, not surprisingly, I could totally see myself doing another one. I’m not sure when or where, but it may happen. I’m not running to sign up for one just yet, but we’ll see how I feel in a couple of months.

If you’re like me and have completed a number of Olympic triathlons and want to take on a new challenge, I 100% recommend a 70.3 and in particular, the Timberman course. The race was well run, beautiful and had great energy.