Timberman Aquabike Race Report 2007

Timberman Aquabike
August 19, 2007
Gilford, NH

After finishing Patriot, I was toying with the idea of switching to Aquabike. I actually don’t think I would have, but my running didn’t stay consistent after Patriot and I was also since invited to Jocelyn & Alex’s wedding, which was the night before the race. Looking back, even with the wedding, if my running was still at the point where it should have been, I think I would have stayed registered for the Half. However, I did switch to the Aquabike, and I will try to make this RR brief. I’ll try to mostly stick to the facts. No big drama. (Let’s see if I can do it; I don’t think it should be hard as there really wasn’t any major drama.)

Pre-Race:

The day before, Julie and I watched Marla, Lisa and other Trifurians/Team Envision folks do the Sprint race. Then, the three of us went back to the condo, took a nap for a couple of hours, got up, went to Gunstock so I could pick up my race packet, went to Ellacoya to rack the bikes, I threw on my dress and shoes in the back of the car as we drove to Gloucester, MA for the wedding. Due to the fact that we couldn’t rack our bikes until 2:00 PM, we missed the ceremony but arrived in time for the reception. It was great to see Jocelyn and Alex. After dinner and a bit of celebratory dancing, we drove back to Lake Winnipesaukee. Arrived there around midnight and was in bed by 12:30 PM. That alone seemed like an endurance race with the reception being transition where we could relax and have a breather. (At least that is what I’m told ‘I’ do in transition.)

Race Day:

Back at Ellacoya. I brought my other stuff to transition, threw on my wetsuit, and then headed over to the start with Marla, Julie, and Lisa. Marla and I got in the water after Earl snapped some pictures. I was feeling fine—not nervous, no fear. Wow! Big change for me.

Swim:

I thought I’d be in the last wave with other Aquabikers, First Timers, Athenas and Clydesdales, however the Aquabike category had its very own wave and we were the last wave. I saw Ed who was also doing the Aquabike and we crossed the mat together and headed into the water. We said good bye, as he made his way up to the front of the pack. I hung back. There were only 52 of us in this wave. (I found out that there were 52 when I saw the results; if I had to guess in the water, I would have guessed about 35.). It was strange. At first I didn’t like having our own wave, but then it seemed OK. Up until our wave got into the water, I was not liking the fact that I would be in the last wave. Two years ago the Timberman Sprint was my first ever triathlon and I went back and forth about self selecting my AG wave or the first timers wave and I ended up selecting AG just so I wouldn’t be in the last wave. And here I was now, in the last wave. However, once I was in the water waiting for the gun to signal us off, I was really liking this last wave start thing. There would be no one – no one—swimming over me! Let’s hear it for the last wave!

The gun went off and so did we. My swim was pretty uneventful. I had no fear of anyone swimming over me. No fear of getting clobbered. And NO fear of the distance! I had done two 2 mile swims at Walden with Cesar and the last 2 mile swim was just two days before the race. If I swam 2 miles, I thought, surely I could swim 1.2 miles. It worked. I just swam. Soon, I was passing caps from the wave ahead of me. This makes me sound fast, but I’m not. Remember, I was probably passing several First Timers. But it still felt good to pass a different color cap, as that is not a regular occurrence for me :)

The last right turn at the buoy which led us to a straight shot home wasn’t as easy of a swim as the rest of the course. I zig-zaged a little bit, but not too much. I also think I was drafting a bit off of the swimmer in front of me. That was pretty cool, even though I’m still not 100% sure if I was really drafting. (I still have yet to master that.)

At that point, I knew I wasn’t going to make my goal of 49:00. But I was only a couple minutes after that, so I felt OK about it because I enjoyed the swim so much, and it was nice going in to the swim feeling comfortable.

Later, I felt even better because a few of my friends complained about the swim and said they finished 8-10 minutes after their planned swim time. I guess I didn’t zig-zag all that much and maybe I did draft, even for a little bit.

Time: 50:58

T1:

Uneventful. Got a wetsuit stripper, headed over to my spot, socks on, shoes on, helmet on, looked around, off I went. I didn’t time it myself, but I really felt like I spent less time than usual in T1 this time.

Time: 6:52 (well, maybe not)

Bike:

The bike was good. However, I made a huge mistake that cost me my personal bike time goal. I knew the first 12 miles or so were hilly and at mile 12.5 I’d be at the top of the killer Marsh Road Monster Hill. So, I told myself I’d take it easy for the first 12.5 miles—until the top of that hill—and then I’d kick it in. The problem was that I didn’t monitor this. I felt good the whole time. I could have gone (a bit) faster, but I was riding along and did NOT look at my bike computer’s average speed once. I’d look down now and then and see my current speed but my approximate average didn’t register in my math-challenged brain. I was actually feeling good. I didn’t even realize I was heading up the Marsh Monster Hill until I was about 1/3 of the way up it. At that point, I realized where I was and I didn’t need to switch down to my granny gear!

At the top of the hill, though, I pushed my computer buttons to see my average speed. 12.5 mph. Yeah, twelve point five! I was a Sunday driver, but on the Timberman course on RACE DAY. Nothing left to do but to at least try and recoup. I went fast (yes, I also had a small tailwind on this half of the course, but it was still fast for me) and at the turnaround I had worked my avg. speed up to 16 mph. That was good, but I knew that the last ten miles of the course was hilly. I decided to stop at the turnaround/bottle hand off area to use the porta potty and pee, and while I did the nice volunteer held my bike and filled my own water bottle with water. Very nice woman. The people I had passed on the bike passed me when I was stopped here at the bottle handoff area.

Even though I knew my chances of finishing the bike in 3:25 were slim at this point, I still pushed. I passed the three people I had passed on the way down and who passed me while I was at the bottle hand off area. As I passed one woman, she said, “Someone must have stopped to go to the bathroom.” Yep.

I continued on. Once I had about 10 miles to go, I looked at my average speed again. (Now I had been checking periodically, as I had learned my lesson!) 15.8 mph. I had the hills left, so I wouldn’t be as fast, obviously. I pretty much knew I wouldn’t reach my goal time of 3:25, but I felt great (and couldn’t quite understand why I felt so good, actually), so I continued to push anyway.

The hills were hard, but I was actually handling them OK. In fact, on the training ride a couple weeks earlier, I had to get into my granny gear four times. Today, on race day, I only had to use it once (on the way back, going up Leavitt). After the hills, I was moving fast. Then, I slowed down considerably at that deceiving climb on Rte 11 that bears around to the right and goes by a hotel/motel on the left (I forget the name). One guy I had passed earlier passed me here, as did one woman. As she passed, I said, “Obviously, I still need work on the hills.” She replied, “Yeah but once we reach the top, you’ll pass me again.” That I did. I can move on the flats, but boy do I slow down on those hills! But now, at least I can get up them!!! (Yay for Thursdays nights!)

With just a little way to go, I could see the orange cones in the distance that forced us to ride the last bit single file, before the left into the park and the finish. Up ahead was a Team in Training (TNT) guy and a woman. The TNT guy passed the woman and kept turning around to see where she and I were. I was thinking about kicking it in once last time so I wouldn’t get caught behind anyone in the single file orange cones. When I saw him turn around for the second time, I started talking to myself. “Go. Do it.” Funny how we talk to ourselves out there, isn’t it?. I was pedaling ~100 rpms and holding that cadence to pass the woman. Then, I passed the TNT guy—right before I headed into the coned off lane!

I took a left into the park and I must have slowed down a bit. When I was cycling by all of the spectators and picnic tables, I heard someone yell, “Go Team in Training!” Uh-oh! Without turning to look behind me, I sped up. I didn’t even see the Trifury and Team Envision tents! I got to the dismount line, abruptly stopped since I was going kind of fast and dismounted. I had felt like I was done. (Yep, big mistake.) Mind you, I didn’t run my bike in, but I wasn’t totally walking either. Kind of a slow jog, I would say. With about two steps (no exaggeration—three steps at most) to go before crossing the timing mat, TNT guy passes me on my left and finishes before me! The volunteer must have seen the look on my face which I can only imagine looked like one of disbelief. I don’t think he knew how to react. Except that within two seconds, I had this huge smile on my face and laughed. I think the volunteer felt that he could then laugh, too. And he did. At least TNT guy passed me on my left. :) Good for him! However, little did he know I was done with my race ;-)

I did my best to recoup from my mistake during the first 12.5 miles and it was fun trying. With the exception of the first 12.5, I had a good bike race. And even during the 12.5, I can say that I felt pretty good and in hindsight I knew I could have pushed that a bit harder (but not a lot!)—and if I had, I probably would have hit my goal time of 3:25. Out of curiosity, I checked Ken’s bike time, as he and I ride Thursdays with the group and we are more or less the same speed. He finished the bike in 3:25. :-) (He actually finished the whole Half in 7:13—great job Ken!)

So, all in all, I felt good. I went to transition thinking that I could really have a good bike time at Firm man next month. It was great to see all my team mates out on the course on such a nice day having fun.

Time: 3:41:32 (15.2 mph)

Total time: 4:39:21

Results:
Swim: 50:58 (rank – 47)
T1: 6:52
Bike: 3:41:32 (15.2 mph; rank – 42)
Total time: 4:39:21
Place: 20/26 (females); 46/52 (overall)