We stayed at the Country Inn in Grand Rapids. The room was a non-smoking room, but it had that stale smell. It was either a smoking room at one time, or someone smoked in it, either way, it smelled bad. Also, the room was an ice box, surprisingly the a/c worked better than most hotel rooms. Had to leave the a/c on all night to keep the air moving so it would not get so stale. The room was freezing. I don't think Jackie or I slept that well the night before the race.
I forgot my wetsuit. First time for everything. The night before and the morning of, I was a little worried. I knew I could do it without a wetsuit. I was a little worried about how much slower I would be and how it would affect my run and bike. Well, I was only 38 seconds slower on the swim than last year, so not having a wetsuit did not harm me that much. I also had a slightly faster average bike speed (bike was a mile shorter than last year) and a faster run.
Got up in the morning, took care of business, ate breakfast in the room, and then headed out. It was sprinkling on and off, it seemed like it might be ok. Setup transition, hung out, and went for a short warm-up ride. I headed down to the water for a warmup swim and it started to rain, then started to pour, and then about start time it backed off a little. The swim start is in the water and higher than knee deep. The start line is wide, which is nice, not too much crowding. The start went off well, and then probably about 5 minutes into the swim it started to pour. It rained hard. It rained the whole rest of the swim, through transition, and through some of the bike. The air temp was low 60s and the water temp was low 70s. The water felt good and I was not cold during the swim. Actually, pretty comfortable on the bike too.
Transition was easier without a wetsuit, but the soaking socks made getting them on much more difficult. My shoes had puddles in them.
It rained on and off during the bike. There was a nasty headwind at times on the bike. Timberman has a very challenging bike course, with rolling hills and a couple steep climbs. There are also some pretty fast downhills. It makes for a very interesting bike. One of the few bike courses that I shift into the smallest front chainring and get out of the saddle a few times during the bike.
No rain on the run, but my shoes were soaked from the rain and my socks were still wet. The run that is a mix of asphalt and gravel. There are some hills on the run, both on the asphalt portion and gravel. There was no sun on the run, thankfully. It was warm and humid, if the sun came out it would have been hot and miserable, like in 2010. I attribute my faster run partly to the cooler weather. I am really happy with my run. It was a painful run, not the kind of pain that is bad, but "good" pain. I felt like I was sucking wind the whole time, but, of course, made it through.
Timberman went better than Minneman. Timberman is longer and much more challenging than Minneman and I would say I had a much better race at Timberman. Not sure what happened last week at Minneman, I guess I was just tired. Next week I will head to Chaska to do the sprint triathlon there for the first time.
2010 Timberman Race Results
Swim (1760 yards) - 23:41 (1:21/100yards)
T1 - 1:54
Bike (23.8 mi) - 1:10:01 (20.4 MPH)
T2 - 1:56
Run (6 mi) - 51:50 (8:39 min/mi)
Total - 2:29:20
Overall - 60/122
AG - 7/13
Overall Pace - 4:51 min/mi
2011 Timberman Race Results
Swim (1760 yards) - 24:19 (1:23/100yards) - No wetsuit, forgot wetsuit, but only 38 seconds slower than last year
T1 - 1:44
Bike (22.9 mi) - 1:06:41 (20.6 MPH) - Shorten bike course a little less than a mile due to road construction, a hair faster on average speed
T2 - 1:26
Run (6 mi) - 48:34 (8:06 min/mi) - much faster run!
Total - 2:22:43
Overall - 45/115
AG - 8/16
Overall Pace - 4:46 min/mi
1 comment:
I would think it was sort of cool to swim in the downpour but the pits after that. Wet shoes suck. Good job overall!
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