Timberman is such a great race venue and it is so beautiful in New Hampshire that despite not being a huge fan of the race course (a prefer a few less hills) and having to put up with the nightmare-ish drive up from Philly I always seem to end up doing this race. This year, because of my husband’s work schedule, we were forced to fly to NH instead of drive. We decided as we were sitting in the airport, drinking wine and eating a relaxed dinner that this was definitely the way to go. We had found a cheap flight on Southwest and in 45min of airtime we had landed in New Hampshire. Much better than our 10+ hour drive. We met up with my Aunt Susan and her friends Linda and Tom since they had decided be my race supporters for the weekend. By now they are experienced fans having already picked out an Italian restaurant for dinner Saturday night and being fully prepared for the long day on Sunday with chairs and snacks. Saturday went along as planned doing my workouts, attending the pro meeting and checking out the expo. Dinner was great and I was in bed super early since I had to get up at the insane hour of 3:30 to get to the race and make sure we got a parking spot near the race site. I heard the race announcer say there were 2800 people registered for the race and I could definitely feel the extra people. I spent most of the morning trying to get through the crowds and not knock anyone or anything over in the transition area. All the pro women kept bumping into each other trying get things set up. Anyway, we managed to get things together and I headed over the swim start with my wetsuit in hand. This was the first race I have been able to wear a wetsuit this year and I was very excited to be putting on my trusty Zoot Zenith. The first few 100yds of the swim were very shallow and we dolphin-dived until almost the first buoy. I got a great start and jumped right on the feet of the first group of swimmers. Unfortunately that didn’t last very long. I tried to jump on the feet of 2 other girls that swam by me but whether it was the choppy water, my poor drafting ability or their speed I got dropped off the back again. I ended up swimming with a group of 4 other girls and came out of the water in the front of that group. Considering the moderately choppy conditions which usually hurt me I was happy to come out where I did. I headed off on the bike, tackling the first hill without too much difficulty and settled into a good rhythm. I wanted to keep the first 2/3 of the bike under control as I know this course is really tough in the last 1/3 and I also wanted to set myself up for a good run. I stayed under control as much as possible but I also wanted to keep contact with the group of girls I had come out of the water with. I did lose them for a bit after one of the long steep climbs but managed to catch back up to them (legally of course) when we hit the flat section. I felt decent on the bike until about 15miles to go when we hit the hills again. I was definitely getting antsy to get off the bike and was worried maybe I had still biked too hard. It’s been WAY too long since I’ve run well off the bike and I REALLY wanted to do that here. I finally made it over all the hills and back to transition. I got off the bike and tried to get into a relaxed rhythm as soon as possible. I usually take off out of T2 but Coach wanted me to take the first few miles a little slower. It was hard to let the couple of girls in front of me go but I did. I scared my husband as I ran by because I was going slower than normal and girls ahead were already making up ground. My legs did feel a bit shaky the first 2 miles even though I wasn’t running fast but then they started to come around. I actually began to feel good and started picking up the pace. I managed to catch Karen Smyers around mile 6 and by mile 10 could see Amanda Lovato in front of me. I spent the last 3 miles chasing her down but couldn’t quite catch her. I was a little disappointed in only finishing 7th but the field at Timberman is always really strong. I was happy to finally feel good running off the bike and to put together a strong all around race. I’ll take it…for now :).