Race Report: PumkinMan Half-Ironman

For last year's PumpkinMan Triathlon, my first Half-iron, I stayed in a beach house in York, Maine with great friends (and better triathletes) Kristen and Marty Courcelle, Lauren Cady, and my wife Alison. We had perfect weather, lots of seafood, and great races at the South Berwick event.  So how do you top an experience like that?

The answer: you don’t.  But what is possible is to have an equally awesome – although completely different – experience the second time around.

The main difference – and probably the only bummer – of this year’s Pumpkin was that Alison did not race.  Believe me, she wanted to.  But it wasn’t in the cards for her, and although she made the best of it (and was a superfan on the course cheering everyone on), I know it was highly difficult to be in a house full of triathletes excited for their event.  I look forward to cheering her in her next big event, which will come before we know it.

Our pool of talent (and support) grew this year. Triathletes Alex Jasinowski and Jacqueline Hubbard (to be referred to as “J-Hubbs” heretofore) and superfans Mike, Tyler, and Ally Cady joined us as we rented two beach houses instead of just one.

Another difference was my conditioning.  I was physically prepared for last year’s race, but I didn’t really know what to expect at my first race at this distance.  Last year went well as I finished in 5:01. This year, however, I’ve been improving at every race I’ve done, whether it’s the Vermont City, a sprint tri, or an Olympic.  I had some goals for this year’s race.

Which brings me to the main difference in this year’s race. As athletes, you learn great lessons about goal-setting. You learn what it takes to achieve goals, and, perhaps even more valuable (although sometimes not the lesson you want at the time) you learn how to regroup when you don’t achieve what you want.

I experienced the latter when I didn’t qualify for the Age Group Nationals in Burlington – a main focus for me this summer. Part of the reason was because the status of the race in which I had planned to qualify (the Branbury Classic) changed from Special Qualifier to regular qualifier without notifying registrants. However it happened, only one person is ultimately responsible (me), and it was a big disappointment to watch that event from the sidelines.

The point is, PumpkinMan was my opportunity to rebound from a missed goal. So much so that I made two sets of goals: public and private. Publicly, I announced that I hoped to have a good race and that I hoped to come in under 5 hours. Privately, I was a little more determined; I wanted to shatter 5 hours, and I wanted to come in the top ten percent and therefore qualify for the 2013 Nationals (which I doubt I’ll participate in since they won’t be in B-town). In short, I wanted to prove to my own self that I belonged in that Burlington race.

One more difference this year: I was nursing an injury. Some pretty serious tendonitis forced me to skip my training for a week leading up to the event, and had me wondering whether I could even finish.

So those were the underlying themes as we pulled into Spring Hill resort in South Berwick in the dark on Sunday morning under the watchful eyes of the pumpkin-headed scarecrows set up by race organizers. Everything seemed to take too long as I got my kit together and set up my transition area, and I found myself barely getting to the Start on time.  In fact, in the first critical decision of my day, I ended up peeing in the woods after the elite racers started (just 2 minutes before my wave).  Thank goodness I did… and I still have yet to pee in my wetsuit after over a year of use.

When you come out of the water, you have no idea where you stand in your age group, but I apparently finished 2^nd of the 38 40 to 44-year-olds. I jogged up the 300-yard-long hill between the pond and the T-area (the kid that won the PumpkinMan Hill Challenge did this in 36 seconds… it took most mortals over a minute… and I’ll also note that most mortals actually beat that kid in the overall race), and made my first improvement over last year – I had better transitions.  Probably the most important piece of this gain was the fact that I left my fold-up stool at home.  Making sure to pop a few Tylenols for my shin, I hopped on my bike and headed out.

The bike was my favorite part of this year's race. I got in a pack of 5 or 6 super fast riders and we traded the lead for 45 miles, during which time I only saw one other rider from my age group (who passed my pack like we were going backwards). Using my new bike computer (which, incidentally, came from Marty -- thanks! -- who had upgraded), I was able to push more consistently than I ever had. (Another digression: also from Marty came my tri top, my number belt, and my shoelaces; not much of my kit, come to think of it, didn't come from Marty. But anyway, back to the race report...) I would have kept biking, but unfortunately about 2 and a half hours later I was at the transition again for the run.

The run was a challenge. My shin was so painful when I pulled out of the T-area (after 2 more Tylenol), I was sure I was going to drop out. But I had goals I wanted to reach, so I decided to run a mile to assess. I adjusted my gait and ran that mile in 8:22 (with a minute-long pee stop in the woods), and ran the rest of the half-marathon in under 7:30 minute miles. Towards the end, I became aware of a sharp rock in my left shoe, so the first thing I wanted to do at the Finish was get it out – it felt like a size 1 fish hook digging into my foot.  I pulled off my shoe, and, to my dad’s great amusement, there was nothing in there. What I did have was a fat blister from running differently to compensate for my shin. (Note: it’s 5 days later, and the shin is still all swollen and I haven’t run yet; otherwise I feel great!)

The results from the group of triathletes staying at our houses were impressive. Six athletes. Six PRs. Three podium finishes in age groups (Kristen won hers, Alex came in second in hers, and I took home bronze in mine). In terms of my goals, I finished in 4:46 and did crack the top ten percent. It is simply a great experience to come up as a group, share great camaraderie, run fantastic races, and have tremendous support on the course (in addition to Ali, my dad, and Team Cady, Doug, Ruth, Jill, Sheila, Heather, and Team McGovern were cheering all over the place). Vermont (and Beverly, Mass -- there you go, J-Hubbs) was well-represented at PumpkinMan.

That night, our group went out for seafood (I had the twin lobsters) and ice cream. Although I don’t usually branch out in terms of flavors, I got two scoops. On the bottom, I ordered chocolate -- my usual.  But on top, in honor of a great team, awesome supporters, a wonderful weekend, and all the athletes who ran kick-ass races, I ordered -- of course -- Pumpkin.

Photos: (top) Coming down the shoot to the finish, and make sure to notice superfan Alison in a pink shirt racing me in the background. (bottom) The team sharing ice cream, and be sure to notice J-Hubbs' cone which held 1.78 pints of ice cream -- every ounce of which she earned!