On Friday morning, Matty and I began our journey to New Hampshire for the 2010 Mooseman 70.3. For the past two years, I’ve been travelling on my own whilst staying in North America. This year, it’s been great to have Matty as a training partner and as a travel partner.
We had heard that the weather forecast was not looking very good for the weekend, but on Saturday we didn’t get the rain they were expecting. It was actually really hot, and I was looking forward to that as I like racing in the heat.
But when Sunday morning rolled around, we got the bad weather they were expecting. There was a wave start, so we didn’t have to contend with any age grouper’s trying to swim over top of us. The professional field wasn’t huge, but there were several really good names to look out for. I came out of the water in eighth place, in 25:20. Matty was with me as well as two other guys, and one guy was about 30 seconds ahead of us.
This was the first year they had the Mooseman 70.3, so all of us professionals were in the same boat in terms of knowing the course. The bike course was tough, and there were a lot of hills. The hills themselves were not all that difficult, but it was raining the entire time, which made the descents pretty hairy. It was cool weather, and with all the rain, I was freezing. I’ve never been that cold during a race before, and I thought I was going to die.
One of the guys that came out of the water with us was the eventual winner, Maksym Kriat from the Ukraine. He took off early in the bike, and we lost sight of him. An American that came out of the water with me was Tyler Butterfield, and he rode along with Matty and me throughout the bike leg. We were going along at a really good pace, and about two-thirds of the way through the bike leg, we could see that we were closing in on Kriat. He must have spotted us, because he really kicked up the pace and ended up coming in nearly 5 minutes ahead of us at T2.
I typically have a good transition at T2; however, I struggled getting my socks on, and Tyler and Matty got a bit of a jump on me. The boys were holding a really good pace in the early part of the run, and Matty started to pull away from Tyler. After my deficit that I had created in the early part of the run, I started to close in on Tyler. Once the numbness had subsided a little bit, I started feeling my legs again as I overtook Tyler. Not long after overtaking him, I picked up Tim O’Donnell, who I thought was going to be the race favourite.
Matty was setting a blistering pace through the middle portion of the run, but I was starting to make up some ground on him. At one stage he had a 40-second lead on me, but I was able to get within 7 seconds of him as he crossed the line to take third place. I was happy to take fourth, in my first hit out in North America.
2010 Mooseman 70.3 Results: Top 5 Finish Times
- Maksym Kriat 04:01:12
- Graham O’Grady 04:02:44
- Matty White 04:06:16
- Tim Berkel 04:06:23
- Tyler Butterfield 04:11:12
Here is a complete list of 2010 Mooseman 70.3 results.
Matty clocked the fastest run of the day in 1:15:22, and I was the second fastest, only 2 seconds slower. Not a bad result for the two of us considering the conditions we were racing in.
Well, Sunday afternoon we took off to head down to Boston. We didn’t have to fly back to Denver until Monday afternoon, so we were looking to get into some mischief. We only have a few days back home, then we will be heading off later in the week to go to Boise, Idaho, to do the 70.3 there next Saturday. I will keep you posted.
Cheers,
Tim
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