Tim Marr

Star to the Sea

Tim Marr — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:19:18 +0000

Star to the Sea …I will be back this year 2010.
Check out more info at: www.hawaiicyclingclub.com

Marr’s: Sunrise on Hawaii News

Tim Marr — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:25:01 +0000

Tomorrow (Tuesday, July 27) at 8:20am Tim & Mariane Marr will be the guests on Dan Cooke’s Sunrise News.

Watch at: Sunrise on Hawaii News Now

The 30th Annual Tinman Triathlon

Tim Marr — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:55:17 +0000

The Tinman Triathlon has a big history in the Hawaii Community with all the great champions winning Hawaii’s most Prestigious race over the past 30 years. In 2010 I am now a 4 Time Tinman Champion and very proud of it. As a youngster I watched the Tinman as if it was the world Champs. In my eyes there was no bigger race on Earth, my Dad at the time was racing just about every year and he was a great athlete so the winner must have been a serious champion. That feeling still resonates in me as an adult which makes me race the Tinman with passion, yes there are bigger races in the world and yes I do race all over but I still have a soft spot for the Tinman Hawaii. So on Sunday Morning I got ready for another hard race, the gun sounded at 5:45am and I was off blasting in the swim. My buddy Sean was having a great swim going blow for blow with me until the turnaround, he then hopped on my feet and we blasted the final half of the swim. I excited the water with a small 10 second gap and happy with how hard I was able to push the swim. I then jumped on my bike to have 3 Motorcycle Police Officers lead me through the 40k bike portion. They stayed well up the road making sure that every intersection was ready for me to hammer through on my bike. I would like to thank the organisers and the officer’s for putting on a safe event in an area that has cross Streets every 200mtrs.

I had a great bike ride to finish in 57 min and a big lead on my nearest competitor. Onto the run my legs were not as fresh as I would have liked but I kept a strong and steady pace throughout the run to finish in 1 hr 45 min and over 5 min till my nearest competitor. It might not have been a close race but I am still a proud champion, I would also like to mention that my beautiful wife also took the Elite Title, and my dad Blake Marr also won the 55-59 age division with a smoking fast time. He is the reason I am a triathlete, so congrats dad on another win and thank you for your guidance. It was a great day for the Marr family at the Tinman 2010!

Cheers,

5th Overall – Can’t get out of my Own Way!

Tim Marr — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 23:33:57 +0000

The early morning started with packing the car with skill to fit my bike in a small convertible car, somehow in the process the Helmet got left in the room. Of course I didn’t realize this until driving 30 min to the race site, it was too late to turn around and I now needed to find a helmet so I could race. I rushed down to the race site in search of a solution, I found the race director who nicely helped me find a helmet by announcing my problem over the loud speakers, but not without giving me a few funny and well deserving jabs to everyone in transition. A very nice young women loaned me her Helmet so the problem was solved. Now it was time to get air in my tires and sure enough the front wheel that easily took in air the day before was no not letting any air in and the pressure was way too low to race on. It was now 6:15 am and the start was 6:30, I had nothing set up in transition and things were looking bad for my front wheel. I just couldn’t believe it, both issues in one race, unreal. Finally with the help from a race mechanic I had the air I needed in my wheel and I ran hard back to my rack and started setting up everything. I like to give myself 45min to do this process, but this time around I had under 5 min till the cannon would blast. I was going for it desperately, I did my best Superman impression in changing into my race outfit and blasted into the water w/ 1 min to spare!

The gun blasted and I was off, sadly the swimmer next to me (I have no idea who it was) ripped off my timing chip in the first 3 seconds of racing, hence the no existence on Ironmanlive.com. I felt strong at the start of the swim and stayed with race leader Graham O’grady who is know for swimming like a fish! I had dropped the main group of contenders and was swimming out front with one of the best swimmers in the business. He took a look back close to the halfway point and noticed me swimming at my rivet on his feet, so he upped the gas and I popped. I was now swimming on my own and letting my heartrate drop as I knew it was going to be a long day. I swam solo for about 200 mtrs when a small group with Kieren Doe, Chris Lieto, and James Cotter caught me. We all did the remainder of the swim together and hit the beach and jammed for our bikes! I was first out of transition w/ my borrowed helmet loosened up to the max and it was flopping around like a mess. I was attempting to adjust it on the fly but I was pretty unsuccessful. Once on the bike I was attempting to find a comfortable position when sure enough one more problem, my number ripped right off my belt and I had no idea. So now I had no timing chip and no number, Awesome! I sat up and waited for an official to pull up! I then explained my situation and he nicely said, “just go for it, we will deal with it later, I know your number.” We now became a group of 4 on the winding roads for the first 15 miles. One sense I could feel was that Lieto was just waiting to attack us on the bike, and sure enough the attack came, Doe went with him while Cotter and Myself let the two slowly pull up the road. We both new that those are two of the best on bikes in triathlon. From this point on it felt like a fun ride with my good friend James Cotter who was riding strong. We rode hard over the rolling hills keeping Doe and Lieto at about to 2-3 min up the road at the top of Chalk hill the famous climb during the race. It is about 45 miles into the bike, during the decent I was leading James and for some reason the official felt that I was using too much of the road and gave me a blocking penalty, I tried to explain that the road is full of pot holes and that I was riding safely. But it was the same official who let me continue after loosing my number and chip so I decided there should be no argument. As we headed back into town towards T2 we had about 10 miles to ride on flat roads. Unfortunately both James and I had no idea where we were going, the last thing we wanted to do was go off course so we had to slowly ride through those final miles so we didn’t miss a turn. When we hit transition our 3-4 min gap had grown to 6-8 min, I hit T2 in third but I was frustrated to say the least. Now I also had to serve my blocking penalty. I watched my buddy James head out on the run and I finally got to start just ahead of John Dalz and a few charging Kiwis.

The race was now on with Chris Lieto well up the road in first and Kieren Doe a strong second. But James Led a group of 5 including Myself, John Dhalz, Grahm O’grady, Jamie Whyte, all within two minutes of each other. The run was tough and I did everything I could to hang strong! I first got passed by O’grady, then Jamie Whyte, but we all remained close. Then in in the final two miles I got passed by Paul Attrard who was having the fastest run of the day. At the same point O’grady started to struggle and I now re passed him for 6th. When I hit mile 12 I gave everything I had and re passed Attard for that 5th place finish just 20 seconds behind Whyte in 4th and 2 min down on James in 3rd. It was bitter sweet as I got on the final money Spot and award for the Pro’s But with all my problems I had to be happy. I also had a strong 1 hr 18 min Half Marathon that I am very happy about without not being able to fully train for the run. I am back on track and getting ready for Ironman Lousiville at the end of August!

Cheers,

Tim Marr

Tim Marr 5th Vineman 70.3

Tim Marr — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 05:07:10 +0000

Not the best result but with all the issues I had on Race day I am very happy with a top 5 and a paycheck at Vineman. It was just not my day for a race when I forgot my helmet, I couldn’t get air in my front wheel which was fine the day before, I lost my chip when the gun went off when someone just grabbed my leg, and my number belt ripped off when I jumped on my bike. I just couldn’t believe it, one of these issues can happen on race day but all of them in one race is just ridiculous. And finally on a decent with no one around me I got a time penalty for using too much of the road, again on a winding decent. To get 5th with all these issues and a very close race for a top 3 I have to be satisfied. I am also happy with my run considering I have had some injury problems and I still pulled off a 1 hr 18 min run. I will post a more detailed race report Later this week!

I am excited for the Tinman in Hawaii next week and my build for my A-race at Ironman Louisville in August!

Cheers,

Tim Marr

Trying to find a rhythm

Tim Marr — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:41:18 +0000

Since 2006 I have always wanted to race the Eagleman Half Ironman, everything I have read about the event sounded like a hot, fast course. I had planned on racing the O2 double Olympic distance race in Korea when just weeks before the event it got cancelled. I was pretty bummed about that but I jumped on board for the Eagleman which was taking place on the same weekend. On late Wednesday night I boarded a plane heading for the East Coast and after 3 flights and 19hrs of travel I finally reached my destination. The flights in the US are miserable compared to the Asian Airlines, U.S. Airways might be the worst airlines I have ever flown with. The plane’s are small and dodgy, every flight was oversold, there is no room for someone over 6 feet tall and they charge for everything. Needless to say I will avoid this airline for the rest of my life.

I arrived with my long time training partner and great friend James Cotter who was also racing. We hit up our homestay for the 4 days. They were an extremely nice couple who lived a stones throw from the race site. Cambridge Maryland is a very, very quite town and very slow paced, Cambridge must be the smallest towns I have ever seen hold such a big event.

The days leading up to the race where uneventful with just the usual bits of training and making sure everything is ready to go for race day. One thing I have to admit is, I felt tired in all the days leading up to the race and even on race day. It might have been from the worst Red Eye flight in history, but who knows? Sunday morning arrived and after 4 cups of coffee I was off to transition. The start had been delayed from currents stealing our course buoys. I realized that we might be in for a tough swim at that point. At 7:15 the gun blasted and we where off. The start was relatively easy but after a few hundred mtrs we started getting pulled all over the place. We also had a horrible sense of direction and the Yo–yo effect was happening with some slower swimmers able to stay in contact with our lead group. The group was led by Philip Graves, the came Terenzo, Myself, Richie, Cotter and young Phenom Yoder in tow. The pace fluctuated throughout the swim and we finally excited in a slow 27 min, the slowest half swim of my carrier. But when you have Terenzo and Gaves in our pack it was more likely the cause of the currents and not slow swimming. We hit the bikes and blasted off in the aerobars on this dead flat course. The group broke apart and I was left behind for a few miles, but I gathered myself and pushed the pace to get right back up to the group of 4. From that point we all rode together, we pushed hard and rode into transition in 2hr and 9min. I was third into transition just behind Terenzo and I was confident I was going to have a great result at the end of the day. I got my shoes on and hammered out of transition, I felt terrible from about 20 steps in! I was devastated as I knew my day was going to be cut short. I hit mile 1 in pain forcing my run desperately trying to find a rhythm. But it wasn’t my day and at mile 1 I watched Terenzo, my boy Cotter, Ritchie, run away with the race. Sadly my slow run turned into a walk . I just had nothing and all I wanted to do was take a nap. I had to sit on the side of the road and contemplate life. Once the dizziness passed I started to walk again. A full 2 miles I walked. I then drank 25 cups of everything they had at the next aid station. Slowly I started running again “if you can call it running” and I managed to finish the race in 4hr and 22 min, my slowest time ever. It was a major learning experience and one I am determined to fix. I was in the mix for the win until mile 1, thin it was all backwards. I know with a few tweaks I will be battling for the podium or even the win. One great thing from the weekend is having my great friend James Cotter take 2nd not far behind my other friend Terenzo.

For me its time to heal up and then time to really hit the 2nd half of my season w/ total dedication.

Till next week…

Tim Marr — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 01:04:24 +0000

4th Place again, I love this race and I have done it every year since the start of the event in 2005. I have finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, every year that they have had the event. This year was very competitive with a small but very strong professional field. Tim Deboom was the biggest name followed by Luke Bell and Matt Lieto. This became the exact order of the finish with Tim Marr coming in a close 4th place.

Race weekend was easy leading up to race day. I woke up race morning ready to go, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky which meant windy, hot conditions. As I walked down the path towards the Ocean I could see that after the first turn boy the swim was going to be a mess with some crazy chops in our face. But being a surfer all my life I thrive on those type of conditions. The gun blasted and we were off, John easily swam away from a group of 3 of us. The group consisted of Tim Deboom, Luke Bell and myself. The chops made for a tough swim but we held a good steady pace. I got a slight advantage just before we hit the beach coming out of the water in 2nd with John a few min already done.

I didn’t have the best transition and Luke got me by a full minute to start the ride. I got rolling about the same time as Tim Deboom, it was a great feeling to ride with a serious champion that I watched win the Ironman Hawaii back in 2002. I was a beer drinking college student without a disciplined bone in my body when I watched him win. Its unreal that I am now going blow for Blow with that same guy. The two of us kept a strong pace on our way up to Hawi. About 1hr into the ride we where joined by a hard charging Matt Lieto. Matt races more like a cyclist than a triathlete where he does surges at 30mph and 100% effort then slows down. I concentrated on holding strong but after the Hawi turnaround his surges took their tole on me. I knew that I needed to keep those boys close if I wanted a top 3, but slowly I got dropped and I was all alone riding back to T2. I started to cramp a bit, I was creeping along for the final few miles of that bike. When I arrived into T2 I was 3:30 down on Luke and Lieto and 2 min down on Deboom.

For the run I took the pace out very slowly as I have been nursing a dodgy IT band for the past few weeks. I was lucky enough to have Dr. Tanya Castro work her ART and Chiro magic to loosen me up and be capable of racing. When I hit the 3 miles point without pain I picked up the pace knowing that a podium finish was just up the road. I started to bring back some time on Lieto through the Oven cooking run course. But when I hit mile 10 I realized that he was having a great day and my result would be 4th on the day. I finished the final 3 miles of the race steady to another 4th place finish.

I enjoyed the race, but I learned one major thing to stay in contact in the closing miles of the bike if I want to be in contention on the run. I am excited for my race this coming weekend at Eagleman 70.3, the field will be very tough with one of the biggest prize money races on the circuit. Till next week,

Cheers,

Tim Marr

Racing great athletes

Tim Marr — Tue, 18 May 2010 08:45:52 +0000

Well it is now a few weeks since strongman Japan and I am now in full training mode to get ready for my next two big events. I also just raced the Honolulu Olympic Distance event this past Sunday. I have been training moderately hard after two weeks of almost total rest. The first week was planned rest and the second week was forced rest due to getting sick. It took some time to fully recover from my cold so that meant the third week was only moderate, but this past week leading into the Olympic distance race I finally got to hit hard in preparation for the Big Island 70.3 and Eagleman 70.3. The events are 1 week apart but this is what I want, two hard races to get me ready for my next Ironman.

This past weekend in the Honolulu Triathlon I had a good event considering I was coming back from quite a bit of rest. The race started with a long 1,500mtr swim it must have been at least 100mtr too long. I swam a 20 min flat while John Flannagan blasted a 18:30, his lead was massive as we hit the bikes. I struggled in the swim with some tough conditions on the way back after the turnaround. The mass of swimmers coming the other direction where causing a massive surge against us going the other way, and on my other side there was a lifeguard on a jet ski causing some serious waves. I almost thought the guy was taking a piss on me with throwing chops in my face with every other stroke. I finally hit the beach after a quick pause before shore to make sure I was exciting in the right area. I seriously thought that John would have 5 min on me with the way that swim went for me.

I hit the bike and blasted though the streets of Honolulu, I had some good fun but I sure would love the lead motorcycle that I am used to in Hawaii races. The reason is we pass by so many intersections and it is hard to have faith that police see you coming without a lead car with flashing lights. This does slow me down just a bit as safety is a major concern. But I did have the fastest bike split for the Triathlon and I made up some serious ground on John. I jumped off my bike 15 seconds behind. In the first mile I had caught up to John and we where now running side by side. Now looking back I decided to slow down to recover but I should have just gone for it right away as I lost my rhythm. At 3 mile I picked up the pace and dropped John by about 50 mtrs, I thought the race was totally over and a win was all but a few miles away. Then at mile 4 I started to struggle with my rhythm and sure enough John slowly started to come back. Then at mile 5 we were side by side again, with 1k to go John started to really go for it and I just didn’t/couldn’t want to go for it. I felt that it just might destroy my preparation for the two A races I have planned in 3 weeks time. I really need the next 2 weeks of training and if I berried myself in that race I might not be able to get in the training. I held back and finished strong knowing that 2 important races are just around the corner. John had a great race and for the first time he out ran me in a triathlon, it was a good race.

But for now its time to really train and I am happy with where I am at in terms of fitness considering I am still a few pounds over my fighting weight. But with a full two weeks of training left I couldn’t be happier and more excited about racing great athletes like Tim Deboom and Terenzo Bazzone in two 70.3’s. Good times ahead!

Cheers,

Tim Marr

I will “fighto” another day

Tim Marr — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:46:31 +0000

Aloha Everyone,

Well, I am sitting in my hotel room with my beautiful wife contemplating what went wrong in my race yesterday. Everything went perfectly to plan until the final 15k of the run. It started with a strong 35 min swim for a 3k which is a very fast time. We had 3 of us together leading the race out of the water, I knew I was the strongest rider of the 3 of us and I went to work very quickly. I took the lead and worked hard on my bike, but I knew that this race would come down to a marathon. I cruised through the 155k in some hard wind, I built my lead up to 5 min and over 10 min to third overall. Everything was going exactly to plan, I jumped off my bike with the fastest bike split by over 4 min and I just needed a decent run to take the overall win. The first 5k were very exciting running through a major town with thousands of people cheering me on. But I knew I might be in some trouble as usually at about 5k I start feeling good and that feeling wasn’t coming. I got heavier and heavier and before I knew it I was slowly coming apart. I hit the 20k point still in the lead but it was fading fast, just before the halfway point I got caught by Wolfgang who was eventually the overall winner. I stayed with him for about another 5k but like I said the final 15k were agony. In 1k my body just stopped working. I tried everything in my recovery book, from 5 cups of coke, salt, gels, but nothing worked. I didn’t get passed again until the 25th mile marker, the toughest part was walking through streets filled with people cheering while I was still in second. Everyone was confused why I couldn’t “Fighto” but I was toasted, Cramping and unable to run. I ended up 5th which was disappointing considering I was miles into the run before any of the Japanese athletes even started the marathon, 5k to be exact. I wouldn’t have changed my game plan one bit, I know I had the ability to run the marathon in 3hrs or so which would have given me a very comfortable win but it just didn’t happen yesterday. Mariane had a great race, it was very windy like a hard day in Kona but she soldiered hard on the bike. She got sick on our trip over and couldn’t even talk the day before the race, I thought she might not even start or at least not finish. But she is so strong and amazing, she did what she does best and thats run her way into a great result taking 6th overall. This race is absolutely amazing, it is the Ironman Hawaii of Asia. It might even be bigger than Hawaii for the Asian athletes, they love this race and so does every single person in Japan. We were in the News papers everyday on this trip and on the news every night, it was a great experience and one to remember. I didn’t win and that was the plan but I learned so much and I will “fighto” another day.

Waido!

Tim Marr

I am now in Japan

Tim Marr — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:09:28 +0000

I am now in Japan, it is the night before Strongman Japan and I am very, very excited to race my first A-race of the year. The trip has been awesome and this place is very beautiful, I can’t wait till 7am Tom. There is a Twitter feed from Strongman and there is also a live feed that is only Japanese, but it does have a camera. I will update my result after the race. I would like to thank everyone for there good luck wishes and we both (Mariane) hope to race strong and proud.

Cheers,

Tim Marr