Patriot Half Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

That was a long, tiring swim. I stayed so relaxed I almost wondered if I was in my stubborn workout mode of not trying very hard because I didn't want to. I felt like that was OK because I had no idea what I was in for in this distance race and it's best to play it safe on a first trial.

Practice sighting on my Ironman practice swims. I missed 2 opportunities because of weather and scheduling conflicts to do this.

I kept the pace up pretty well even though I was terrified and dizzy!

Nothing. I was glad I rolled up my powdered socks ahead of time and flipped up the bottom of my wetsuit legs. I have had a lot of practice at transitioning this year because I did many, many workouts in the program as bricks simply because of scheduling.

Wow - many stories here. I had to race a mail truck, avoid a large (garbage?) truck, there was a shortcut through Dunkin' Donuts to avoid construction, we had to wait (cop-directed) for a line of traffic at one point - wild! I am SO glad nothing went wrong with my bike. That was my biggest fear. My mental state faltered a bit after the first 28-mile loop. It's a hard thing to know you have to do that again!

I ate a lot from my bento box, did a water bottle exchange and was happy with all the technical aspects such as this. I drank about every 10 minutes unless my tummy felt 'off'.

Get aerobars. I was in the minority without them and trying to stay in the drops (I did about 80% or more of the time) seems to have damaged my hands for the moment.

Again, I'm glad I took the time to change into a fresh pair of dry and powdered socks. Considering, my feet look great today and somehow my bike shoes were soaked!

Well, the Muscle Milk arch fell down (inflatable) as I was about to run through it. I was totally in hysterics about this and probably wasted some time but I don't know if I'd change that. I really EXPERIENcED this race, knowing it may be the only time I ever do one of these.

Oh. Man. The stories here are just never-ending. The Asian man that I thought I'd imagined (I talked to him for about 5 miles off and on and eventually found out he was not technically in the race but was 'training') he said this was the hardest, most painful thing he'd ever done and he can usually do a sub 2' 1/2 Mary but that this was really hard. Then there was the bee that attacked my face for a mile. Let us not forget the 65 year old man in see-through shorts who had a music player in his pocket blaring old-timey music. Very entertaining.

I put ice in my hat as suggested by Kathy G. and I walked at each station and each mile marker. Mentally I thought they were one in the same so I just had to do both. I walked if my stomach hurt too much. At one point I thought to myself 'OK, now you're just being lazy' LOL and started to run again.

The first two miles were total crap. I had tried a water bottle belt that had been a success in the past and was just awful. I was so frustrated I walked a lot and finally threw it away and used the porta-potty at mile 3. What an adventure.

Walk less, NOT wear that darn belt.

My wonderful friends greeted me at the finish line - 3 friends drove 2.5 hours to see me finish! I got a water bottle, wet towel and a massage. The massage helped BUNCHES.


Fear of 'running out of steam'.


AWESOME race put on by a great company. Tons of volunteers and very supportive racers as well! A wonderful day overall. I'm very proud of myself for completing a 70.3.