Patriots Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

My swim stunk, didn't site that great on the first leg and it seems not matter what I did I couldn't seem to pass people in front of me. I would go left, they'd be there, I'd move right someone else would slide over there... frustrating. Got kicked in the face knocking my goggles off. I probably zig zagged the first leg making it even longer trying to find a path. First turn buoy was a real crowded mess. Second leg was better, less congested, but still had to contend with some traffic. Last leg was actually a pretty good site I think and didn't have to contend with many people.

Site better and maybe take a much more inside lane that I did to clear slower swimmers at the outset. The end of the swim was quite shallow, maybe it would have been better to swim in further and do more dolphin dives? Overall I'm a much better swimmer... WTH??? Seriously I was forecasting to be out of the water A LOT earlier, my worst competitive swim EVER.

Realized halfway through my swim I had not put my bike number on, rookie mistake! It meant I had to go to my backpack at the end of my transition row, open it and fish out the number and put it on my seat tube. My glasses were covered in morning dew as well... wiped off with transition towel after looking around to see what I had available and took off with a slightly unclear view of the world.

Put my bike number on and haven't figured out a solution for the glasses yet... but they cleared up pretty quickly once some air was passing in/through them.

Pretty good ride, thought I'd be faster, but it seemed like the section of flat downhill after 30miles I was hoping to hammer also had a little headwind to contend with. I was already @ 24+mph pace and that slipped over that last 20 something miles. Good ride, passed LOTS of people. Passed a few drafting packs, one guy tried to catch my wheel but I wasn't having it and rode off from him.

Hydration stunk on the ride. Dropped my bottle of Heed upon a successful hand off simply because I botched putting it in the cage. Was really in need of the last hand off which I blew by @ ~25mph because I thought it was just a crew working a side road... they were just standing there with bottles to their sides.

Good transition.

Not the run I had hoped for. Went OK, but I was hoping for 5-10 minutes better here. Was drinking water and Heed @ various stops. Think my botched hydration on the bike was felt on the run.

Hydrate better on the bike.

Bottle of Gatorade, followed by two bottles of water. Walked for a few minutes and then sat down for a few.


Felt like hydration on the tail end drug me down.


Loved the experience, will probably do it again and fix some of the mistakes I made during the race. Not bad for my first half iron man I suppose.