Patriot's Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The swim was easy going out. The current was not very strong so I aimed a little to the left of the triangle. I noticed at one point it seemed like I wasnt getting any closer to the turn. I kept swimming and swimming but wasnt going anywhere. When I did turn right I had several goggle issues. They fogged up several times and I could not see where I was supposed to be going. I stopped a couple times and finally sited on a tree in the distance. After the next right turn I was swimming against the current. It seemed as though I was going nowhere. A couple times I stopped and took my goggles off so I can see. Thats when I noticed I could stand up. I swam and swam and finally saw a blue buoy. I made a left turn and was out of the river.

use defogger or different goggles. Im tired of not getting a good seal or them fogging up.

The transition started when I got out of the river. There was a quarter mile run to the transition area. The run was through mud and over roots and pine cones. Once there I had no issues taking off my wetsuit but did spend time removing mud from my feet before putting on my bike shoes.

I came to a water station where they handed out deer park waters. I guess they didnt get the word to take the plastic rings off the tops so we didnt have to. Try riding your bike and pulling off that clip and then pulling off the top. Then since hurricane Irene was recently there there were lots of wet areas and areas with standing water. I cant count the number of telephone poles and trees that were down. Traffic was bad and trying to get past us on a 2 lane road. A car passed me and then had to hurry back into his lane because of oncoming traffic. He almost ran the guy in front of me off the road. I quit racing and this became a game of survival. I was not happy with the bike course at all.

This was a pretty good transition. I didnt have to anything but rack the bike, put on my running shoes, take off my helmet, grab my fuel belt and race number and go.

I didnt know how fast I was running so I just went. I thing that was a good thing. I grabbed water from each station and took sponges as they were handed to me. Running through the woods reminded me of the sweet h2o race. After mile 4 I started to calculate when my legs would give out. I ran to the halfway point and received my official "halfway" wrist band that I had to wear. By mile 8 I was thinking I would stop at each water station and get a cup of water. I would walk until the water was gone then run again. Since it was now around 87 degrees and humid I did just that. By mile 10 I was taking 3 cups of water and walking until they were all gone, then started to run again. Finally I crossed the finish line. I was sure glad that was over.

We took our shoes off and went in the misting tent to cool down. I drank 2 beers in the beer tent. We got a bbq sandwich from whichever vender it was that supplied the all you can eat bbq. I wish they had hot dogs.


I have mixed feelings about this race. I know there is no way to stop the effects of a hurricane. The swim was a funky course and we had to swim against the current. We had to run through mud and pine cones to get back to our transition. The road hazzards were mostly an act of nature. I didnt like that the volunteers didnt open the water bottles for the bikers. I hated the path that we started out on. It was a flat tire waiting to happen. I was expecting a flat course and it wasnt. I say that but if you ask some of the people from Virginia they thought it was. It all depends on your idea of flat. Some of the run aid stations were really good and others just had drinks poured and you had to stop and figure out what you wanted. I liked the parts of the run that were in the woods and running on a wooden bridge. I didnt like getting a tick on me!! Thinking about this race now it wasnt as bad as I first thought. Nobody said that a half was supposed to be easy. HOWEVER, this makes me wonder. Knowing how I felt at the end of that race leaves me a little worried about my ability to do Florida in 53 days.