Patriot Half Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Man, i just cant swim this lake good. I started off on the right, it was pretty spread out, got off almost first then just started swimming easy, no real ruch the first 2-300, just kinda get into the groove. Few guys off to my right, few to the left, trying to find some feet, but the ones i did were just not swimming straight. The wind was coming in and there were some pretty good waves, so sighting was a bit of a PITA, before the first half mile was over, i was already passing some from the prior wave. I felt smooth and fluid in the water, felt like i was swimming well. Made the turn perfectly and picked off 10 dood that went wide, now we are starting to really run over slower swimmers from previous waves, halfway down the back straight some poor girl swims right in front of me and wham...i hit her right in the head...ooops my bad, i felt horrible, it wasn't full on fist, but the side of my hand hit her hard enough to hurt my hand, so i rolled over, yelled sorry, made sure i did not knock her out, and continued on. found some feet that i wanted to follow, he was going good, then all of a sudden sits up to sight. I swam right into the back of him, geeze o pete, who stops to sight?? Coming in i still felt great, i start to think about my transition, in what order i would do it, to make it as smooth as possible, garmin on etc as described below in the transition section, i mean, swimming is boring, why waste time, go through the trans and get it right. when i got out i was shocked to see 37 mins, i really felt much better than that. I guess the wind and wave movement really hurt my time, either that or i still suck at swimming. probably still suck. out i go, wettie down, goggles and cap off, i was racked pretty much in the middle of transition, so i had a pretty good run to my bike. got to it and here comes t1

2011 39m34s
2012 37m41s

not much, i felt good strong and smooth

got to my bike, turned my garmin on, helmet on, sunglasses on, wettie off, shoes on, and take bike off rack. run out to the mount line, it was clogged, i go to the outside and by about 6 people while running, the volunteer is yelling to me that mount is back here, i am like......no, i will mount up here thanks, people need to learn to mount their bikes properly and not totally clog the mount line while trying to put their feet in the freaking shoes on the bike already standing still. Get it together, why do something that is totally useless. If you cannot mount your bike moving, you are better off keeping it simple, leave your freaking bucket home and put your shoes on in T1. So i go running by these 6-7 people and do a sweet flying mount on to my bike, with my shoes already on my feet, clip in and head out to the road. There is 1 girl right in front of me, and she is on the right side like she should be, and i yell, i am coming on your left, she holds her line and i am out the friggin door. Past the poeple, they are cheering, i am on my bike, life is jim dandy.

2011 2m40s
2012 1m44s

nothing, it was a good transition

Booyah, time to crush souls and destroy dreams. If you are gonna be a 210lb pudgy old balding dood in pink and purple on a pink and purple bike, you had better bring your "A" game, or you will take some crap from others. This bike course sets up perfectly for me, no serious climbing, lotsa rollers, gives me the ability to take tiny rests while i hammer along the flats and power over the small inclines. My goal all along was to try and win the bike leg overall, no mercy, don't give a shit i have to run after, it was go balls to the wall and bury everyone, then worry about all the rest later. As things go, the best laid plans of mice and men lay waste in a field of dreams or some such shit like that. Lots of people mentioned that maybe backing off a bit would help the run tremendously, you know maybe go 225-230, maybe you could run a 145-150 or something, maybe giving up 7-10 mins on the bike and you pick up 15-30 on the run, you know race like a triathlete instead of a roadie. Naahh, that would make too much sense, besides i ran a 2:06 off a 2:22 bike last year, the best i had ever run woulda been a 1:58 or so in training this year, so i figured i would fore go all the wise advice i had gotten from much better triathletes than I, and go for the bike title and then worry about the run. Deep down inside i really felt i coulda put together a decent run for me off a 2:20 or better bike on this particular course. And damned if i was not gonna try. Sooooooo enough babble, if you are still here reading, thanks, this will get better i hope. Off i go, great trans awesome mount and time to hammer. I head out and we go about a mile before a right, a small detour through the back parklot of local dunkin donut and out to the main course. I am passing peeps immediately, running down all the girls and doods that got outa the water before me, it starts off like usual, i am blowing by them like they are standing still, i already know i am in the zone, the legs respond to every call for power, no pain, no lactic acid, just pure power. i have target lock on anyone in front, i will pass them, not if, but when. after the first 10-15 miles, the herd is thinning, as i pass the intersections i thank the volunteer and the police officer there, making sure we are safe. by mile 20 i am running down womens elite and a mens elite or two, the wind is blowing pretty much all day, but the disc/88 combo is not an issue, at one point i took a swig of EFS that i had, as i took it, i inhaled a bit on accident, i coughed up the mouth full all over my arms and aerobars..awesome, this is gonna get sticky. I then get to the section of road through the reservoirs, the wind starts really moving me, so i have one hand on the aero bars and one hand on the horns, keeping the bike as straight as i could, it is better to leave a little speed out there and stay upright, then try to go as fast as possible and crash. we make the last hard turn to the road to the end of the first lap, pass the people at full song in the area of 33mph, lotsa yelling and cow bells and cheering, he people at this race are awesome!!! 25mph avg on the first lap, tailwind helping and continue on for the second lap. Same deal as first lap, still picking off the other competitors, although they are far and few between, i can tell if they are front runners or back markers from later waves by the speed at which i pass them. the great thing about a 2 loops course is you never run out of targets, you always have someone to catch. At the back of my mind i start to think about the run....i know...blasphemy, so i start to pay attention to avg speed, i will coast down hill only when i am above my average, trying to not hemorrhage too much time, but i did leak a little fluid, just a little. i go between pedal harder damnit, and ok take a little breather here, keeping the speed up, but losing a 10th here and there. This time through the reservoir, i had both hands on the bulls, i was getting a little fatigued and just wanted to stay upright. Onto the inroad, nice tail wind and low and behold there is only a mile or two left and there is another woman, and she is moving. Go past and it is the girl who has won this race for 3 or 4 years straight, Lisbeth Kenyon. She is riding the same bike as me (Kestrel 4000SL) so i smile and say nice bike as i go by, she smiles and waves back. In to the people, and holy shit, why are all the cars stopped??? I come screaming down the far right on the shoulder, people yelling and cheering, trying to get out of the shoes, and cars to the left stopped, feet up top, turn into trans and head to dismount line. I love the faces of the volunteers as i am flying into the dismount line, leg over bike, on the brakes a bit, and SWEEEET flying dismount and down into transition.

2011 2h22m44s
2012 2h18m22s

go harder on the bike

this was interesting, as i come down into the chute i yell to a volunteer, how many in already?? he says not 10, turns out i was the 8th person in and 2nd or 3rd ag'er overall. they also changed the bike in for the better, but i had to run the entire length of trans and then into it to the rack. i stopped running and walked to let my HR settle, 30-40 seconds were not gonna make or break me, got to rack hung bike up, sat down to put socks on, with no bucket mind you, sneakers on, grab other stuff and start walking out. high fived Shaun G who was volunteering, and he says there are not very many ahead of you, got to top of hill and off to run i go, feeling pretty good actually.

2011 2m18
2012 2m40

run whole way

Heh, they said run. I have a motto i have followed my whole life, "Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword" i live a black and white world, the only grey is between my ears. So how am i gonna put this?? Yeah, might as well be direct, i was never one to hold my tongue and pussy foot around anything. You can fake a 5k, probably even a 10k, but faking a Half Marathon is a tough task, i failed miserably. I went too hard on the bike, nah, lemme rephrase that, i went too hard on the bike for my current run fitness. Don't choke, i admitted it on the visceral world of the interwebs. But chicks dig sexy bike splits...or so they tell me. So many cliche's about triathlon, one of my favorites is "there is no such thing as a good bike if a shitty run follows it". Yeah, bullshit, that came from someone who sucks on the bike and wants to feel better about their shitty bike speeds and efforts. I play this game one way, i know i suck at running compared to the other disciplines, live off the front die off the front, i don't suck wheels and farts sitting in a draft during bike races, and i am not gonna back off the bike in a Tri, it is not my style, and if that makes me a shitty triathlete, so be it, i am fine with that. It is better to have tried and failed than to not have tried at all, and i gave it all i had, things just got outa hand, and some of it was outa my control. The day after Rev3 i could not walk, my left IT band got really tight, some advil and rolling and it went away. Never really thought about it since. So i enter the run course and Lisbeth Kenyon comes trotting up next to me (she would go on to 5-pete as womens overall champ), we exchange pleasantries and i know i cannot run with her, so off she goes, but not all that fast, i feel great, strong, smooth, rolling right along, first mile is in 8:30, second mile goes by, and only one guy goes by, mile 2 8:45 a little side stich, i would run it out a little upset tummy, but passing gas a couple miles later and some coke and water and it subsided also, nice. Mile 3 had a couple more of the elite guys go by and maybe a girl, no worries, i am feeling great......oh wait..what was that...oooooo, mile 3 8:53, now i am getting some pain in my left IT band....you see where this is going, down like the Hindenburg Blimp. So Doc, i got this pain see, but i have this race, i am gonna run anyway, i think i'll be OK, no you really won't, that's cool, but i am gonna anyway...good luck with that son. Mile 4 the pain is getting worse, but i am managing, 9:15-9:30-9:30 etc, mile 5-7, right hip flexor is starting to hurt, i had to change my stride to dull the pain, now other things are hurting. Mile 8 comes, Colin Cook comes up past me, we joked about him catching me at mile 3 or so, i think he was happy to see me sooo late, it was great seeing him, he tells me he is going sub 4h30 as he goes by and that i look good, i yell some stuff to him about how great and smooth he is running, better than anyone up ahead, and i wasn't lying to make him feel good, dood was checking out!!! not a 1/4 mile up the road, it now feels like some son of a beech has a knife and is drilling it into the side of my leg next to my knee. Every stride sends a wave of pain up my body, shut up legs, shut up fat boy, keep fricking running. And then the walking starts, but the sad part is the walking hurts worse than the running, but each walk makes it harder to start running again, not because i don't want to, i wanted run more than anything right then, i really did, it just hurt too fricken' much. Mile 9-10 were walk runs, the wheels are coming off 11's, i am coming unglued. Kelly comes by and gives me some encouragement, but at this point it is total survival, walk run, run walk, the hemorrhage of places is happening full swing, people are going by me in a constant stream and have been for the last 2 miles. This brings me all the way back to the first year of triathlon, when the demons were in my head and i would walk because they would tell me to, not because i had to,and i would lose places i didn't have to lose, this wasn't the case this year, i was physically in a bad way. The last two rest stops i made sure to walk and high five all the volunteers, my time goals were all out the window and at this point i would be lucky to beat last years time (i didn't), a couple said you look great etc, and i basically told them they were lying through their teeth but i appreciated it anyway, thanks for coming out and helping all us athletes in our endeavor for the day. the last mile and it is a limp shuffle, for the last 2 miles my left leg was pretty much numb from the knee down, right leg was sore, hip flexor was throbbing, i wanted nothing worse than to get off my feet, into an ice bath, and then drink beers till i could not feel anything. finally coming down the finish chute, the run through the camp that was sooo nice last year, was killing me today, with all the change in terrain, my badly hurting legs could not handle it and it was a limp tiptoe through the trail, get to the actual chute, and i turn around, someone yells don't look back keep going...ummm, right. A girl is closing, i know my time, i can tell she is having a good race, i stop and pull over, i did not want to try and out sprint her, and did not want my miserable face in her finish shot, i let her go by, and followed in 10 meters behind her, i would see her later and she thanked me for letting her finish solo, she said she thought she was going to have to sprint me for it, and did not want to. Kharma.

If i had it to do all over again, i wouldn't change a thing, i would go harder on the bike, and hope for the best, maybe i would not have an ITB problem, my legs felt fine, no muscle pain, felt strong till it happened. i really thought this was gonna be a special day....in a good way. I personally think, knowing how i run, that slowing on the bike would not net me much time on the run, i never hurt, never felt crampy, i was just in excruciating pain. I do not think an IT band problem is a going to hard on the bike problem. If i go 2h30 on the bike, i am not going to go run a 1h45, i would love to, believe me, but i guess we will never know.

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

2011 2h06m24
2012 2h14m29

This has been an interesting journey, i started all this 4 years ago at 260lbs, i was consummate BOP, it was a lot of fun back there, people talked and joked and had a good time while trying to finish, still hurting like everyone else. Along the way i got fast at one discipline, like a one trick pony. I have spent some time at the front of the pack, it's not as fun, people are different there, i get snide remarks occasionally, i guess they hate getting passed by a fat guy in spandex, this year it is pink and purple. This is my last long course race, i am done. It has been fun, but it is time for me to do something else, and a couple short races a year. I owe a lot of thanks to a bunch of people who are always there, online or in person, you know who you all are, i am not gonna start throwing names around. I will still be in touch with all of you, i just need a break.

nothing, shit happens

ice bath, talked with friends, drank some beers, waited for awards.

packed up stuff and went back to hotel.

Want to thank a few people. first off my wife, she puts up with my ocd about all things multisport, deals with the training, snickers diva bitchy mood swings, and me going to race for half or full days, it is not easy with a 2.5 year old, i think it is time to work on #2 and get Morgan some company.

Eleonore Rocks, for the awesome kit, great cause and lotsa sooper cool teammates that give encouragement, advice and kudos from all over the USA

Kestrel, for the wicked fast 4000SL that i ride, you can keep your P whatevers, Trek's, etc, this bike is sexy and flat out fast, it is partially responsible for the extra speed i gained this year.

Rudy Project for the awesome lid i get to wear, and it is HOT PINK!!!!

CEP compression socks for the great product that helps me recover

Infinit for the fuel to keep my big body racing

and all the sponsors and supporters that contribute to the Eleonore Rocks cause.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading, it has been an interesting journey, lets see where it goes from here. if you need me, i will probably be fishing.




me


This is a great race, i travel 3 hours for it, it has lots to offer and great post race food and activity.