Patriot Half Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I started out good and then about a third of the way to the end of the first length a guy punched me in the jaw so hard I thought he broke my jaw or cheek bone. He took my swim cap off in the process but the upside was I put my goggles underneath it which was all that kept it on. I stopped and cleared my head and fixed my goggles.

About another 300 yards this guy decides to do this modified butterfly and scissor kicks me in the hip really hard.

I've never had an event where I've been beat up in the swim so badly. It was a constant battle the entire course. It was also very choppy. Normally this doesn't bother me as I've done lots of ocean swims with chop and last year did NY which had 1-2 waves. But the thing with NY and ocean waves is you firgure out the pattern. There was no pattern to this. The waves weren't consistent in timing or direction. I never got into a groove.

Not almost get knocked out or judo kicked but also practice on a bigger lake like this to get used to this type of chop.

My overall time was good for me but my wetsuit zipper got stuck and it required my enlisting the help of one of the workers. I lost a good 30-45 seconds which cost me my T1 record.

Ate a gel on the way out of T1.

Check my zipper a bit better.

When I got back to the bike in T1 I threw on my garmin and it said my heart rate was 169, WTF? I definitely didn't feel like that was my exertion level but given the chop and all the body blows I figured I put out a lot more than I thought I had. I made the best racing decision at this point to take it easy and let my HR come down. I was averaging 156 for the first few even though my level of exertion should have been much less. Around mile 4 I finally got it down to the high 140's even though my level of effort hadn't changed so I started to slowly pick it up.

At the start of the second loop my lower back started really bothering me and I never have lower back issues even on the bike in aero for long periods of time. I'm not sure if it was the judo kick and/or the choppy conditions that took it out of my back. Either way I had to keep stretching it out and coming out of aero. My average HR the first loop was 153 and my average HR the second loop was only 142. I just couldn't push off especially going up hill as the back tightened up.

The wind was also a major factor on the bike. It's the first time I got why people say don't use disk wheels on windy days, not that I can afford them anyway. Even without them I had a really hard time in spots controlling the bike with the gusts. I live by the water so I'm used to riding with windy conditions but normally it's just a consistent head or tail wind going towards or back from the beach. I don't have to deal with cross winds that often because there's always woods on streets that are parallel to the beach. There was this one section of road where there was lake on both side and the gusts were blowing me a couple of feet in both directions.

I also didn't actually hit start on my Garmin until 2 miles in which pissed me off to no end and even with all the extra time I had before the race I didn't check my cycling computer and magnets and they were messed up so I didn't have cadence at all and speed without glancing at the Garmin. #$@^@^@!!!!!!!

On the bike I had 44 oz of gatorade and 4 gels.

I think I played it right at the start bringing my HR down and on the back half backing off with my back in bad shape. I wish I checked the cycling computer out and won't make that mistake again.

This was much slower than I thought I was but I didn't wait for a friend who hit transition the same time as me which probably cost me 20-30 seconds but that's still slower than I should be. I wouldn't change waiting for him because talking strategy on the run really helped me out and made me very calm.

Anticipate my bike plan better.

I was shocked but the back didn't bother me on the run.

I don't usually run with a hat but the race gave us these awesome caps and I decided to wear it given how sunny it was. I ended up stuffing it with ice at every aid station and it really helped me stay cool. Kudos to the race. There was an aid station every mile of the course and all of them had fresh ice. I'd suck on half of it and put half in my hat. As I approached an aid station whatever was still in the cup went in the cap.

I started out at 8:35 for the first mile and mile five was still at 8:44. Mile 6-8 were all 9-9:03 pace. 9 and 10 were 9:25 and 9:31. Mile 11 was my worst mile at 10 flat. Then I finished 9:57 and 9:46. Mile 11 is when the tear drop of my quads started to seize up. I started to use the ice on them as I was running. This adjustment is what allowed me to return to a faster pace. Running while trying to ice your lower quad is tricky.

Coming up the shoot which was lined with people cheering you on I saw two people coming up on me and I sprinted the last 300 yards at 6:20 pace. That's pretty fast for me normally so I was really happy I could put that up at the end.

On the run I had 10oz of gatorade, 3 gels and endless chips of ice.

Not much. Very happy with this run. It's the weakest of the three disciplines for me and the one I was most concerned with and yet today it was the best for me.

Sat in a kids pool with ice eating and drinking to recover. I could only do two minutes in and then two out or I started shivering. I was cramping so getting in and out wasn't easy.


Getting beat up in the swim by both the chop and the other racers. Wind and my back on the bike.

Nutrition is interesting. I had 54 oz of gatorade and probably another 16 oz of water and 8 gels. I never felt bonked or that my energy was off. On the other hand the quads were cramping by the end. I don't think I could have consumed more liquids though. I was forcing myself to take in what I did. Either way I'll need to think about this mor.


Best race I've been a part of and I'm very high on a few others. Everything was good. Swag, aid stations, people working the race, post race activities....AWESOME.

The tri group I'm a member of Bay State Triathlon team comprised a large portion of the people working the race and had 43 racers. Hearing GO BAYSTATE!!! every 5 minutes was awesome. Coming up the hill on mile 12 of the run especially. There was a group there and man did I want to walk that hill but hearing that and pride being what it is there was zero chance.