Patriot Half Triathlon - Triathlon

I did better than last year by 2:25 so it's tough to complain, but I felt there's plenty of room for improvement here. My sighting was very poor. When I got to the 1st turn buoy, I was way to the right of it. I'm assuming I added 100-200 yards just to get back to the buoy. I started in one of the later swim waves, and felt like there was not a lot of congestion. However, that could have been due to my poor sighting. My hamstrings felt tight for much of the swim, and cramped up almost immediately upon trying to stand up.

My training was mostly 2 days a week at Masters Class. I needed to get more open water swims in. I had just 2 under my belt this season before this race. Also, I need to make sure to make the time for from pre-race swimming.

My wet suit came off with relative ease. What really slowed me down here was my very tight hamstrings. I battled the cramping especially when getting my shoes on. Once I got my shoes on, things went much easier. I grabbed a few sport beans, a sip of powerade and off I went.

Not cramp up ;)

I felt really good once I got on the bike. I rode this course last year and practiced it a couple times this year so I knew what to expect. For some reason, the number 58 stuck in my head towards the end, and I thought I was going slower than I actually was. This is my first triathlon ever where my overall bike split was ranked higher than my run split. I went through about a bottle and 3/4 on the bike and had a nearly a full bag of sport beans. This ride was a big improvement from last year (11:41), but it may have cost me on the run.

Remember that a half is 56 miles and not go as hard on the bike.

I grabbed another pack of sport beans, ate a couple and grabbed a sip of the powerade I had left from the bike ride. Unlike last year, I didn't have to hit the porta-potty, I remembered my race belt with my number, and everything went pretty smooth.

Not much differently ... except maybe switch to non-caffeinated sport beans.

This was the only damper on the day, as I succumbed to a cramp/side-stitch at mile 7. The run was the only leg I didn't improve on from last year as I was 1:45 off of last years' time. My run plan to grab something at every odd mile water stop was going well until then, and my pacing was good. After the cramp, the wheels fell off and it was a struggle to finish. While it's hard to attribute everything to the cramping since my quads felt spent at the last couple miles either due to pushing it too hard on the bike or a lack of proper training.

I was using caffeinated sport beans on all my long training runs, but all the caffeine from both the bike and the run may have dehydrated me for the run. I also didn't get enough longer bricks in during my training.

I put the cold towel they give you at the finish right under my hat, and the cold water hit the spot. Then, I cooled down under shade of the BSTT tent.


My first major side stitch in over a year. I haven't had to walk in a race in a long time. Otherwise, improving my sighting is the only other area I can think of for easy improvement. Overall, it was a nice race for me and an improvement of 16:44 over last year.


There are a ton of great volunteers at this race, and Sun Multisport does a great job with the organization. My only criticism was that the mile 5 water stop wasn't ready for me. I called out for water ahead of time, got to the table, and all the volunteers were just staring at empty cups. I wasn't sure how long things would take, So, I just continued on and hit the mile 6 stop instead. It was just a small damper on an otherwise great event.