Patriot Half Triathlon - Triathlon

i dove in the water and had some trouble initially sighting and breathing. sun was strong to my right side, so i had to breathe on my left which would pull me off course. once i got out further was able to breathe without the sun bothering me.

settled in to a good pace, and then slowly remembered to pull through the entire stroke, on the leg back, i then remembered to kick more!



I started swimming again four weeks ago after the winter off. finished a minute off where i wanted to. so happy with the swim. i know i can swim faster. just not enough time to gain speed in the short time i had. will focus on speed with Whaling City coming up next.

i've done this transition faster. not sure what slowed me down. wetsuit got stuck on my heels, but i sat down and got it off.

put on my shoes, helmet and sunglasses and grabbed my bike.

i may have been slow running through transition, but not sure why i was so slow.

not sure what i did wrong. T2 is usually faster for me as i don't have to contend with a wetsuit. i didn't feel this slow while doing it. i was actually in and out quicker than two others around me. so maybe just seeing the time made me think i was slow

i had a bit of trouble clipping in to my shoes. finally got clipped in and got up to speed.passed some bikers. had some issues around some of the early corners.

got to mile 5, took a sip of my scratch, saw a pothole as part of a manhole cover, and hit it. at that point i lost both of my bottles. i decided to just consume what i had in my speedfill and grab bottles off the course. the only problem is that the bottle exchanges are at mile 18 and 25

had some issues on the hills still. wasn't as bad as other races but i can't keep a good pace up the hills without getting passed.

at first bottle exchange i grabbed a gatorade and put it in the rear bottle holder.i still had some skratch drink in my speedfill so i didn't want to mix them. about two miles later, i heard that bottle drop out of the cage.

at next bottle exchange i grabbed another gatorade and took a couple of sips. a couple of miles later i hit a pothole and reached back and noticed that the bottle was almost out of the cage. i put it back but made a decision to stop and look for my dropped skratch bottles at mile 5.

i completed the first loop in 1:28.. i was feeling real good to finish the bike in under 3 hours.

i got to mile 5 and was slowing down to see if i could find my water bottle. i hit the brakes and tried going over to the side, when i hit a pothole or something and next thing i knew. i hit the ground. hard.

hit my elbow, felt my head hit the ground and slid a bit. it took me a few minutes to get up. a woman stopped and helped me get my bike to the side of the road. once there i took some time to compose myself and sort myself and bike out.

chain was off, but bike seemed okay. helmet looked ok. (i checked again when i got home, and my helmet was cracked.)

i grabbed my water bottles and filled up my speedfill as long as i was stopped.

i lost about 15-20 minutes. i kept my garmin going and it was at about 1:50 when i started back up. got going slowly and felt ok. still pushed my race pace.

towards the end of the bike, my neck started to hurt and it was paintul to stay in aero postion..

still even with the crash and subsequent slowing down, i finished 3:12 on the bike. i most likely could have broken 3 hours.

not crash.

work on hills at lunch.

had a very long run from bike dismount to my rack spot. i felt some twinges in my hip and felt some pain. this happened before so i thought it would go away once i started running.

i got to my rack, racked my bike, and sat on the ground and collected myself. i was very surprised to see that others who started after me hadn't passed me on the bike and hadn't come in yet.

got up and started running, pain was in my hip when i would land on my left leg. a volunteer noticed my face and asked if i was ok. i lied.

nothing.

not good.

i started out running the first half mile or so, and then had to walk up the first hill.

i started out this way running a half mile or so and then walking, but even that got to be too much. i wound up having to walk two minutes, and run two minutes. the pain in my hip got to be too much if i ran more than that.

i stopped at every aid station and grabbed water. and dumped it on my head.

definitely drank too much. but it got very hot and humid and there was no shade and not much breeze.

was the toughest run i've done. i fought myself the whole way and nearly quit a few times.

not much.

i felt great other than my hip. fitness wise i knew i could put down a 2 hour half marathon. i just couldn't run for more than two minutes.

sat down and collected myself. i then went to the ice tub to get cool. it was then i noticed how bad my leg looked.

i went to medical and had the emt's cover the cuts, and found the food tent.

found my teammates and went to get my stuff.


crashing. it limited my ability to run, and push the bike.

run fitness was where i wanted it to be, just wasn't able to try it.


good race. i don't particularly like the run. a single loop without much spectators make for a long run if you are having issues.

volunteers on the bike course were ok. some were good and told you where to go,