Patriot Half Triathlon - Triathlon

Great swim. i didn't stop to catch my breath or get my bearings. i only had one slight issue getting off course.

I didn't get to draft anyone as others were either faster or slower than me.

i had to push faster to clear one swimmer who couldn't seem to go in a straight line. i did and felt it so backed off.

even though i can swim faster than what i averaged. this was a good pace as i got out of the water after swimming 1.2 miles feeling very fresh for a 56 mile bike ride

nothing

had wetsuit strippers so no suit to worry about.

had a slight issue getting my bike shoes on. felt very light headed bending over to put them on, so i sat down. at this point, my vision blurred. so i decided to sit and wait. health always trumps racing.after about 5 seconds vision returned. heart rate was fine. so i stood up and got my glasses and helmet on.

grabbed my bike and took off towards the bike out. i took a route which was defintely clear of other racers but was flooded out. i should have gone around. oh well.

i had issues getting onto my bike. not enough outside bike riding had some issues getting on. but it didn't cost me too much.

also can't figure out how to move from one sport to the other on the new watch.

nothing.

had some issues getting up to speed. but not much. i went out at about 18 mph/avg for the first 15 minutes, then got some Cliff Shot blocks in me, and some Gu Roctane.

felt pretty good. no real neck concerns although i couldn't stay aero the entire first loop. had a chain drop.comfortably hard. got passed by others but also did some passing of my own.

completed the first loop in 1:30. While I was trying to go under three hours, this gave me a good chance to do that.

at about the 35 mile mark, i noticed my shifter was sliding around and it was tough to shift. it had come loose from the aero extension. no idea how. it was replaced last year and did not have any issues with it.

also, the screw holding my seat to the seatpost. this also came out of nowhere. i was able to put the shifter back in, but i couldn't get the screw tight, as i did not have a tool to do that, and i did not see bike support the rest of the way.

the loose seat caused me to have to sit up and not be in aero. when i got in aero i could feel my position change, and i was worried about what that would do for the run.

HR data afterwords was spiking after this point, so this defintely hurt me.

double check everything before hand. bring a tool to fix these sorts of issues.

long run from the bike in to my bike position. i didn't run i sort of walked and had to avoid someone who was in a relay. they were doing some sort of weird warm up.

I had an issue moving from bike to transition on my watch. hit the button and it was locked, then i figured it out but went ahead to the run.

go faster from bike to t2.

figure out the lock screen issues on your watch.

i felt great getting out of t2. was going at about a 9 min/mile. slowed down to my planned pace of 10 min/mile. ran through the first aid station. i saw that i was on pace to break 6 hours just running 9 min walking one minute. since that is what i did in training, i decided to do that as well.

this worked perfectly until about mile 5 when my left knee started to hurt a bit.

by mile 7 i was reduced to walking every half mile. there were a few times where i could run the mile without any pain, but that was far and few between.

got super muggy around 12;30 which made this run unbearable.

the very best part, was coming near the finish line and seeing my wife and son waiting for me. he looked super happy to see me and was waiting till i got close and then came running out. i could not keep up with him at all. this was by far the highlight of my day.

no idea. i never had this pain in training. i didn't train enough for brick workouts, but i have never had that knee pain in anything other than this race. no other distance or race has me in pain like that

did some stretching and ate some food. talked with my wife and got a big kiss from her. i was way too grimy for a hug.


seat loose, knee pain.


such a great race. i'm not a big fan of the run, but the rest of it more than makes up for it.

will sign up again next year for a chance to re-redeem myself from a crash two years ago.