Patriot Half - Triathlon

I had a pretty good swim, but I was pretty wide of the buoys (not really intentional) so I suspect I swam a little further than necessary! Only one hard contact (guy from wave behind me), other than that just minimal contact (I was pretty wide so maybe no one else was that far out). No freak out moments. I was really glad that I had done the practice swim the day before.

Sight better!

There were wetsuit strippers! Did not hurry in transition but did not dawdle. My taller socks were hard to put on AND was hard to get them on around the timing chip. Long walk to bike out...

Not much, maybe bring shorter socks or just put the sock right over the chip. Also should have brought baby powder for the socks.

Well, I got to mile 36 before it started to pour! Despite the rain and the rough roads in spots, I liked this course. Parts reminded me of IMMD and after riding in Truro/Wellfleet it seemed pretty flat and I was surprised by my pace. I wore my Camelbak (filled with water) and had a bike bottle of Powerade in a cage. I drank water whenever and took a swig of Powerade every 5 miles. I had skittles, a pack of ShotBlocks, and two HoneyStinger wafers cut up in two ziplocs in my Bento box. I ate maybe half of what I had...

Eat more. But otherwise I don't know what else I could've done.

Bike in was a crazy long chute all the way from the dismount all the way down to the bottom of transition (so part of the 7 min was that). I stuffed my mostly uneaten bag of bike snacks in my jersey pocket while walking down that chute. Luckily, I had everything carefully in plastic bags so everything was dry when I got there (but not for long!). I took off my right sock to put my arch support on and put on one dry sock (the advantage of two identical pairs of socks). Left the left one on though so I didn't have to mess with the chip. Had two Tums and some water before leaving transition.

Not much, I suppose I could've hurried more but it was muddy.

Ugh! I have not run this far since Feb of 2022! Coming in undertrained, I knew there would be a lot of walking. I had my Garmin set for my usual 2:30/1:30 run/walk intervals and was pretty good at doing that until at least half way. After that I did things like run down hills and play games like run from that mailbox to that telephone pole, etc. It was wet but not really raining - it almost looked like the sun was going to come out at point. I did not fuel like normal - I started off alternating water/gatorade at the aid stations and eating a few skittles. I tried a gel because I thought I needed something but wasn't happy with that. Took a bag of pretzels at an aid station and that seemed to work. Ate a few, stashed them in my jersey pocket, repeat. I also started drinking the flat coke that they had. I liked that.

Train more

Came through the chute - called my name said I was from North Truro and something about being from the Cape. They were handing out waterbottles wrapped in a wet towel. The towel was a nice touch. Got my medal and then wandered over to check out the food.


Lack of run training. Maybe rain on the bike? At least the rain held off until I was on the second bike loop and past the worst of the rough pavement.


Despite the rain, I'm really glad I did this race. I liked the course and the volunteers were fantastic - still smiling and helpful despite the weather. Race morning parking was super organized (unlike AC70.3!). The easy logistics made it good for a solo participant. Wish I'd known Meghan and Craig were there!