Last weekend, 6/19/2010, I raced the Patriot Triathlon. It was my first 1/2 Ironman (technically half iron distance, since Ironman is a brand name). Normally, a 1/2 is 70.3 miles. 1.2 miles swimming, followed by 56 miles biking, and then finally a 13.1 mile run. Patriot is a 72.3 – the bike portion is an extra 2 miles for a total of 58 miles.

I signed up about 3 weeks ago. Basically for 2 reasons. 1), I had a 3 hr bike planned for that Saturday, and Masters Swim / 70 minute run for the next day, Sunday. So I figured, why not put them back to back and do the race. And 2), I wanted to feel out this distance to see if I wanted to focus on it next year, and this race was the only one in the year that fit in the schedule without screwing up my “A” races…

I’ll start by saying, I was WAY undertrained. 90% of my training has been focused on short course; sprint and olympic. High intensity, short durations. But, you definitely need train for this distance. There’s no faking your way through (though I guess that is what I did…).

The 1.2 mile swim. Nice calm swim, it felt great for me. They say the swim was longer (they being other swimmers, but I have no sense of distance/time when swimming so I don’t know), I went freestyle non stop the whole way, which I’ve never done in any race of any distance. Just tried to stay smooth and steady and not rush. Very happy with the 37:44. Was hoping for 40 minutes or better, so there it was. Water was warm, calm, very nice. I zig zagged a little, so I’m sure I lost some time/energy there, but not too bad.

I came into transition feeling good. I didn’t rush, but I didn’t try to go slow either. I know it’s a long race, but damn it if I lose time in transition. Just under 2 minutes. Not great, but I put on socks too…

The 58 mile bike. Bike was fast and flat. 2:30:58. 9th fastest overall and 4th fastest non-elite. After the race everyone kept telling me I rode too hard (hence the bad run). But the thing is… I didn’t. I stayed below my target HR. I didn’t feel like it was a hard effort (though after 40-45 miles I had enough… right around 2 hrs.). I just kept my cadence steady, geared right, HR just below the right zone. I didn’t feel I went too hard at all. In fact, I think I could have gone much harder. Ate 5 gu’s about 30 minutes apart, 48oz of Gatorade, 24oz of water. If I don’t eat another gu/gel for while I’ll be very happy.

Transition two (T2). Nothing exciting here… I got off the bike, and there was no way I could run through transition after 2 and a half hours of fast biking so I walked as fast as I could. Grabbed my running shoes, race belt, hat and was off. < 1:00.

The 13.1 mile run. Run was just bad. It started out good, though. First 3 miles were ok. 8:05, 7:57, 8:30. Felt good, thought I would settle into a nice pace. Had some water at each water station, had some clif bloks… Instead it got super hard. Every mile after that I walked at least a little. Started to get some 9:40′s, 10:00′s and 10:15′s, When I was running I was still moving around 8:30 I think… but I had to take more and more walk breaks. Every aid station and mile marker was like a desert oasis. I started the run and a volunteer told me I was 17th overall… not bad considering I was Wave 3 (Wave 1 started at 7:30am, Wave 2 at 7:35, Wave 3 at 7:40, etc). But then a freight train of 60 or 70 runners came rolling by. Also, not sure how the heat affected me (it was about 85-90 degrees), but it was hot. My run was a 2:02:47. I ran the Hyannis Half Marathon earlier in the year at 1:30:xx… so I thought I had something better than 2:02 in me, but being able to do something, and then being able to do it in a 1/2 triathlon are two completely different things.

Overall – I finished in 5:14:40… 20 seconds faster than my goal time. But I had anticipated a 40:00 swim, 2:40 bike, 1:50 run and transition time… not 38/2:30/2:00…. 51st overall, and 5th in my age group. I believe I was 2nd in my age group at the start of the run….

As much as I suffered and cursed it during the run. I would do it again. I can’t believe how much my legs twitched, spasmed and seized up as soon as the race was over – though during the race was OK. Immediately after the race was worst, but pretty much into the evening. The next morning was just sore. Legs sore, back sore, shoulders sore.

I guess for the next one I’ll have to really focus on training. Sprint training doesn’t translate well to this distance. Great job to everyone that raced. Takes a lot of guts to do this (and self loathing?). And thanks to the volunteers. It was great pick me up to see and hear everyone.