Patriots Half Ironman – Mid Atlantic USAT Long Course Regional Championships

The week leading up to the race I had been dealing with some very sore adductor magnus muscles on both legs. I spent a good amount of time doing physical therapy to try to fix the situation. I made a bit of a mistake pushing a hard bike and a hard run the weekend before the race. I am stuck with the thought that I have to be prepared to run a sub 3hr marathon in a little over a month. Although, the last couple weeks my run mileage has been down around 30 miles/wk due to the sore adductor muscles and tight hamstrings. I really have to pick up my run mileage this month and hopefully do one long 22 mile run a week after Halfmax Champs in order to be prepared for Marine Corps Marathon. Okay onto the race report..

The race was in Williamsburg, VA with about 600 participants. The swim took place in the James River and was wetsuit legal! It took me about 33 minutes to get through the swim and another 2 minutes to walk/run out of the shallow water. I was able to swim a bit more straight this year, but still managed to find myself in no mans land at one point due to the current pushing me over. Probably lost a couple minutes swimming off course. I took my wetsuit off before I started my run to the transition as the transition was not near the swim exit. I definitely saved some time doing that.
I threw on my LAS TT helmet and grabbed my Cervelo P2C and I was off. The bike course was described as being mostly flat. In reality that was not the case. They forget to put “false” in front of the “flat” as the entire course had false flats and much of it was against the wind. However, there were no hills besides a short bridge crossing. The course was similar to what I train on minus the false flats. There were a couple guys that tried to draft behind me, but each time I put in a surge and dropped them. I Hate when people try to draft off me, but can't return the favor. I passed all but one person and finished with the fastest bike time of 2:22 for the 57 mile bike section. Unfortunately my race took a nose dive during the bike due to inadequate hydration....
I had my nutrition all planned out for the ride. Drink my two bottles I started with and guzzle down 3-4 more bottles from the water handout stations. Unfortunately for me the people standing at the last water station were not handing out the bottles. Being only the 2nd person to pass by, maybe they weren't ready?? Big problem for my body. I had to go the last 30 miles without any hydration. So I was stuck fighting off the cramping during the last hour. When the cramps hit and you have no water you just have to slow down and work through it. I probably lost a few minutes at the end. My big worry was now I have to run 13.1 miles with going over an hour without any hydration or calories.
I got out onto the run course in 2nd place, about 5 minutes back from the leader. I really felt good and ready to put down a solid run. I drank as much water and ate as many gels as I could the first half of the run, but once I fell behind on my hydration during the bike I just couldn't make up for it. My quads starting cramping up bad 3 miles into the run. All I could do was walk it out. I stopped at a water station for a while and tried to get some salt and water down. The cramps went away for about 6 miles. Then they hit again around 9 miles. So I had to walk again. Truth is I felt great and not tired the entire run, I just couldn't get past the leg cramping and could never push the pace. I finished the run in 1:30; a time which I can pretty much do in my sleep on a flat, shaded course. Had I put in the run I'm capable of I definitely would have challenged the top spot even with the crappy swim time and leg cramping on the bike.

I finished 5th overall and 1st in my age group in a time of 4:31. We had a picture perfect day. And I really enjoyed the course for the most part. It was just the one water station mix up that seems minor to the volunteers, but is a huge factor in my race. Still Setup Events do an amazing job pulling off these fun filled weekends of triathlons.

I have 2 days off from swim, bike, run so I can catch up on everything besides triathlon. Then get back into heavy mileage for 8-9 days before I taper for Halfmax Champs in Myrtle Beach Oct. 2nd.