Patriots Half Race Report

Most of my coworkers, family, and friends would say that I exercise a great deal and am in very good shape. They might even think that I have great endurance. And while compared to many, if not all, of the people at the work place and most of my friends, this holds true-I am in very good shape and have endurance. But alas, compared to most of the other competitors in Saturday's race, this is not so true.

In general I was happy and satisfied with my race results. However, I must say I was a little dismayed with the number of people who passed me in the water and on the bike. I know that I am not a fast swimmer nor a strong cyclist but the passing seemed to go on from the first minute through to the 5th hour of my 7+ hour endeavor. No doubt, I will be working on these weaknesses in the off season. That is, I will be focusing on biking and swimming technique, strength, and endurance.

But before I get into all that, let me recap the race for you.

The Patriots Half Triathlon takes place near Williamsburg, VA in Festival Park which is across the street from Historic Jamestown. We arrived at Festival Park Friday afternoon for packet pickup and the pre-race meeting. When the race director described the location of the first turn buoy for the swim, I thought it looked like a very long way out. It was going to be a long and difficult swim.

After the meeting, we made our way to our hotel to unload all my gear and get settled. We got a room with a kitchen so I could have my favorite pre-race meal. My race crew cooked salmon, potatoes and onions, collards and spinach with garlic, and heated some soup. I got all my ducks in a row and relaxed. I have to thank Melissa for all the hard work she put into packing all the food, loading the car, picking me up at work, and cooking my pre-race meal. She put in a lot of work to support me and she deserves big thanks.

After dinner, I helped clean up before settling down for the night. Of course the hotel had TV so I was treated to some channel surfing which is something I have not done since the last out of town triathlon. And what a treat I had. There was an hour show on that recapped all the British Premier League soccer games. What fun it was to see all the goals and saves including a recap of Tim Howard's amazing saves as a goal keeper for Everton. The British announcers were heaping high praise on "the American."

At 4:30 AM the next day, we awoke to the piercing sounds of our alarm clocks. I felt very rested. I had slept well. We ate and I drank my pre-race smoothy. We packed the car and headed to the venue. There were virtually no cars on the road until we got near the venue. We arrived at Festival Park about 5:30AM and there was already a line of cars waiting to get into the parking lot. It seemed like people were there earlier compared to other triathlons we had been to this year. Usually I am the early bird and get my choice on the bike rack. This time around, I did not get to choose and was in the middle of the rack as there were so many people already there. But it was not really a big deal. I was prepared and since this was my 6th race of the year, I was not as nervous about all my gear.

Leading up to the race I was a little nervous about how I would handle the water bottle hand off on the bike and my hydration strategy in general. Luckily I had had some great advice from not one, but two experienced racers.

First, my friend Matthias and I had been going back and forth on Facebook. He was asking me all kinds of questions and giving me great advice. If you did not know Matthias, his manner might come across as abrupt. Often with written communication, tone and intonation are missing and it is easy to read things into the text we write back and forth to each other. Fortunately, I knew Matthias was genuine and wanted me to succeed. And I wrote off his writing style as typically German. If you want someone to give you direct and helpful advice, ask an experienced German racer. Hopefully he understands where I am coming from. I appreciate his interest in my well being, his frankness, and his straight to the point demeanor. Matthias is a guy that has helped me even when he was not with me. When I was training hard for a mountain bike race, I would imagine that him and another friend Bill were behind me on the bike which made me push harder.

I also had a phone conversation the day before the race with a coworker who races bikes. In fact, he is a retired pro racer who has raced with the best racers in the world. He still races in local races and still performs at the highest level. After a few minutes of talking to him on the phone, I felt much more comfortable about my hydration and nutrition strategy.

After racking my bike and using the bathroom one last time, it was time to head down to the race start. I made it down to the water just in time to have the announcer call everyone out of the water so I did not get to warm up. That did not really bother me as I don't think it would have made a difference on my swim time had I warmed up. We had the National Anthem and before you know it, it was time to swim. I was in the second wave wearing a red swim cap. Each wave had a different swim cap color. Waves are mostly decided by gender and age group. Below is a picture of my wave waiting to go off. I am in this picture. I am the one with no shirt and the red swim cap. You can click on the picture to see a bigger version.

When the horn went off, we all started trudging through the water and then started swimming. Right away, I was all over the course. Apparently, I can't swim straight without the lines on the bottom of the pool to look at. I zig zagged all over and had to stop every now and then to get my bearings. After most everyone in my wave had pulled away from me, I found it difficult to stay on course and I had trouble seeing the buoys that I would be sighting on. But I just kept going. That first 400 meters seemed long before we hit the first turn buoy. Once we turned, I would be going with the current for quite a long time. I must say, I did not feel the current but I guess it was helping me along. It was not like the strong currents in downtown Richmond. Again, I was all over the place and burned a lot more energy than I would have had I swam straight. At one point, I got hit in the head by some floating drift wood. At least it wasn't a body part. I just kept going, taking little sighting breaks here and there and readjusting my line. I finally made it to the turn around buoy and then turned back into the current.

The whole time I was swimming, people were passing me. First purple caps, then blue, then green. I even got passed by some guys in wet suits who were in the 7th wave. I kept moving and before I knew it, I saw the final turn buoy. Lots of racers were standing up once they rounded this last buoy. That was sort of a relief because I knew we were not far from shore. I stood for a moment but then decided I should keep swimming as swimming is actually the preferred method of moving through the water. As I got closer into the shore and it got shallower, I started doing some dolphin diving. On my second or third dolphin dive, my right calf cramped up. That was not good. Here I was, I had not even finished the first leg of the race which is the shortest of the three legs, and I was already cramping. I stopped dolphin diving and just swam some more until I could run out onto the beach. I knew I would have to start hydrating and eating gels as soon as I got on the bike to prevent any more cramping.

As I made my way to the shore line in the shallow water, I saw Melissa in her bright red shirt and cute skirt. She was on the shore cheering me on. It was a great lift to see her and I got a big smile on my face. It was great to see her cheering me on. And she even got this picture.

I am in the middle of this picture with no shirt and a red swim cap. And of course I am smiling. As I passed Melissa, she shouted out my swim time. One hour on the dot she said. I had been hoping for 50 minutes. Maybe if I could swim straight I would have done better. But I beat the cutoff by 15 minutes so that was good enough.

Many racers had staged shoes of some sort near the beach. The run from the beach to the transition area was about a quarter of a mile through thick grass, mud, and a climb on carpet they had laid down on some rough and rocky terrain. I had decided at the last minute on race morning to also stage some shoes. As I put on my shoes, I felt a little wobbly. But I managed ok and took off towards transition.

My T1 was the longest out of all the triathlons I have done. I had decided I would need to wear my jersey so I could carry plenty of nutrition. That's what we triathletes call it-nutrition. It is not called food. So that took a little extra time to put on my jersey and stuff the pockets with two Hammer Bars, two flasks of vanilla Hammer Gel, one extra packet of Hammer Gel, my Endurolytes, and my lip balm. Once I got all that stuff situated and put on my hair and makeup, I was ready to run out of transition and start the 58 mile bike ride. On my way out, there was Melissa. She surprised me. She must have also made the quarter mile run back to transition so she could catch me. She got this nice picture of me sticking my tongue out for the camera. I was being silly. After all, I was having a good time.

Right away, as soon as I got out on the course, I was being passed on the bike. I made sure to take a good look at the bikes that were passing me as well as the age of the riders. Interestingly enough, I saw some very high-end bikes cruising by me. And the age of the racers varied greatly. I was passed by a lot of older men and some older women and lots of younger women. After a while I began to wonder where all these people were coming from. I was so far back in the swim, I did not think there would be too many people left to pass me. But they kept coming.

Occasionally when someone would pass me, I would kick it up a notch and try to stay with them for a while. Since there is no drafting in triathlon and I could not ride anyone's wheel, inevitably they would pull away from me and I would let them go. I think I passed 2 people out there on the course. I just kept thinking that maybe I could catch a few of them on the run.

With about 20 miles to go in the bike, I had the strong urge to go to the bathroom. It is uncomfortable to ride when one's bladder is full but there were no Porta Potties on the course. I could have easily pulled over to the side of the road and gone behind a bush or something but I just could not find an appropriate place to get off the course and go. As I would approach what looked like a dirt road that went into the woods, I would think, "I wonder if that would be a good place to stop." And since I could not really tell until I was right up on it, I would then think, "Yeah, that would have been a good place to stop. Too late now." So while I had to go super bad, I did not have to go so bad that I would just go in my pants like some people do.

After about 3 hours and 48 minutes, I finally made it back to transition. And of course Melissa was there to greet me with her bright red shirt and cute skirt. I am not sure how long she had to stand there waiting for me. Hopefully not too long. I told her I thought it would take me between 3.5 to 4 hours. Again, it was great to see her cheering me on.

When I hopped off my bike at the dismount line and started to run my bike into transition, I felt a little wobbly. My legs did not seem to enjoy the sudden change of pace. My legs showed their annoyance with what I was asking them to do by going rubbery. I had to concentrate so I would not fall down as I went through the cheering crowd and volunteers saying, "good job, you made it to T2." Sure I was not biking anymore but I still had a little half marathon to run.

My T2 time was also very long. For one, I had decided that I would put some Vaseline on my nipples to prevent chaffing. This was something I decided on while riding the bike so I had not really prepared myself. I thought I remembered putting some Vaseline in my transition bag. After racking my bike, grabbing some Hammer Gels, changing my shoes, and putting on my number, I searched through my transition bag for the Vaseline. Alas, I could not find it. Oh well. Next time I will have to plan better.

As I made my way out of transition toward the run, I was greeted by 5 or 6 beautiful green structures. Yes, the porta potties stood there beckoning me. I was relieved to see them and without going into too much detail, I quickly jumped into one of them and unleashed the flood gates. Also I took the opportunity to use the last of my lip balm on my nipples to prevent chaffing. If all of this seems like too much information, I apologize. These types of things come up in normal conversation among triathletes and runners, I'm afraid.

I popped out of the bathroom and started my watch for the run. I immediately passed two women who were just making their way out of transition. And then I saw Melissa again. I gave her a high five which actually had the effect of giving me a burst of energy. Just the positive act of giving her a hearty high five made me feel good. She is so supportive, positive, and helpful. What a great team we make. And while I did not see her until right afterwards, she snapped another decent photo of me swallowing some hydration and tending to my watch.

Can you see something that is wrong with this picture? It was not until after I gave Melissa a high five that I realized I had my cycling gloves on. Oops. Luckily, I had plenty of room in my jersey pockets to stuff in my gloves and my race belt held everything down nicely so nothing bounced around.

As I ran, I continued to pass people. I was probably running way too fast. I always tend to go out too fast but I knew I would eventually have to walk some so I decided I would ease back a little but continue to run at a pace that felt good.

After my first 4 miles, I was running a sub 8-minute mile pace. If I continued this pace, I would PR my half marathon time. I knew that I could not last at this pace. During the run, I took water at each water stop and took some Endurolytes that I carried in a Mentos container that I had in my jersey. As I ran through the trails in the woods, I kept passing people. But I could still hear people on my tail. In fact, it seemed like someone was running just a few feet behind me. This kept me moving at a good pace because by now, so many people had passed me on the swim and the bike, I was tired of it and determined to hold them off.

It was not until about mile 6 that I realized there was no one behind me. In fact, there never was anyone right on my tail. What I thought was the sound of a runner gaining on me was actually the rattle of my Endurolytes bouncing up and down in my Mentos container. The sound is similar to the sound you get when you walk around with Tic Tacs in your pocket. Interestingly enough, as the race continued, there were times when this sound still pushed me forward. Sure, I had already realized that the sound was not from a runner. But maybe I would forget or maybe have my doubts. For whatever reason, that bouncing sound became my mantra and kept me going.

I started running around noon and it had really started to get hot. After mile 8, I started to walk through the aid stations, taking one water for my head, and one that I drank. Many of the aid stations also had little girls handing out ice cold, soaking wet sponges. I used this to cool my face and neck and then squeezed them out on to my head to keep me cool. I also took another gel around this time and continued my trudge toward the finish.

Along the way, I saw lots of people walking, a few people barely moving, one guy puking on the side of the trail, and plenty of people grimacing in pain. I felt fairly good all things considered. It was not until about mile 10 that I started to feel some soreness in my legs. I had slowed way down by then and I knew that I would not beat 2 hours as I had hoped. But at the pace I was going, I calculated that I would not be too much past 2 hours.

During the last 2 miles, I took several very short walk breaks to catch my breath and prepare for the final kick. One thing about this race that was very nice was the aid station support. They had cold water and even cups full of ice. Usually when you are at the back of the pack, you get the leftovers and scraps and the water is usually not cold anymore. But at this race, I was getting full cups of ice even at the last aid station. I used the ice to help bring my core temperature down which allows more blood to be diverted from cooling to fueling muscles. Putting the ice down the front and back of my jersey really helped. I had to move the ice around sometimes so it would not burn my skin but the ice really helped cool me off and allowed me to enjoy the last mile much more than had I been overheating.

Finally, I could hear the music blasting at the finish line. I picked up the pace and had a strong finish. And of course who was there at the end. Melissa of course. I gave her another high five as I ran hard to the finish. I felt pretty good. And sure enough, she got a pretty good shot of me finishing.

My times were not the best but overall I had a great time and for my first year in triathlon, I did not do too shabby at all. Here are my times.

1.2 Mile Swim in Tidal James- 01:00:39

T1 - 00:06:36 (includes quarter mile run from swim to transition and I had to put on my hair and makeup)

58 Mile Bike - 03:48:59 (had to pee so bad for last 20 miles but not enough to go in my pants).

T2 - 00:04:29 (included peeing a gallon in the porta john and searching my gear for some nipple protection to put on)

13.1 mile run - 02:10:43

Total Time 07:11:24.

Now the question is, will I do another one. I am pretty sure I will. And of course I will let you all know how it goes each step of the way.

One final picture of me after finishing.

Thanks for reading.