Patriot Half Race Report - Can I get a Mulligan?
This was my second year doing this race with local Tri club. I like the venue and atmosphere (and the price). This was a “C” race for me as a lead up to Lake Placid. Followed wiki guidance, but really didn’t taper…made it a catered training day.
Standard HIM breakfast 3 hours out, Ensure, half bagel, sip Perform on way to race.
Swim went fairly well, but made a rookie mistake by making a left turn two buoys too soon. Followed about 5 other swimmers around the corner for 50 yards before I realized we were supposed to be going straight. Buoys were VERY far apart and hard to see in my opinion.
Swim 43:06
T1 1:36
Coming out of T1 feeling decent, not too worried about time lost on swim when I got a flat 50 feet onto the street. Stopped and debated whether I cared enough to fix when a woman and daughter started yelling at me to fix it!! Fixed the flat on my disc and started the bike. I was in Wave 11 so I expect to pass quite a few folks, but ended up passing about 170 or so. Used HR as I don’t have PM on disc. Followed EN guidance for HR and execution. One bottle Perform, one Gel and one SaltStick per hour. Felt fine.
Bike official 2:54. (actual race time 2:42) 20.5mph average
T2 1:27
Started out the run EP plus 30, but had a hard time slowing down. Found my legs after mile 2 and got into a rhythm. Rest of run was pretty uneventful…passed maybe 60 people. Dialed down nutrition and really only took in water and two gels w/caffeine. Maintained 9:08/9:12 per mile most of run. Negative split.
Run 2:00 9:11/mile
Overall time 5:40:24, actual race time around 5:28…Official time is 5 minutes faster than last year; 5:28 (If I take a Mulligan) is 17:00 minutes faster...so fairly happy w/C race.
Glad that woman started yelling at me. Overall it was a fun day! (Oh and i got to meet Coach Patrick for the first time)
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Comments
Your run looks like it was great and you'll have some good heat acclimatization under your belt.
Fast transitions too! Will you do anything differently for your transitions at IMLP?
I did the race too and I agree that the swim buoys seemed unevenly spaced and were a bit confusing esp at turn-around
p.s. I got a flat too - mulligan for sure! Good luck at LP!
Thanks everyone.
@Aimee, i agree with the turn around on the swim. I think many folks were disoriented. No plans to do anything different on transition at LP, but know it will take (me) much longer. Last year, my first full IM, T1 was close to 8 minutes (i think) and T2 like 5. Had a lot of trouble changing clothes in the tent. Need to see if i can reduce the number of moving parts this year.