2023 Patriot Half

Pre-Race:

Got up at 3:30am, left the house at 4am. On the drive down I ate a bagel with cream cheese, probably around 4:45am. After arriving I ate half a package of pop tarts. I got my chip and body-marked and headed to set my stuff up. We had gotten there on the early side so I ended up with a little time to just stand around. Around 6:10 I got my wetsuit on and headed down to the pond for a short warm-up swim. I completed a couple laps back and forth in the warm up area and got out a few minutes before 6:30. I went back to my stuff and ate 1 gu packet, took 2x caffeine pills, and drank some water. Then it was time to wait for the start.

Swim

I was in the second row of my AG and we were the first ones to go 3min after the pros/open. I was hoping to have the opportunity to draft a little but within 500yd I think I had passed everyone in the AG. I caught and passed some of the slower pros a couple of times. It was generally an uneventful swim. I wasn't completely gassed by the end, I think maybe I could have swum a little harder, but I didn't want to push too hard in the swim and get on the bike already somewhat beat.

 T1

I swam as far as I could before standing up. It's a very short run from the water to the wetsuit strippers so I just focused on getting the top of my wetsuit off. I got that off and saw Tim and another person were available so I went right to them. They pulled the suit off and I was off to my bike. I sat down to put on my socks and bike shoes (I only closed the velcro, I left the boa un-done until I was actually on the bike and moving to save some time) and then stood to put on my glasses and helmet. I grabbed my bike and headed for the exit. Overall I think it was a decent transition, no major screw ups. During this transition and practice my mantra has been "smooth is fast", I tried not to rush and fumble as that would take more overall time.

Bike

On the bike I had brought 3x 24oz bottles of nutrition with 300cal each of tailwind. I also consumed 2x gu packets for a total of 1100cal on the bike. At the start of the bike my aim was just to get my HR down first before I started to focus on power, running through transition always spikes my HR. After 5min or so I felt like I had my breathing under control and began to focus on my power target. During this time I was passed by a few of the faster bikers. I was hoping to try and hang onto the tail end of some of the faster bikers, but all of these guys passing me were going way too fast for that to work. By the time I got onto the first loop I was biking alone, I probably spent 40min of the race without seeing anyone. The second loop was a bit more crowded as I was passing the back of the pack. Throughout the ride I was trying to be diligent to keep to my power target with the exception of the smaller rollers. On those I'd push a little to just get over them quickly and keep the overall pace up. Around mile 40-45 is probably when I really started to feel a bit tired on the bike. I was glad to make the turn out of the loop and head towards the camp. That last stretch of road had several decent short punchy hills. I got through those, got to the dismount and ran into transition. The bike-in had us going all the way around transition to the back which is a decent run in bike shoes on grass.

 T2

I ran in and racked my bike. I had already undone the boa on my shoes before I got off the bike so I just had to undo the velcro. I got the bike shoes off and run shoes on. Pulled my helmet and glasses off and grabbed my hat which had my nutrition and race belt with bib in it. As I'm running out of T2 I was putting nutrition into my jersey, hat on my head, and strapping my race belt on. Overall a good T2 I think.

 Run

My focus for the start of the run was to settle into a very sustainable almost "mellow" pace. For the first mile I was checking my watch every couple of minutes to see what it was saying, I wanted it to say something in the 7:30-7:40 range. Eventually I was able to settle into that pace. The heavy rain started sometime during the second mile and then we were moving around the road to avoid deep puddles. At the aid stations I was grabbing water and a couple times gatorade, one time coke. About 20min I ate 1x gu packet, about 35min I had 3 shot bloks, about 55min I had the other 3 shot bloks. About 1:15 I had another gu packet. Total calories for the run was 400cal. Somewhere around 1:05-1:10 my stomach became mildly upset. I'm not sure why, but I think for the next race I might completely skip the gatorade and only take water on the run course. After 6mi I tried to pick up the pace a little, I was aiming for low 7:20s. I don't think I saw much of an actual increase in pace so the additional effort was probably just keeping it up overall. After mile 10 I again tried to push a little more, I think this mostly kept the overall pace up again because this is where the course gets a little hillier. I ran all the hills this year and after crossing the last one and heading down into the camp I was feeling good. After turning into camp I gave it all I had left and almost sprinted around to the finish.

 Post Race

This was probably the best I've felt post race in a while. I was tired, but nothing hurt. I didn't feel utterly exhausted. My stomach was ok by the end, and I didn't feel loopy or out of it.

 Effort wise I'm not sure I would change much. I think I could possibly go a little harder on the swim. Maybe I could go a little quicker on the run? I'm just wary because in the past I felt like my tendency is to go out fast and just get slower every mile. I don't think I've ever maintained the pace like I did.

Thanks for the training and guidance to get me here!