Patriot Half Ironman Race Report
Saturday, June 19, 2010
East Freetown, MA
Matthieu Talpe
Pre-Race:
The pre-race officially started Saturday, May 22nd after a week of finals. Having the Patriot Half Iron on my calendar gave me an excuse to resume a structured training regimen, so with four weeks left before the race, I scrambled together three solid training weeks + one week of taper--during which I eliminated my daily coffee and piece of cake at noon, what a shame because I didn't even have time to enjoy my rejuvenated caffeine tolerance during race morning.
At 3:50 AM on Saturday morning, I woke up, and after the usual "why the f am I doing this to myself", crawled out of bed and 90 minutes later, found myself registering at the race area in East Freetown, MA. I absolutely love pre-races. It was early in the morning, the sun was rising on what was going to be a cloud-free day, the dew was still on the grass, the music was perfect, and as usual, everyone was subtly eyeing each other in the transition area. Man, what a great time. Did I mention that I love pre-races?
Swim (1.2 miles ?)
Wow, 1.2 miles drawn out by buoys on the water seems disproportionately long. The conditions were nearly ideal: water temperature in the mid to low 70s, small waves of competitors, calm waters, and only two turns.
I'll spare you the details of the swim--long story short: I never got to latch on to a reliable set of feet to draft off of, but found a good rhythm pretty quickly and never felt the triceps burn I typically feel after awhile. Thank you Mrs Taper.
Bike (58 miles)
The course was fast. Again, nothing extraordinary to report and I don't want to bore you with uninteresting anecdotes. I held nearly constant pace throughout the two relatively flat 29 mile laps, passing perhaps 50 people while getting passed by 4 tree-trunked-legged men. I'll reetirate what I wrote in my Collegiate Nationals report: a strong bike is crucial to a good overall time and I'm very grateful that I spent hours and hours on the bike--it pays off! As they say, "cycling is a blue-collar sport; you gotta crank out the miles." Notable criticism of other athletes' strategy: unless you feel particularly uncomfortable grabbing bottles at the two aid stations (they offered Heed and water), you shouldn't need to carry more than two bottles--that's a lot of extra weight! Food-wise, while I usually don't eat much during training rides, I forced myself to 2 gels and 1 powerbar. Other notable comments: plain vanilla powerbar >> tropical fruit powerbar AND next time I need to remember to open the powerbar beforehand instead of fiddling with the plastic and going over a pothole that nearly swallowed my bike FOREVER.
Run (13.1 miles)
Again, I am very fortunate: everything went smoothly. It was a very hot run with long stretches of road in the sun, but overall, my pace remained consistent--while on the flats. Running around the Charles has not gotten me used to hills so I slowed down way too much on the course's several rollers.
I have to admit that I distinctly remember hitting the mile 3 marker and thinking that I was really looking forward to this run being done. Not the greatest positive attitude, I know. As cliché as it sounds, I just took the run mile by mile and tagged on to people as long as I could--although most of the run no one was within 100 yards of me. Other cliché thought: in the moments I just wanted to stop and walk, I thought back to other long training runs during which I had felt much worse but didn't stop, and knew that I was physically able to continue running--I had no excuse to stop.
Overall
The numbers are one thing, sensations are another. Overall I felt very happy with the race, and especially, as I've mentioned [too] many times, very lucky. So much can happen in a 4, 5, 6 hour race, so many things that are completely out of your control, unaffected by your preparation, and luckily, I experienced none of those--everything went according to the plan. I was never exceedingly sore, thirsty, or hungry and finished the race with a solid quarter mile 'sprint.'
I am happy to have chosen the Patriot for my first HIM as it was low-key (no major pro contingent), cheaper ($180 instead of $225 or $250 for other 70.3 HIM), extremely well-organized (numerous volunteers, I never had to stop at the many intersections, good food, etc), well located (60 min south of Boston), and a pleasant event. Furthermore, the bike leg being flat allowed for fast times and therefore, a nice confidence boost for future long course triathlon training. I would strongly recommend it for any first timers. And, admittedly, I had a great time with Kristin and all the other triathlon peeps.
-matthieu
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