Patriot's Half Ironman Preview

The Patriot's Half Ironman located in Williamsburg, VA is a race I've considered doing for a couple of years now, and I was glad that it fit so well into my training schedule for this year. I've been looking forward to this race because the course terrain is very similar to what I can expect in Florida at the ironman race. The swim portion of this race is in the James River right next to the historic Jamestown settlement. I've been told to expect this part of the river to be a mix of salt and fresh water, so I will still get the salty taste that I need to be used to for the ironman in Florida. I'm expecting the swim to be wetsuit legal so unless there are a lot of choppy waves my swim should go fairly well. The bike course is one loop on flat lightly travelled roads, and the run course is two loops on a mixture of paved and mulched trails. I really want to use this race as a gauge to determine how well prepared I am for the ironman. I've done one other half ironman distance before so I want to compare how I felt after that race with how I feel after I finish this one. One of my goals in this race is to better my previous time at this distance, but I also want to use it as a test of my stamina and nutrition plan. This will be one of the larger events I do this year since about 600 people are already pre-registered. The early weather forecast looks good so far with high temps in the low 80's and mostly sunny.