Phily Tri - Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon - Olympic - TriathlonOlympic

This was my first OWS without a wetsuit. I was pretty stressed about this until I got into the water, then once we started swimming it was a non-issue. I'm a new swimmer so everything is a learning experience. I enjoyed swimming in the Schuylkill.

I went way wide after the bridge. We were supposed to swim between two yellow buoys and line up for the exit. Somehow I missed the other yellow buoy that we were supposed to stay within and went around the far one, so past the exit and had to loop back. I've been doing OWS practice every weekend so this was disappointing, but overall even though my time was terrible I actually felt good during the swim.

Very good transition. It was a long run with the bike! Happy about this because it was a problem earlier this year and it looks like I've got it sorted.

Nothing

Pretty happy with the bike. I was definitely hampered by being so long in the water and by that time the bike course was packed. I can climb and the hills were a logjam. I did hammer on the flats and my frustration led to expending a bit too energy much trying to make up time.

Chill out, I was at 120% FTP on the flats hammering away. OTOH I was enjoying biking at 26-27mph, and it's all about having fun. Also carbon brakes suck on downhills, so plan ahead. Hello, grass :)

Little bit of sock trouble but nothing major, everything went fine. Wow is that a long run out of transition.

Nothing.

Best feeling in the world was dumping the water on my head at the first station. I started slow and it took a long time to pick up speed. It took almost 3 miles to get into my normal pace. Felt excellent the last couple of miles, though.


I knew I'd worked hard on the bike, but this was a lesson I'll take forward into my HIM training. Pacing will be really important. Practice running off the bike more.

I biked home. Showered, ate pizza,and drank a couple of beers before taking a nap.


Swimming, specifically sighting and following a course. And pacing the bike a little better.

I also did not drink very much. I tried but with a technical course there were not many opportunities to drink. Something to think about for the future.


This is one very organized event. It's hard to put on a big-city triathlon and they do a very good job. Also I got to talk to Any Potts as he was getting ready to leave and he stood next to me and cheered on some of the last wave people coming into T2. Really nice guy and classy thing to do.