Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon - Olympic Race - Duathlon

I've never run a duathlon, so I wasn't sure how to pace myself on the first run. Decided to go pretty hard and then I could recover on the first part of the bike. Lo and behold, I set a PR for a 5k. While I was very psyched about that, I was also very hot and pretty spent. When I got into transition, I guzzled a bottle of gatorade.

Take it easy for the first 5k of a duathlon.

I knew I was going to struggle the rest of the race based on my effort on the first run, so I drank a bottle of gatorade. I'm happy with the T1 time though and this is actually one of my best T1 times I've ever had. One problem though was that I forgot to take the Enduralyte pills that I brought. That would come back to haunt me later.

Take Enduralytes...

Once I got on the bike, I planned to go slow to let my legs recover from the run. There's a nice stretch of flat road at the beginning so I was able to do that. Pretty soon, I was feeling good and started to push my effort. When I hit the first big hill, I realized my legs weren't as recovered as I thought they were.

First you head up to an overpass which is a moderate incline, then go over the overpass, which is flat, and then hit a very steep hill. Some bikers were walking their bikes up that hill. I went into the highest gear and was out of the saddle. That was a struggle.

Once at the top of that hill, there is a bottle exchange followed by a good, long stretch of downhill. Coming down the hill and over the overpass, you can really fly. I was at 40mph at that spot, but there were a lot of bikers out there, so you had to keep your hands on the breaks most of the time.

Toward the end of the loop, there is a big downhill with a sharp right turn at the bottom. There were a couple crashes there. They really need to put some bales of hay there. I heard some of the crashes were pretty bad.

Second loop was uneventful. I pushed myself a little harder and hammered the hills a little more. My conditioning felt good, but it was just freeeeeaking HOT out there. By the end of the bike, it was easily 90. My calves were starting to cramp up whenever I was cranking up a hill, so I continued to drink loads of gatorade and water.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my bike ride. I averaged 17.6 mph, which is about 1 mph better than my average speed last year... and after a run rather than a swim. And throughout the bike ride, I just kept thinking that I was going to take what the day gave me. I knew I was probably going to blow up on the 10k run, but I would just push it until my body said, "NO MAS!"

Nothing really.

Not a bad T2 time for me. My calves were pretty cramped up, so that made getting my running shoes on a chore. I had forgotten to take my Enduralyte pills at T1 and that was the reason for my cramping. So I took them in T2... but I had them in a little baggie that was taped shut and I felt like it took me a minute just to get them out of there. I ended up getting 3 of them down and then got out on the run. Walked out of T2.

Not forget to take Enduralytes in T1. HTFU.

HOT! HOT! HOT! With the leg cramps, I was taking it pretty slow. I walked out of transition and a few hundred yards after that. I then jogged for about a mile. I kept making little deals with myself... "If you can make it to that bridge up there, then you can walk for a minute"

I was probably jogging for about 1/2 mile and then walking for a couple hundred yards. Continued this for the first 3-4 miles. Chatted with some people on the course. I wasn't upset because it was just so d@mn hot out, there was nothing I could do about it.

There were people on the sides of the road being tended to by paramedics with IV's. I came to the conclusion that I would "live to fight another day". At about mile 4.5, I met up with a fraternity brother of mine from college that I hadn't seen in 15+ years. We chatted for a bit and motivated eachother to keep running.

Finally at about mile 5, they started handing out ice. WHAT A CONCEPT!!! I put some in my hat, rubbed some on the back of my neck and chewed on some. I immediately felt better. Jogged the rest of the way, only slowing to a walk at the last aid station to get a drink and an ice cold towel on my neck.

Jogged across the finish line with a smile on my face knowing I gave it everything I had. Got my medal and headed to the food. I know I hydrated perfectly because I had to head over to the port-a-potty for a wee-wee right after the finish.

Not much. If I pushed it any harder, I probably would have done some damage to myself. I'm very sore today and it's a long season... as I said... "WE LIVE TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY!"

Chugged some chocolate recovery drink that was fantastic. Had a turkey hoagie and a couple bottles of water. My family wasn't able to make it to this race, so I sat down in the transition area and had a little picnic. I thought about the triathlete that lost his life the day before and that has really affected me.


HEAT AND HUMIDITY - I know the humidity was about 90%... when I got in my car to drive home, the external temperature was registering 93 degrees and I was parked in the shade. About 20 minutes after I crossed the finish line, they closed the course. There was some speculation that they closed it early due to the heat and humidity.


This is an outstanding race and I only hope the tragedy from the sprint race will not tarnish its image. There are so many volunteers it almost seems like they outnumber the number of athletes. Even though the race was switched from a Tri to a Du, everything ran like clockwork. There were plenty of aid stations. My only comment would be that all the aid stations should have had ice. I think I may have been able to finish stronger if I would have been able to cool my body temp. There's only so much you can do pouring warm water on your head. I will sign up for this race again next year... it is a world-class event on a great & challenging course.