Philadelphia Triathlon in Fairmount Park - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

This was my first wetsuit swim ever. I wasn't too thrilled with it and had trouble finding my groove. The water was comfortable and I had plenty of space but I found I wasn't bilateral breathing. In fact for a while I was breathing every stroke. Very unusual for me. I think I took it too easy on the swim. I was drafting at one point, but the person infront of me was zig-zagging. I felt good with sighting and my navigation was spot on!

Get more wetsuit experience and remember this is a race. I neded to push a little harder.

I had horible visions of knocking over every bike with my wetsuit stuck around my ankles. Thankfully, not the case. Again, I forgot this was a race and took a ferw seconds to wipe my feet and put on socks. I attribute the long T1 time to the distance I had to run in my cycling shoes. I had a loooong way to run with my bike to the T1 exit. As I was mounting the bike I heard Dave Greenfield yell for me and that made me very nervous. I'm a dork.

Not much, just pick up the pace a bit. I'm still willing to sacrifice the time for socks.

Ok, I need work on my hills. Honestly some people were passing me like I was going backwards! I hit granny gear once or twice, but still stayed in the aero position the whole time (minus the hill climbs). I actually yelled "WHEEEEEEE" when I hit 35mph coming down a hill. Again, I'm a dork.
I had hoped to have finished the bike in 1:30-1:40, so I was ahead of schedule. At one point I took an extra GU for some extra 'oomph'

Climb hills, climb hills, climb hills.

I was a bit distracted at this point and took a bit longer than I wanted to. With the new ride I was worried about getting my feet out of my shoes and leaving them clipped in. I was also freaked about dismounting a moving bike so I took it slow and did my normal thing. Of course again, I had a looooooong way to run in my bike shoes with the bike back to my spot. My feet were a little numb so walking (let alone running) felt really wierd.

I don't know.

My feet were numb and I was preoccupied so the run start was a struggle. Overall, my time is still faster that earlier in the season. I stuck with the 13 min run, 2 min walk and took 2 GUs along the way. I liked seeing all the runners the whole time, even though they were all passing me. My goal for the run was under 1:30, so I guess I can't really complain. At mile 6 I saw an inspiration sign on the side of the road that my son (age 4) made Friday night. How does a mom leave that??? So I ran over, picked up the sign, and ran the last .2 carring this huge sign with a stick glued on it. It's soon to be hung up in our spare room. I can't wait to see what my finish line photos look like carrying this thing. For me, it was worth it.

Get more miles in under my belt and push the training runs a little harder.

I'm never hungry so 2 bottles of water, a cup of Gatorade and basked in the sun for a few. My group of buddies all finished before me (go figure- I hate them all) so they met me at the finish line with big hugs. Remind me to kick that reporter in the shins if I ever see him again. You know the reporter, he took pictures of us and wrote down all our info and asked us questions, told us we'd be in the paper, then......not so much.


The extra 30 pounds making me a FCLYDESDALE.


Welcome to my world of self-doubt and poor self esteem. I set a goal of 3:30- beat it by 16 minutes. You think I'd be happy, right? No, of course not. I had to go and compare my results to Andy, Steve, Ed, and Christine and was bummed that I was slowest in every aspect of the race. I tell myself every day that I'm out to race against MYSELF, no one else. (Oh, and by the way- I'm not even close to the talent and speed of those 4). Yet as soon as I cross that finish line, I want to compare myself to everyone else. How can I be disappointed in myself if during the whole race I'm "just racing against myself"?????? So that being said, I beat my goal, had 5 people on the course cheering for me, and found our son's inspiration poster. If you figure out my problem, let me know. I don't know...... wish I did. What can I say, I'm a dork. BUT, a dork that just finished her first OLY. EAT THAT!