Philadelphia Triathlon in Fairmount Park - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

First off...they had us in the water for a solid 10 minutes before we went off. Then holding the line before the start was tough. The current was pushing down river. There was a considerable amount of pushing and shoving going on. I lined up about 5 feet from the buoys.

The only thing that pissed me off a little was that they told us about 1:30 to go and I though they would do a little count down or say 30 seconds...10 seconds... they never did this. All of a sudden we hear the horn go off and you just see people near the dock swimming. We didn't hear it hardly all the way out where we were. So we all just took off and got into a groove.

Three of us broke off from the entire group in the first 50 meters. One guy was going for the gold and just flat out was hauling a$$. I drafted off another guy for a bit and then decided it was time to get away from him as he was swimming way off the course I wanted to take. I got back on line and put about 2 body lengths on this guy. Overall this was not a very good swim for me. I was breathing every 2 strokes for most of the swim and I find that I do terrible when I swim like this. I just never got into a breathing rhythm for the entire swim.

As we got to the final turn I saw a very large pack of the wave in front of us struggling to make the turn. I hugged the buoy and avoided the entire group. The other guy that was with me had to go wide and must have lost about 25 yards. I dropped him on the way in and really started to pick the pace up and bring my kick back into it.

Took my time getting out of the water. I didn't want any wetsuit mishaps like Eagleman.


Maybe swim a little harder. I kind of swam with one guy in sight and decided that it was not worth it to chase the guy out in front. Possibly a big mistake as he won my Age Group and I had faster Bike and Run splits than this guy. If I was in contact at T1 I would have pushed the pace a lot harder and made sure to make it a race and less of a "chase the leader" thing.

Wetsuit got stuck on my left foot. Timing chip was on that foot too and I almost ripped the timing chip right off. Oh well. Overall not too bad. The other thing that sucked was that the run was a little long out of transition with the bike. Lots of roots and my shoes were bouncing all over the place. Possibly pick the bike up and run with it to avoid this...

Nothing

Holy He!!. Say this with me....always scout the course out before you ride it... This would have been a huge help for me. I sure would have changed up my gearing at least in the back..... Anyway...not much I can do now. Live and learn.

Two loops.

Loop One: Not too bad. Got moving right away and got my speed up quickly. Right away hitting like 26-28 MPH on the flats and felt good about that. Then the first hill came. I was almost down in my 21 cog in the back. I stayed seated which was a plus and just powered up the hill. Feeling good I come rocketing back down the other side and I am now in my 55/11 gear and just flying. I glanced down and I saw something to the tune of 40+ MPH so I was happy. The gears were great for descending as I didn't run out of gearing and was powering down the entire descent sections of the course. Hit a huge bump and the yellow aero drink thing came flying out. Every bump for the next 10 miles came with a nice wave of water to my face. I just decided to drink up the rest of the water and not waste it. Saw a local guy, Scoogie Snyder, when I was coming up Lemon Hill. He was just watching the race and scouting the racers out. He let me know the lead guy was only 1:15 up the road and gave a little cheer. Pretty cool guy...nice scouting too.

Lap Two:
Legs were holding up ok. Gearing was getting a bit easier. Hills were still a struggle for the most part though.

Came ripping down black road, got my feet out of my shoes really quick and made it to T2 unscathed and in one piece. Definitely learned my lesson about gearing. Figured I could have probably been about 2-5 mins faster on the bike with the right front and back gears.


Better gear selection and most importantly, scout the course. Knowledge is everything. Don't just suspect that the course is going to be flat because it's in the city.

Nothing much here. Helmet off, shoes and socks on...and I was running. Race belt was twisted. Once I got that fixed during mile one of the race I was fine.

Nothing

Got moving right away and felt pretty solid. Noticed there was a guy in my Age Group about 25 yards ahead of me and then a Woman Pro about 25 yards ahead of him. Other than that I didn't see too many people until almost the first turn around. A few pros and the Age Group Race leader.

Once I got my race belt untwisted I settled in. The run was a big question mark for me. My run at Eagleman left me a little unsettled with my training. This run proved to be great. Right away I noticed 5:55 for the first mile, then everything after that was right about 6:05-6:10 or so. One mile came in at 6:15 but I backed off a bit as it was a little up hill at that point.

About 1.2 miles in I caught the guy in my Age Group. Then I set my sights on the Woman Pro up the road. I figured that pulling up and catching her would separate me from the guy in my age group and hopefully put enough of a gap between me and him that he would not try and hang on or bridge up later on. I was looking at his strides when I passed him and he didn't look like his legs were doing too well.

So I caught the PRO coming off the grassy section and onto the back end of the course. From there on I didn't see anyone but PRO's for about another mile. Then I started to see some of those guys coming back in.

Made it to the turn around and knew it was all down hill from there. I took off running and started to push the pace again. I could now see the Age Group race leader and was hoping I would catch him. He was less than 100 yards up the road. But for some reason I never saw the Mile 5 marker and then the next one I saw was Mile 6. I knew then that there wasn't enough road to catch him. So I just finished a strong as I could. Legs really held up for the entire run and I was certain that I could have run more if I needed to. Not really sure what happened at Eagleman. Maybe just a mental block about the half marry or something. Who knows. I will say that running in my more cushioned trainers is the way to go for me. The added weight is a minus but the comfort they provide as well as the ability to keep my form under control for the whole run is something that I am willing to live with.


Nothing. Solid Run. Maybe have more time between my HIM and this race. My legs really haven't recovered 100% back to "race ready" yet.

Went right to the message tent to get my legs worked on. Wanted to get some more blood flowing and some of the lactic acid out. Hung around with some of my NON-TRI friends that came out to support me. Very nice of them to show up and spend the day.


Not being fully recovered from Eagleman.
Bad Gear Selection.
Not a good mental attitude the week before the race.
Allergies or nasal whatever....


Very good race. Some room for improvement. Nothing major. Very well put on for the most part. Will consider it for next year.