Philadelphia Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Highlight of my day :)

I swam at a relaxed pace almost the whole swim and felt good. I think my navigation was decent, though at times I was doing a bit of zig-zagging. Still, this was a big improvement over my first open water swim a month ago. The time was certainly helped by the fact that we were going downriver most of the swim, but the current was modest so I don't think it cut too much off my time.

Get better at drafting. There were some good swimmers that I was near at the beginning, but I couldn't hold my line to stay in their draft. I could help myself if I could do that better.

Transition went pretty well. I was able to get the wetsuit off without sitting this time. Just took a couple of step-and-lift moves. I put on socks for the bike which slows me a little, but I'm not planning on skipping those yet.

Nothing

The first hill was just a mile or so out of transition and I expected this to be the toughest. It was still harder than I expected. But once I was through that, things got better and I felt more confident on each of the next 3 hill sections. Mostly I was passing on the bike, though about half-way through the first loop some of the fast guys in the wave behind me started to catch up.

I know I was close to on pace for 1:10 or better bike split as I came down the hill back towards the transition area at the end of loop 1. I began to get ready to look for my family who would be waiting and cheering. Then...

BANG

Right at the bottom of the hill my rear tire blew out...loudly. I attracted lots of attention since this is where most of the spectators were gathered. I was, unfortunately, less calm than when I flatted in my first race. I was definately frustrated that it had happened again. This was even before I realized how bad it was. About 1 sq.in. of my tire had peeled away and I was not prepared to fix a tire. I tried to do the best I could with what I had and got the wheel back on, but knew there was a 50/50 chance at best that it would hold for lap 2. My wife came over and I told her that I can go as far as it will take me. I got a lot of loud cheering as I got back on my way (thanks, everybody) and quickly got back up to speed and started passing again.

I got up the first hill much easier this time, but at the bottom of the descent again...

BANG...race over.

I should have had a dollar bill or a tire boot in my bag. It might have helped. I used a tube patch on the inside of the tire to try to cover where the rubber had peeled away on the outside. But I wasn't sure it was large enough and I'm pretty sure now that it wasn't. Maybe the tire was bad, maybe it was damaged before and I missed it, maybe just bad luck---who knows.

Get to the run.

Walked 1-1/2mi or so back to transition area with my bike on my shoulder (sadly, it my shoulders that are most sore the day after). Found my family and cheered in my sister (who had a great race--5th in her AG at her 2nd tri) and a friend.


Obvious.


I thought the organization of this race was excellent, especially given its first time nature and somewhat challenging logistics (bus to swim start, etc.) The bike course appeared to be crowded, as expected, by lap 2 which would have made it more challenging.

I will almost certainly be back to try to finish this race next year!