Philadelphia Triathlon in Fairmount Park - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

Started the swim pretty fast at the front of the line. Felt very strong. After the initial start, I slowed down and eased into a good pace. Found some feet to draft off of and just chilled for awhile. Going under the bridge was pretty cool. We used a large painted V on the side of the bridge to know which span to swim under. I started singing the Villanova fight song that my Dad likes to sing, "V is for Villanova, V is for Victory".

Looking at my watch as I turned the last buoy I knew this swim was pretty fast. Especially since my swim has been taking a major back-seat lately.

Swim train more.

Good transition. Put socks on for the bike because of the pesky blister/cut on my ankle.

Nothing

Really enjoyed the bike course. Right out of transition (after about a mile) is a nice long climb. Lungs were out of control.

I think I had an ok ride. A few problems.
1. I have not worn my HRM or Garmin for the last two races. So essentially I have no feedback to speed (I know not as good as power) or HR. I figured I would just "ride hard" and it wouldn't be a big deal. Well, I really felt that I loafed parts of this bike ride. I worked the hills and part of the flats hard, but there were many times that I would catch myself soft pedalling or just "chilling" instead of racing. If I had HR (or speed) in front of me, I think this would be different. When riding without "stats" Slake says I slow down and when he tells me our speed, I speed up right away. Guess he was right ;)
2. I was in the 8th of 11 waves and the course was just so so crowded. This race was a big TNT event, and many of them just didn't have the bike skills for such a technical event. Many times I would be crowded to the left by a newbie biker (or just a slower biker clearly blocking) and then have a FAST guy pass me at 5-10mph faster (on a downhill) with only a few inches of clearance. The course is either flat and fast or up and then a few CURVY downhills. The course is closed, but just too crowded. There where instances where some bikers would ride the yellow center line down a hill where I was probably going 30 mph, with other bikers going much faster. TNT is great, but some better training in bike racing would be helpful.

The first loop my legs were not there. But they came back the second loop and I probably negative split the loops.

It was an Eliteho-fest of bikes. This race was amazing. I have never been to a race where Elites clearly outnumber Cervelos, Felts... And when you pass or get passed by an Elite, everyone says hi to each other. I saw the guy (bf of a girl I know) who rides a hot pink Elite (with hot pink handlebar tape) and races in a Splish hot pink speedo bottom. Fun times :) Also saw the mechanic that built my new bike up from the Elite shop who was racing a relay on a sweet Elite Joule Carbon. David and Chrissa were great cheerleaders out on the course :) Crowd support was amazing.

I still need feedback for my performance, so wear my Garmin. Execute.

Fast transition. Came into transition with at least 20 people within 15 secs. That is insane.

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First 1/2 mile were awesome. I was running strong with a quick cadence and passing people way more than I was getting passed. Then the stomach cramp started. It was the side stitch from hell. I wonder if I had stopped, walked, and twisted around would have fixed it. Dunno, because I just kept going.

Legs felt strong the whole time and the stitch finally went away around mile 4.5. Not enough time to meet my goal, but I do think I sped up for the final portion of the run.

Again, even with the side-stitch, I apparently had no clue how fast I was going. I hit mile 1 around 8:45. I was pretty sure that I was at least 8:15 pace. Maybe wearing the garmin/hr would have helped my pace, and help me use a better effort level.

At the end of the run, I felt I could have run several more miles at that overall pace. That is not how you should feel at the end of an oly.

Execute.

Walked a bit and Slake ran up to me almost immediately. We chatted for awhile, then found David and Chrissa and joked with them. Slake explained the Elite he wants David to make for him, so now it is set in stone ;) A Maroon/Orange VT bike and David recommended putting a VT symbol in the paint job. I recommend a castrated Chicken ;) haha.

Got some food, chatted with Brad, and got our stuff. Next we sat in the sun and watched the award ceremony. Mostly because they were giving away a 4000 dollar bike at the end ;) Riding the bike back up the hill was the warmdown.


Execution. And possibly racing too much. I am mentally a bit out of it, and wasn't even that excited to race.


Awesome race. Organization up there with the best race I have ever done. Post-race food was money - great harvest bread with honey/PB, tomato pie (YUM), big hoagies, cookies, bananas and yogurt. Lots of volunteers.

At the award ceremony we learned that the race earned 75,000 for Childhood Cancer at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and that the TNTers in the race earned 800k+. That is some cool stuff.