Pittsburgh Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Got in the water and was very comfortable right away with the warm water. There had been a nice sunrise, but now it was cloudy. Shortly after the swim started I noticed it getting darker and I was beating myself up because I left my lighter sunglasses in the car and only had the dark ones in transition. There hadn't been a cloud in the sky all week, so I didn't plan on that. :/

I was also thinking about how long it was taking to swim past PNC Park, I wish I could have only chalked that up to going upstream, but I knew my swimming has been dreadful so no excuse there.

Rounded the buoy and started heading down river, looked up after a bit and noticed the next wave coming right at me! I had drifted too far right, so I fixed that QUICKLY! Noticed the sky getting darker still, and started to get passed by some of the faster women. So then I was thinking how tough it's always gotta be for the fast women to always have to go by all of us tanks in the water.

Then I started thinking that the problem with long swims is it gives me too much time to think!

As I was enjoying the view of the buildings (stuck to my plan there!), I felt a weird sensation - my arms were getting wet! Isn't that a funny thing to think while you're swimming?? LOL! Sure enough it was raining, and saw big splashes of drops, but didn't think much more about that.

Finally time to make the cut to shore, and I forced myself to swim upstream some for that which worked out perfect as I made a straight line for the exit. Others were going way down and trying to circle back.

Really need to work on my speed and endurance. There's no reason I should be this far back after the swim and relying on the bike to catch up and pass so many people.....

As I got out of the water, I saw how hard the rain had been. Very wet, and big puddles.... Ran by my family and had to yell to them for them to see me! The grass in transition was soaked as well.....

Just keep working on speed, and get better technique getting on the bike.

The roads were very wet...

Got on the bike and clipped in faster than ever, so I was pleased with that. Decided to get the gel right away, so went 100 yds, turned the corner and looked down to rip it off. Looked up -

"F*CK!!"

A guy was stopped right in the middle of the road with his bike at an angle. I tried for the brake but nothing there and tried turning. The last thing I saw was my right foot and bike going sideways straight to his rear tire.

I felt that, my whole left side hitting the ground, and my helmet banging off the cement. My left foot unclipped, but the right was still in, and after tugging a couple times, remembered to turn it instead and got out.

Just as I noticed my aerobottle was completely EMPTY, I really started feeling my inside right ankle and my elbow. Both were bleeding pretty bad. My sock was torn, but I didn't think much about that at the time other than the cuts. People were asking if I was okay, and I kept saying yeah.

The other guy didn't even fall. And he was saying either he stopped because he couldn't get clipped in, or he was in the middle of the road because he couldn't get unclipped. Either way I was in a daze and didn't understand what he was talking about.

I swore a few times during this, ripped the aerobottle off, threw it, and accidentally hit a Toyota Corolla parked in the lot. An older couple was standing there, so I was embarrassed a little by that, but not enough to apologize. :/

Just as I wanted to go, I saw the chain was off. I got in on with no problem, but that might have been a good thing to happen because it forced me to take a breath and think it through rather than just go while I was still all flustered.

So I started going and I looked down and the rear tire looked low, so I decided to stop again, and now there was no rear brake at all. Eek! Got it stopped, and checked out the tire. It felt soft, but maybe stupidly, I thought I would just go and see if it would last.

Sure enough, it did last thankfully, and that was more than I could say for the dozen or more flats I saw throughout the course.

After reading the Garmin data, I was going 19 mph when I hit, and comparing the time on that stretch to the 2nd time around, the total delay between the crash and stopping again was 2:07.

Now the problem was the nutrition. I realized I should have picked up the gel that I dropped in the crash. It was still completely full. So 39 secs into the bike I was down to 1 gel and a water bottle. I remembered I had an extra gel back in the transition, and I knew that at the top of the hill there would be water and Gatorade (that's where I volunteered last year!). So my plan was to have the gel at the start of the 2nd loop, and make sure I drink all the water by the 2nd time I passed the station (3/4 of the way through the bike), throw away my old trusty bottle, and get a Gatorade for the calories.

Started passing a lot of folks going up the hill with no problem. Plus it hadn't rained here at all. Grrr... Coming back down was a blast at 35 mph and kept passing others. However the gears weren't good. No 9th, and some other gear a little lower wasn't engaging. All the 3-4 low gears were rattling. Did have 10th for the downhill, and did have both front rings, so that was good.

But I was really feeling my ankle bad. I thought that as I went around if I saw my family I'd yell for Motrin for when I came back again. I didn't think that would really work, but it would be worth a shot. Sure enough, I didn't even see them, but I did feel good whizzing by the spectators at 25 mph! :)

Had the gel to plan at the halfway point, headed up and traded the bottles as planned as well. Started going down again (now over 1 hour into the bike). But about halfway down, started thinking there was a strong headwind. At the bottom I felt like I was pedaling through peanut butter. Uh oh, I knew I was bonking. Eased up, and kept drinking. Got back into aero and a woman rode up beside me and we were talking for about 1/2 mile. That was pretty fun.

Coming into transition I completely forgot my rear brake wasn't working good. I see this little red line coming too quickly, so I had to use my Flintstone Foot Brake Technique to stop! I heard a guy yell "Nice Save!" and chuckled at that.

Turns out about 5 guys crashed bad here, including the leader who went head over heels. He didn't go out for the run. There was no dismount sign, and you didn't see the line until you were on top of it. A woman was yelling, but it was deceptive where to stop (that wasn't my issue though).

Just glad to be done with the bike without anymore problems.

Not crash.

On the bike, I planned on taking my time here and have the gel. I thought it was on the towel, but I couldn't find it. Turns out I had put it back in the bag, so that took some extra time.

I had that and some water that I also left there and gathered my thoughts.

Wouldn't normally stop for a lunch break, but that's the way it goes.

My only goal now was to run nice and steady and take it easy. I had no chance for good run time. So I went out and just tried to enjoy it now.

At one point when the surface switched to limestone, I thought, this is what I normally run on, so I'm just here training, doing a nice LSD. Alternated between water and gatorade at the 4-5 aid stations, and only walked for a few seconds at a couple of them, including the turn around.

A lot of folks passed me at the start of the run and throughout it, I probably only passed a few.

I felt my sock bunching up and a blister coming on on my right instep. I didn't understand that at all because I've never had that before. Upon further investigation after the race, I realized that the hole in sock from the crash meant that there was no elastic holding up the inside portion of the sock, so it slipped into the shoe and bunched up. Another bummer.

At around the 4 mile mark, I saw my pace drop to 10:00, and I said to myself I don't have to go that slow! So I picked it back up again, and finally for the last .2, was down to 8:00/mi, but that was all I had at that point.

Not crash.

Right at the end of the chute a guy was standing there with a hose, so I took a nice cold shower - that alone was worth the price of admission!

Had the medics clean up the cuts, and walked around a bit and had a sandwich and drinks.

I saw my aerobottle at the start of the 2nd loop, so I told my older daughter where it was, so she was proud to go retrieve it for me. That made me smile!


Losing the Accelerade slowed me down for both the bike and run. I might have had a shot at 2:45, but just had to take it easy and make sure I finished.


Lots of volunteers - last year at the bike turn around there was me and one other woman. Couldn't believe it this year when there were 6 there!

HOV lane is what it is. I think the flats were from people riding too far right, the middle seemed fine. Definitely needed a dismount sign though.

Great views of the city and stadiums, and lots of fun.