Philadelphia Triathlon in Fairmount Park - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

Another good swim this year. A little congested at the start. Bumped into the same guy about 3 times. I think we both were drifting. After 400m, it opened up and was pretty free the rest of way. Faster swim this year meant I caught the pack of the wave in front of me before the last bouy. This was a big difference as it did not bunch up there. Only issue I have is that the timing of the race is still off. My official split shows 24:41. I looked at my watch both when I came out of the water and when I hit the mats. It showed 24:03 and 24:13. My overall time on my watch throughout the day was 3 secs faster (not sure why) and I can live with that. This means they have my swim as 30 secs slower. I believe this time was possibly added to the run. Not sure though. My overall time is about right (after they changed it a bunch of times yesterday) so thats all that matters.

Much better than last year. Suit was a little stuck but not bad.

This is where the wheels could have literally come off for me in this race. First loop was fun and was doing very well. Not sure of my time as I was not clock watching. Then the fun began. As others have mentioned, with the expansion of racers (a good thing), this course is becoming very crowded at certain points. Black Road is one of those. Coming down Black at the end of the first loop, everyone started braking fast near the tunnel at the bottom. The road was completely clogged across and I had nowhere to go. I swerved and hit my brakes. Felt rear wheel fishtailing so I eased up. The pack was now braking harder and I was about to run into them. I had a decision to make. Either push into them or take it in the a$$. I chose the latter. I braked hard and my rear wheel fishtailed again. This time it came out from under me and as Howard Cosell would say "down goes Frazier". We were still on the downhill so I was moving pretty good here. I slid on my right cheek and back of thigh and got a nice case of road rash. No broken bones thank God. Would hate to get knocked out this close to IMLP. Picked up my bike and noticed the chain dropped. Put it back on and started to pedal with my hand to get it all the way around. I was off to the side doing this when another guy came down and ran out of room to the left. He came into the shoulder and clipped my front tire and pulled the bike right out my hands. He went down as well. Neither of us hurt which is surprising. Anyway, picked bike up again and repeated procedure. Got back on and spent next quarter mile readjusting brakes as they were rubbing after the crash. Kind of took it easier the second loop as I was a little shook up. My butt and thigh were tightening a little as I continued on which is not surprising. Not sure of how much time I lost in total. Probably 3 mins. Probably cost me 1MPH for the whole course. Oh well, my first race crash. Hopefully my last. No serious injuries and that is all that matters. I agree with others that if they expand the race further it will become too dangerous in certain sections.

Not crash!

Average performance. Shoes and socks on fairly quickly and out the back running. Drank a little here which was good.

Felt pretty good on the run starting out. Kept HR in control and focused on turnover. Started passing people and mentally felt good. Granted I was in a later wave but was happy that I passed a lot of people on the run and only got passed by about 5 people. One of which I passed back. With the crash and getting more tired as the race wnent on my math skills were deteriorating. That said, I think I ran the second half faster than the first. At the very least it was even which I am pretty happy about. As noted up in the swim, I think they cut 30 secs here. I was probably about 30 secs slower which would have put me around 7:24 pace. That seems more plausible. Again I was tired so I didn't get exact splits when I looked at the watch. The only split I vividly remember was the swim because I was a full minute ahead of last years time. No big deal. The overall time is about what my watch had so that is all that counts.

Not much. A good run considering the day. Was glad I pushed through the crash and kept going.

Went to medical tent and pulled my shorts off the road rash that it was now stuck to. That felt nice...yeah right. Then had the tech squirt me down with saline solution to clean it out. I about hit the roof of the tent!


Crash!


The number of participants is definately at its limit now. Bike course was tight. The timing seemed to be off yesterday and they posted several different times. I think they may have had an issue with the starter on the swim course. They may have not been on the same page with the timing mats. As I said, in the end they did get the overall time pretty much right so thats what counts.
The volunteers were outstanding and the race is in general very well run and a lot of fun. A really good race. Was glad I pushed through the crash and finished.