Philadelphia Women's Triathlon - TriathlonSprint


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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
United States
CGI Racing
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 36m 40s
Overall Rank = 111/723
Age Group = F25-29
Age Group Rank = 29/97
Pre-race routine:

Woke up at 4:15. Had a piece of toast. Got the bike ready and loaded up. Headed out. Ate a Luna Bar on the way to the race. Flew solo for this race, since Drew had a bachelor party to go to the night before and was out of town for that.

Got to the race site around 6am, when the transition area opened. Racked my bike, got set up…and had a ton of time to kill. Luckily, I was in the 2nd wave (which was soooo nice by the way). No nervousness, very relaxed. Ate a gel about 30 min before my wave start.

Event warmup:

None
Swim
  • 14m 32s
  • 640 meters
  • 02m 16s / 100 meters
Comments:

Race was wetsuit legal (barely – water temp was 77). Not to many people wore wetsuits, but I opted to wear mine.

About a week before the race, the swim course was shortened, so that was kind of nice. Only bad thing about that is that I can’t quite compare my time to last year’s, but that’s okay.

I think I swam pretty well. The weird thing is, in a race I breathe to the right almost 100% of the time. However, in the pool, I much prefer breathing to the left. I tried switching to the left during the race, but for some reason I kept catching mouthfuls of river water and quickly switched back to breathing to the right.

I actually got kicked or bumped in the face and my goggles got knocked out of position. This was the first time that’s ever happened to me, even though I hear about it happening all the time. Had to stop briefly to fix them, and then I got back to swimming. That was pretty much the only break I took.

What would you do differently?:

Besides improve my swim overall, nothing really.
Transition 1
  • 02m 3s
Comments:

Wetsuit came off pretty quickly. Put bike shoes on (no socks) without cleaning feet. So, this was an improvement over T1 in my last race in that regard.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing really. Move faster, I guess.
Bike
  • 53m 25s
  • 17 miles
  • 19.10 mile/hr
Comments:

I basically pushed as hard as I could on the bike. There was a spot along Kelly Drive that seemed to almost go uphill a little (even though it looked flat) and there was a pretty decent headwind over there. So, it was a little depressing to watch my speed drop 2-3mph in that section when I felt like I was working harder. After the first loop my average speed was 18.8, and my goal was 19.0 average.

I passed a lot of people on the bike, and wasn’t passed by too many. Saw several people riding side by side, cruising like they were just out for a pleasure ride. Even overheard one girl ask her friend if they were allowed to ride so close. The other girl sort of shrugged her shoulders and was like, “oh…I don’t know…I’m sure it’s no big deal”. Kind of a “who cares” type attitude. Nice.

What would you do differently?:

Not much. Basically just rode as fast as I could. More time on the bike, obviously will help bump up my speed for next year.
Transition 2
  • 01m 56s
Comments:

So, I flubbed this one up. For some reason, I had a hell of a time getting my shoes on. I couldn’t seem to balance long enough to slip my shoes on. It took me several tries. Plus, I think my foot had gone numb or something, because it felt like I had something stuck between my toes…but when I checked, there was nothing there. So, that took a little bit of time. Ugh.
What would you do differently?:

I don’t know. Have better balance?
Run
  • 24m 46s
  • 3.11 miles
  • 07m 58s  min/mile
Comments:

So, this was interesting. The run starts in the grass and you run a pretty short distance through the grass. It sucks, of course. My legs felt like crap. I felt slow. I got to the first mile marker and hit the lap button. My split was 7:55. Yeah, so I’ve never run a mile that fast before. My 5k open PR was an 8:29 pace and that was only 5 weeks ago. So, my first thought when I saw that split was that the markers must have been placed wrong. I expected the distance to the 2nd mile marker to be a little long, so when I hit the lap button at mile 2 and it was 8:10, I was shocked. Okay, so I was actually running that fast. I ran as fast as I could. I swear. I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest. I kept thinking to myself, I don’t want to look at the results later today and wish I had just pushed a little harder and gone just a little faster. I thought the finish line would never come, it was such a hard effort for me, that I’ve never been so happy to finish a race! I thought I was going to die when I crossed the finish line!
What would you do differently?:

Nothing. Ran as hard and as fast as I could.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked around and stretched a little. Ate a choco chip cookie. Yum.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Training. Experience.

Event comments:

My goal time was 1:35, but honestly that was a bit of a reach. I knew I could come in under 1:40 easily so I wanted to make my goal under 1:40, and 1:35 was the next round number. My overall time was 1:36:40, so I didn’t make 1:35, but I couldn’t be happier with my time. And the fact that I PRed my run by 1:32 is just awesome!



Profile Album


Last updated: 2008-03-09 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:14:32 | 640 meters | 02m 16s / 100meters
Age Group: 43/97
Overall: 227/723
Performance: Good
Suit: Yes - Full
Course: Rectangular
Start type: Deep Water Plus: Waves
Water temp: 77F / 25C Current: Low
200M Perf. Remainder:
Breathing: Drafting: Good
Waves: Navigation: Average
Rounding: Good
T1
Time: 02:03
Performance: Good
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Wetsuit stuck? Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed:
Biking
00:53:25 | 17 miles | 19.10 mile/hr
Age Group: 27/97
Overall: 131/723
Performance: Good
Wind: Headwind
Course: 2 loops along Kelly Drive/MLK Drive
Road: Smooth  Cadence:
Turns: Cornering:
Gear changes: Hills:
Race pace: Drinks:
T2
Time: 01:56
Overall: Below average
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike
Running with bike
Racking bike
Shoe and helmet removal
Running
00:24:46 | 03.11 miles | 07m 58s  min/mile
Age Group: 31/97
Overall: 115/723
Performance: Good
Course: Out and back on MLK Drive
Keeping cool Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5