Philadelphia Triathlon in Fairmount Park - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic


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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
United States
Philadelphia Triathlon, LLC
80F / 27C
Overcast
Total Time = 2h 32m 58s
Overall Rank = 356/1892
Age Group = M30-34
Age Group Rank = 54/180
Swim
  • 28m 35s
  • 1600 meters
  • 01m 47s / 100 meters
Comments:

This was my first wetsuit swim in a while…and the first in this new wetsuit. Again – not something you usually want to try out on race day. But, I figured it couldn’t be that bad. Once I started, I had a typical “panic attacks” set in: I came close to hyperventilating, as I started way too fast and then I had thoughts running through my head that I should have trained in the wetsuit more because it was to constrictive on my lungs, etc. Not the way you want to spend your first 300m on a 1600m swim! I tried to just think of the pool, and swim the same way I usually do during training. This worked like a charm. I quickly got my breathing under control and ended up with a better swim time than I planned. The only bad part was that I really started to feel the shoulder injury towards the end. I think a lot of it had to do with the wetsuit, as they are a bit constrictive in the shoulders. No matter, it wasn’t slowing me down – just noticeable.
Transition 1
  • 02m 53s
Comments:

As I mentioned in the pictures yesterday, the transition area is HUGE. With almost 2000 riders, it has to be. Anyway, it took a while to run from the swim-out to my bike and that ate up a lot of time. The worst part was pulling off the wetsuit (as usual) and getting the damn thing over my timing chip. Otherwise, a smooth transition
Bike
  • 1h 10m 35s
  • 24.85 miles
  • 21.12 mile/hr
Comments:

For those that usually train on hills, this course wouldn’t be that bad. On each loop there are 4 hills – short but pretty steep. As I’m someone who does not usually train on hills…these were pretty tough. I just threw it into a really low gear and took the Lance Armstrong approach of high cadence – I wanted to save my legs a little bit for the run. It is a two-loop course and goes around the Schuylkill River and passes in front of the Art Museum. Very nice course. There were of course some good downhills and a lot of flat-riding, so I was able to make up a lot of the time I lost on the hills. For my first 40k race-pace and including the hills (which also had some decent technical turns), I was pretty happy with my time. The legs felt great, even after the hills. I was afraid that I would be really smoked on the second lap, but I think I was actually a little faster. After looking at the Pros’ times, I feel pretty slow (27 mph vs. my 21 mph!), but maybe I’ll get close to that one of these days. I don’t think I could have done much better on the bike but I do need to work on my hill training!
What would you do differently?:

Train more hills!
Transition 2
  • 01m 42s
Comments:

Good transition. I even put on socks this time for the run and I still think I made pretty good time. Plus the long transition area gave the legs a little more time to adjust from the bike.
Run
  • 49m 12s
  • 6.21 miles
  • 07m 55s  min/mile
Comments:

Wow, definitely need to work longer brick workouts! Legs felt tired and tight for about the first 2 miles. Around mile 2-3, things started to loosen up and I felt a lot better. Towards the end, the hamstrings started to really tighten up and I was a little worried about cramping. Then, a little past mile 5, the knee (the one that kept me partially out of last season) started to hurt quite a bit and I had some real concerns about the last mile! Fortunately, neither of these slowed me down or became too painful. My Garmin/HRM time is all screwed up because after I finished, I forgot to turn the thing off, but when I saw my pace and time for the official results I was actually pretty happy. Normally I would expect my 10k race pace to be a little faster, but at the end of a triathlon, I was definitely satisfied with that pace. I was able to finish strong, and noticed the crowds. It’s nice to have a bunch of people cheering you on, even if it’s not specifically for you. Makes you want to run even harder! The best thing I can say about the run is that I definitely left it all on the course – I was smoked at the end of this race!
Post race
Event comments:

The Philadelphia Triathlon was a great race. Three years ago I did the sprint distance and really enjoyed it. I missed registration in ’06, and then came the wreck and rehab, so this was the first chance I had to do this race again. This time I raced the Olympic distance and had a pretty good race. I haven’t done this distance in over two years.




Last updated: 2008-06-16 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:28:35 | 1600 meters | 01m 47s / 100meters
Age Group: 0/180
Overall: 539/1892
Performance: Good
Suit: New Wetsuit
Course: Point to Point with current (little to no current)
Start type: Deep Water Plus: Waves
Water temp: 75F / 24C Current: Low
200M Perf. Bad Remainder: Good
Breathing: Average Drafting:
Waves: Navigation: Good
Rounding: Good
T1
Time: 02:53
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Average Helmet on/
Suit off:
No
Wetsuit stuck? Yes Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Good
Biking
01:10:35 | 24.85 miles | 21.12 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/180
Overall: 274/1892
Performance: Good
Wind: Little
Course: Two-loop around Kelly and WRD, with some hills included - Sweetbriar cutoff loop, Black Hill, Strawberry Mansion Hill, and Lemon Hill.
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence:
Turns: Good Cornering: Average
Gear changes: Good Hills: Average
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 01:42
Overall: Good
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
00:49:12 | 06.21 miles | 07m 55s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/180
Overall: 500/1892
Performance: Good
Course: Left transition area, went north on WRD, then south to the Art Museum, then back to the start/finish. Flat course.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5