Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon - Sprint Race - TriathlonSprint

I suit up in my wetsuit and get together with my group 10 minutes prior to the start. We're grouped

together for

the entry to the water. Water temp is 73 degrees, warm, and murky. A photographer in the water was

telling us it's slimmy on the bottom, it's best to just jump right in. So I did. Floated out to the

starting buoys, and positioned myself near the back of the group to hopefully avoid getting kicked

in the face.



The swim route was a rectangle. Swim up current, go under the bridge, make a right turn, go a

distance across current, then another right turn back under the bridge, then swim with the current,

another right turn, and swim across the current to the beach.



30 seconds warning... and the starting horn goes off! Everyone starts out basically very

considerately, and watched not to slam each other and looking for space. My heart starts to race and

I loose all focus on what I learned during the extensive 5 or 6 times I trained in the pool! ;o)



A current to swim into, murky water and people everywhere! I struggled to time my stroke with my

breathing as I was breathing way too fast at that point. Couldn't keep my head in the water for too

long, and had to keep popping up to cough out the river once in a while. Yes, I drank the Schuykill

river... more than a few times. I set my sights conseratively, just get to the first buoy after the

bridge, now to the next turnaround.

At the half-way point, some of the leaders of the group that started 7 minutes after me started

passing me. That was realllyyy encouraging.. I Had to flip over from time to time to do the back

stroke as some relief and to calm my breathing, and also swam with my head out for most of the

second half. I sighted the last buoy to make the final turn and swim across the current to the

beach. The finish line there was a welcome site, and I targeted that and picked up my pace a little.

There were volunteers standing in the water to help me climb out as there were some large rocks in

the water.

Practice more... in open water.

I get out of the water, and my balance/equilibrium is all screwy. I felt like I was drunk, jogging

and stumbling from side to side as I worked my way back to where my bike was racked. Everything I

planned for before went out the window with regards to zipping out of my wetsuit whie running, and

being more ready to get into biking gear was lost in the river. It ended up taking longer than I

expected, but I made sure I was ready to jump on the bike. So I had to run with bike across the

grass and out of transition area to mount the bike on the road.


practice transitions. Experience no doubt helps a lot.

Once I got on the bike, I stood up on the pedals and was gone - passed like 3 people who were

practically standing still. I spooled up to around 21mph right away and thought that would be my

pace on the flat roads. This was on roads I was used to

so it was like my home turf. It was a two-lap loop, with some very minor uphills where I had to

climb to ride the bridge over the river, and do a loop around the other side of the park, then back

over the bridge, down the ramp, and onto west river drive again. There were two hairpin turns at

either end for the turn-arounds. I got to see my wife and girls cheering for me at the first

turn-around by the transition area. That was great!



Interestingly, there were so many people just coasting down some of the hills, and I was like - this

is the easy part! Pedal! I stomped on it and got up to around 34 mph down some of the hills. Yeah, I

probably should've used that opportunity to save some leg strength... nah....



Being that the bike part was my strong point, I believe I overdid it, and didn't preserve myself for

the run... not much more to report on the biking. I passed a bunch of people, and also had a bunch

of people pass me too. I did well to hydrate myself and went through both bottles. At this point in

the event, I had no concept of where I was placed, and knew I was just racing against the clock.

Work on preserving my leg strength more for the run.

Approaching the transition, I unclipped from one of my pedals and stood on just one pedal and braked

at the curb, unclipped that shoe and started the run to go rack my bike, pully my helmet and gloves

off and change shoes. Everything went smoothly, except when I felt how fatigued my legs were at that

point.

not too much. Maybe just practice to be more efficient.

Running out of the transition area, I was starting to feel the loss of energy in my leg muscles. I

grabbed a cup of water from a volunteer, and poured it on my head. I started the run out slow and

steady. Actually, I don't believe my pace changed much for most of the run. I struggled to find a

stride. After 1 mile, there was a water station. I made the mistake of grabbing a gatorade cup

instead of water - lemon lime flavor and mixed way too strong. Consequenly, I had a couple of vurps

of that junk while running the next mile. My pace and lack of energy was demotivating, but I

promised myself at the beginning of the event that no matter what I was doing, I would NEVER stop. I

briefly recalled the 4 or 5 times that I actually ran during practice time, and how I only did the

full 5k distance once on Tuesday that week.

So I ran, didn't walk once. Saw lotsa other people walking. I went on.



At the half-way, there was a 180 degree turn-around, as the course was a run-out-and-back again to

the finish. Approaching the turn-around, a 17 year old kid said, come on man, keep up with me. I

laughed and said thanx. He kept going. I knew he was 17 because they write your age on the back of

your calf. I thought to myself, I'm twice your age and technically old enough to be your dad... good

stuff. People are great, honestly.



The last half of the run was more inspiring as I really started thinking of the finish line and how

I was going

to do this! I set reasonable goals along the way - just to that bridge, just to that spot of shade

from that tree, there's the crowd on the street, the finish line isn't too far away... As I got into

sight of the crowd, adrenaline took over, a few hundred meters from the finish, I kicked it up and

sprinted as fast as I could go toward the line. As there weren't too many people near me at that

point, I actually heard my wife yell out GO DAVE! I felt awesome as I crossed the line. It was so great

to see her and the girls and their big smiles as I finished...


do everything faster!

breif walk to cool down the leg muscles, cold bottle of water and lotsa good laughs.

The sense of accomplishment was great, and I finished already thinking of the next one and how I

could improve things. So, that's what I say to 3 weeks training and determination! Now to figure out

which one I'm going to do next!


time to prep, only 3 weeks to prepare and practice.


Outstanding event, and very well run, organized. I highly recommend this event to anyone - local or not!