Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon - Olympic Race - TriathlonOlympic

A stronger than normal current had everyone PR'ing their swim time. It was strong enough that you has to kick/scull while waiting for your wave to start.

This race is weird as most swimmers go pretty far left of the buoy line even though the first/only turn is to the right. I drafted for about 1/2 the distance off of 1 or 2 ppl. I did take a nice kick b/t the eyes when the one guy I was drafting off of would switch to breast stroke in order to site...needless to say he slowed down a lot when doing so and I get close enough to get clocked.

Nice to have the current to PR the swim and help reach and OA time goal, but from a competitive standpoint I feel I am relatively strong at swimming compared to the other events and less current would probably have been a bit more advantagous for me.

Nothing really. Draft more, but I need to figure out on this course why ppl avoid the bouy line. Certainly drafting would have been easier with the group.

I did everything well except locating my spot once I was actually there. I ran down the correct row when within 5ft of my stuff and briefly panicked as I didn't see my bike right in front of my face. Prob cost me 4-5s. Thanks to Marna for yelling at me at telling me I was in the right spot.

On the run out it was a cluster f as was the mount line. I was far right agsinat the snow fence and a guy was boxing me in a bit as I was passing. I had to put my hand on his base bar to prevent his bike from hitting me. It did get a cry from some nearby spectator. I then had to pick my bike up as some gal from an earlier wave was mounting right at the curb. I carried my bike over her back wheel before running another 15ft and then mounting.

Tied (w/ Brad) for 11th fastest T1 in AG.

Find my bike quicker.

Solid bike although it was 40s slower than last year. Note to self, you can take the downhills onto the drives without braking. I trimmed some speed on the first loop since I didn't remember the course. On the second loop I pushed the uphills and only trimmed speed on the downhills based on location of other riders and safety concerns.

Only really windy section was the stretch b/t th Art Museum and the Lansdowne climb. It's always windy there...the river funnels the wind and pow you get it on the chin.

Saw Brad after the first climb on the short OAB. Was happy not to see him there on the 2nd loop as I knew I needed to put some time into him on the bike. K saw and yelled for me later on loop2 as I was passing her on a hill. I wasn't paying attention to other riders...it was nice that she saw me.

NUTRITION:
250cal HEED in aero bottle
1 gel after art museum on second loop
TOTAL 360cal

EQUIPMENT
Compact crank 50/34
11-23 casssette and it was perfect
Hed Jet 60 on front, Mavic Open Pro w/ wheelcover on back

Push the downhills faster on loop 1.

Pretty smooth. Tied or 9th in AG here.

Nothing really.

Always interesting not knowing what pace you are running until you hit that first mile marker.

One guy in my AG passed me during mile 1. He was going a good 20-30s/mi faster...so a bit too fast and too early for me to jump on. I then ran and chatted with one guy in my AG b/t mile 1 and 3. We leap-frogged a bit on the bike and he was a nice guy. I couldn't keep the pace after mile 3 when he picked it up a bit. AFter that I ran solo the rest of the way. Got passed by one other AGer after mile 4.

At the first turn-around (somewhere bt miles 1 and 2) I knew Brad was just under 2min behind. By the second turn-around (~mile 4.5) the gap was down to ~1:20. At that point I knew if I could keep my pace I should be able to hold him off...or he'd have to have a great close and run very low 6s to catch. Lucky for me I had enough in the tank to keep to 7min/mi pace until I reached the last 2/10ths and was able to have a small kick to finish. The "hunted" was able avoid the "hunter" on this day.

Also got to see Laura twice on the run course and I saw Earl where the bike/run courses overlap.

NUTRITION
Water at every aid station. Took a gulp and dumped rest on self.

Nothing really. This year has been a lot of run focus and I was happy to shave 1:40 off of last year's run time.

Pretty bad here. Chatted with Brad. Then walked around a bit before cheering in those in later waves....JohnnyKay, Laura, Earl and Kristin.


Should have done a little recon on the bike course. Besides that I performed as expected and was happy with the PR and reaching my three goals;
- Beat last year's time
- Go sub 2:15
- Beat Laura's boss


Outside of the bike being a bit crowded (although it didn't seem as bad as 2008), this race is great. Huge competitive field, great venue, fun course.