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Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon - Olympic Race - TriathlonOlympic


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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
United States
Philadelphia Triathlon, LLC
92F / 33C
Sunny
Total Time = 2h 48m 26s
Overall Rank = 738/1820
Age Group = Clydes
Age Group Rank = 17/78
Pre-race routine:

Stayed at Guenther's place
Had the usual ClifBar and 2 bananas
Left there at 5am, got some coffee, we were at the race site around 5:45, not too early, everything was crowded

The distance between parking and transition was long plus it included the steep hill (last bike hill down before t), so other than usual I took everything with me, no problems here

On the way to transition, several people started saying that the swim was off, very quickly there was also news about why: there was a swimmer missing from the sprint race the day before and the body was not recovered.

Next trouble was just getting into transition, by now it was around 6:10, not crunch time yet but also not really comfortable anymore. They had created an unnecessary bottleneck at the entrance to transition, where you had to get body marked. that took easily 5 min

Next trouble was spot within t, this was a bike in/bike out transition and my spot was pretty much as far from the entry/exit as possible $^%&^%$

At least there was enough space for setup and with this being a duathlon, setup was fairly easy

Last rant at this point was about portapotties: way too few, and out of paper

Event warmup:

Met up with the other guys

Guenther, Vince and I were in the last wave so we saw the first waves already coming back and still had time

Some very easy jogging and streching, it was already very warm at this point!

No HR, should have just restarted the Garmin but did the race without
Also no cadence on the bike, WTF??
Swim
  • 25m 39s
  • 0 meters
  • / 100 meters
Comments:

Started out very conservative all the way in the back of the corral and maybe a 8:30 or slower pace
Felt pretty good overall, so I worked my way up

The heat was already on, we had 78F at the start and in the 1 hour between 8 and 9am the temps climbed to 87F!!
At least the humidity "dropped" from over 80% to about 60%...;-(

The heat was pretty scary as I had no idea how I would handle it on the last 10k run
What would you do differently?:

Everything was good here, would have rather liked to swim of course!
Transition 1
  • 02m 21s
Comments:

Of course much easier transition from run to bike

On my way out, a runner had to squeeze by me and I accidentally threw someone's bike off the rack. I considered putting it back up, but then kept going, after all you should rack such that it cant fall easily... bad for everybody involved

Had to run at least 200 yards over uneven grass, splashed probably 25% of my aero bottle drink at that point
Bike
  • 1h 13m 45s
  • 24.85 miles
  • 20.22 mile/hr
Comments:

This course was way too crowded, having approx 2000 people on a 12 mile loop does not make sense. I was probably technically drafting at least two dozen times and I have no idea how I could have avoided that

I have not seen any intentional drafting, but I have seen A LOT of slower cyclist way more left than they should have been
You had to pass right or go through bikers, it was absolutely crazy.
In some occasions, there were up to 4 people riding next to each other

Luckily, as I was in the last wave, it started to thin out a little on my second lap but not a lot.

All of that though was not a question of performance, more about nuisance and danger of crashing

Performance-wise the hills were just too much for me, fairly steep (at least compared to Michigan) and long (typically maybe 0.3 to 0.5 miles?). Especially on the second loop I took it extra easy, going up mostly in the smallest gear. Both because of the heat at that time but even more so because I did not want to risk blowing up on the run.

I had already taken two bottles on the bike, but I got another bottle at the last aid station (probably around mile 17 or so?), half of which I got into my aero bottle. It was clear that I needed to get all the hydration I could get!

What would you do differently?:

Overall, the 20mph average is actually pretty good given my lousy performance uphill

I must say that I enjoy steady effort on level course much more
Transition 2
  • 02m 32s
Comments:

Took my time here, should have been faster but at this point it was just about finishing

Just like in last race, I got Clif ShotBlocks for the run, that stuff is great, no mess, easy portions... except for opening, tried to rip/bite it open for probably half a mile...
Run
  • 1h 04m 7s
  • 6.21 miles
  • 10m 19s  min/mile
Comments:

I was doing okay on the first segment, until I came back to transition.
At that point, it looked like nearly everybody was taking walking breaks, the only question was how long the running segments were;-(

When I got to the aid station at t, I also started walking. Mostly, the usual "system checks" were okay, my quads were starting to feel sore a little. It was just this oppressive feeling of the heat that made me walk.

I managed to do one 0.8run/0.2walk segment, and then setlled for 0.4/0.1 "intervals". That worked fairly well and kept me going. Given the conditions probably the most I could hope for. Since starting to walk, I was not even thinking about pace or time anymore, no regrets there.

At every aid station, I would poor at least one cup over the head, one into the jersey and have one water or gatorade. They had ise water just at the last station...

In my opinion, they should have had at least two sprinklers, with the out-and-back thata would have given four cooling opportunities. They also should have had more ice water, maybe buckets of ice water to serve yourself. Also ice water at the finish line

**************

Interesting that relative to total field I had more or less same position for both runs, probably took myself back in the first run that I managed better than others in the second..;-((
What would you do differently?:

All in all given the conditions I probably did as good as possible
Post race
Warm down:

The ice water towel was great!! Would have loved to get some more ice water here plus more regular water

Joined the others waiting for Kevin, Vince and Guenther to finish. Then went to our tent

Food was actually good, once you found the place where they had it, great hoagies and tomatoe pizza

FOund out from some docs that they sent at least 5 people to the hospital with heat strokes

What limited your ability to perform faster:

That would be clearly the heat

Plus of course missing the competitive boost that I would normally get from swimming

Event comments:

Must say that I cannot recommend this race:
Heat and cancelled swim are of course fate and noone's fault.
However the race organization failed in several regards, especially given the hefty fee: transition organization, crowded bike course, should have had more cooling support on the second run




Last updated: 2010-01-05 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:25:39 | 00 meters | / 100meters
Age Group: 20/78
Overall: 1019/1820
Performance: Good
Avg mile paces 8:10 8:06 8:04
Suit:
Course: Swim was canceled due to missing swimmer from day before, this was a 5k run
Start type: Plus:
Water temp: 0F / 0C Current:
200M Perf. Remainder:
Breathing: Drafting:
Waves: Navigation:
Rounding:
T1
Time: 02:21
Performance: Below average
Cap removal: Helmet on/
Suit off:
Wetsuit stuck? Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: Yes
Getting up to speed: Average
Biking
01:13:45 | 24.85 miles | 20.22 mile/hr
Age Group: 14/78
Overall: 452/1820
Performance: Below average
Had no HR or cadence data Avg 5 mile speeds: 21.0 21.1 18.5 21.1 18.7
Wind: None
Course: two loops including 4 hills each with some fairly technical descents not a lot to see, only interesting portion is around the Art Museum
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence:
Turns: Cornering: Average
Gear changes: Good Hills: Below average
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 02:32
Overall: Below average
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike Below average
Running with bike Average
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Below average
Running
01:04:07 | 06.21 miles | 10m 19s  min/mile
Age Group: 33/78
Overall: 1083/1820
Performance: Below average
No HR data... Avg mile paces 9:03 9:12 9:55 11:06 10:42 11:21 9:52
Course: First a 2.7 mile out and back to the north, then the rest on another out and back to the south, taking you close to the Art Museum again Majority of the run is on blacktop, easily a third is without any shade, and that made a huge difference today
Keeping cool Average Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 1
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Below average
Race evaluation [1-5] 2

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2010-06-29 10:49 AM

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