Phily Tri - Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon - Olympic : Official Thread

actually the swim is a rectangle...you start off against and end with the current.

This is a link to my Garmin data from the 2010 Oly.  It only includes the first run (swim was cancelled) and the bike.  The ending 10k is not included. To analyze the bike course, start at mile 3.2 through the end.  Total elevation gain was 900 feet. 

 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/40057252

I agree with the comments on the course being too crowded.  I'm the guy that yells the rule to the people riding on the left side.  The duathlon format last year was especially bad on the section of road where the bike and run shared the same portion of Martin Luther King Drive.

See you there... BTW. does everyone know Crowie announced he will be there this year?

This is my first year too.  I'm nervous about the swim (having only done a sprint in the past).  I heard the waves are pretty large in number and that it gets very crowded.  Can anyone comment on past years?

Last year was my second tri overall, first "big" one; I did the sprint length (Oly swim was cancelled Sunday due to the drowning).  So I don't have a lot of context on it, but I would say the swim wave was crowded at the beginning, and spread out pretty good.

I purposely stayed from the front of the wave (swim start) so I wouldn't be passed by the speedsters.

The water was WARM, since summer started early last year.  Water temp was about 84, so there were no wetsuits allowed.

Do we have to tread water at the beginning of the Olympic Distance or was that only for the sprint?

You can stay on the dock at the boat house or in the shallows at the boat slip.

ETA. Now that I think about it. The boat slip area was only used for water access during warm up but people stayed on the dock or at least hung onto the dock instead of treading water.

wouldve been a very nice race, but its

-overcrowded
-poorly conceived wave starts
-2 loops bike
-hilly for oly distance course 

Isn't that profile pic you crashing there? Might explain your objections. Hope all is well.

I live 3 blocks from the Art Museum and Lemon Hill is part of my marathon training. It's no fun to do repeats on but it's not that bad! They took it out of the marathon in 2010 but I have to say I wish they'd put it back to the old course. One time isn't bad But for biking as others have said it gets crowded and can be tough on people who haven't done hills.

I'd rather do that than swim in the Schuylkill. Just a bias from being a Philly native and remembering when it was an open sewer.

So after a successful open water swim clinic this weekend, I'm feeling much better about the swim for this race.  Talking to some of the other people at the clinic, they now have me worried about the bike course.  Said there are some tough hills on this course.  I tried mapping it on Mapmyrun.com but you just don't get a good feel for it from a map, even with elevations shown.  Anyone care to share their experience and strategy?

Thanks.

Dave

The hills are short.  There are 8 hills on the course.  It is really 4 that you do twice.  The first (and 5th) is the biggest at nearly 200 vertical feet.  The others area all under 100 vertical feet.  They are not that bad provided you have done some hill work in your training.  In total you are looking at 900 vertical for the full bike course. 

My post on 2011-04-03 in this same thread has the GPS data from last year's race.  Don't mind the name on it as we used the GPS data as an example for a website.  The GPS data is my first run and the bike leg.  They substituted a run for the swim last year.

Good luck and see you there.