Philadelphia OLY Triathlon 2009

I traveled down to South Jersey on Friday afternoon with a good friend. We stayed at her parent's house about 20 minutes outside of Philly and had a lovely chain-restaurant eating, Target- and Wegman's shopping suburbs filled few days. When my (super talented, Kona-qualifying, 3rd in Age Group this weekend) friend asked me my goals for the race, I replied "I think on a perfect day, if all goes well, a super-amazing yet realistic goal would be to break 2:30."

I had broken it down in my head as follows, knowing both the bike and run times were a stretch, but do-able: 21-22 min swim, 1:15 bike, 45-46 run, plus transition= sub 2:30. Looking at the results from the last few years, that would also put me right around 5th or 6th in my age group.

Short Version:

Swim: 20:24 (142/1921 overall)
T1: 2:28
Bike: 1:15:28 (19.7mph)
T2: 1:33
Run: 49:53 (8:02)

Total Time: 2:29:48
13/132 AG
54th Overall Female

I am SO SO ecstatic about achieving my goal and breaking 2:30. Even though it didn't happen the way I had hoped (grr that damn 10k run), and my age group was HELLA faster this year, none of it mattered and it was a great day.

Long Version:

I was feeling really good going into the weekend. I have had some lingering soreness/tightness in one of my hamstrings, but it hasn't really bothered me when running, just went stretching, etc. We left the city on Friday afternoon and had an easy drive down to the Philly area. There were severe thunderstorms warnings for the entire area, so my worries of a canceled swim were still heavy on my mind. I tried to let it go, not stress over it because there was nothing I could do. A big storm passed through the area late Friday night, but we woke up Saturday to clear, blue skies and warm weather (FINALLY!!).

We put our bikes together, my friend forced me to do a check and clean my tires (result: lots of glass shards pulled and I really need to get new tires ASAP!) and we did an easy 40 minute spin and transition run. I felt good on the bike, my run felt fresh, and I was excited to go!! We sat in loads of traffic to get to the expo/packet pick up, where I may or may not have had to relieve my bladder in an inappropriate location on the highway, but packet pick-up was easy, the expo wasn't that impressive, and we were back to the strip-mall heaven by early evening. We made a lovely summer spinach, walnut and strawberry salad, shrimp and pea pasta and ate too much ice cream.

I stayed up too late catching up on the Real Housewives of New Jersey (damn Bravo marathons!) but finally got to bed.

Race morning we were up by 4:30 and out of the house by 4:45. Had a salt bagel with PB, a banana and OJ en route. We were in the 4th wave, and with a point-to-point swim that you had to get bussed to the start, I didn't want to take any chances cutting it close with bus-craziness. Race morning went really smoothly and were at the swim start with time to spare. They were announcing the water as "75 degrees and the current is STONG." I had one gu about 15 minutes before my swim wave.

Swim - 20:24
Although 75 is quite warm, I didn't really debate not wearing my wetsuit, and once in the water, it was a comfortable temperature with wetsuit. Waiting for our wave to start you could definitely feel the current.

The swim went off with no real hustle and bustle. I had placed myself in the front line, all the way right. I quickly settled into a comfortable pace, probably too comfortable, but with how little swimming I have been doing, I wasn't sure what a 20 minute effort was going to feel like. Ironically, in a wave of 200+, I found myself on the feet of my best friend. I stayed there for awhile, but going towards the last buoys I started to swim a bit right and around her. I knew I must be having a good swim if I was swimming with her (even though she had forgotten her wetsuit and was swimming without one!). It is a straight swim, with a quick right turn to swim exit. Due to the strong current, the last bit 'across' to swim exit was quite interesting, as the current pushed you a bit wide on the turn and you had to swim 'back' toward the exit. I didn't wear a watch, but felt strong and had a cramp, so I probably pushed it about has hard as I should have.

T1
It was a bit of a run from swim exit to T1, and I struggled a bit with my wetsuit over my feet/ankles (that's what happens when you wear your wetsuit 1/year). Felt like I had a quick transition, and exited T1 right with my friend. I believe I exited transition around 7 or 8th in my age group.

Bike - 1:15:28 (19.7mph)
I am not sure how I got the 1:15 goal in my head. I wasn't sure if it was realistic, but averaging 20mph just seemed like a good, concrete time to shoot for. My bike computer stopped reading mph/total time after about 10 minutes (but thankfully the cadence sensor kept working as I really rely on that). So I was riding 'blind' but I felt great. It is a 2-loop course. About halfway through the first loop I was passed by the overall male pro winner and then constantly by the other male pros. It was pretty cool, but a bit freaky as they were passing on both sides, etc, even though I was trying to ride as far right as possible.

I REALLY liked this bike course. It has a few short steep climbs, lots of downhills where you can get your speed up and keep it going into flats. I was constantly reminding myself NOT to use the brakes going into turns and to work the downhills. The 2nd loop of the bike was CRAZY with the amount of bikers on the course, as well as the CLEAR lack of knowledge about where people should be riding (read: on the right), which made some parts of the course that were narrow a bit scary. But I was lucky to be in an early wave and have a pretty wide open 1st loop of the bike.

My back and hamstring started to ache a bit by the end, which is understandable with the amount of riding I do, especially the lack of time trial/fast efforts I have under my belt. I believe I was passed by 4 girls in my AG during the bike- one almost right away, one after 1 loop, and two (riding together definitely closer than legal) around mile 15-16. On the bike, I had 1 Gu around mile 18-19, and drank 1 bottle with water an 1 Nuun tablet. I was going to take in more calories, but decided race morning I didn't feel like I didn't to add Carbo Pro to my bottle, but I knew I needed the water and electrolytes bc it was turning into a hot and sunny day. I knew there was no way I could go through 2 bottles (water in 1, carbo+pro plus nuun in other, which is how I train), so I opted for water+nuun.

T2
I almost took a tumble dismounting as I couldn't decide about the flying dismount, ended up unclipping both shoes and sort of froze up. I figured it out, smashed my finger racking my bike, but had a comfortable transition.

Run - 49:52 (8:02/mile)
I decided to wear my Garmin for this run to keep my pace honest. Thinking back to other OLY tris I have done, the run has hurt (clearly), which I take in my mind as = running slow, and then mentally giving up a bit. But then looking back, my pace hasn't been that slow, so there has been no need to give up (not sure if that makes sense). But the same thing happened yesterday, even when seeing my miles splits with my Garmin.

My first mile was 7:25, which is exactly where I wanted to be. I felt fine and comfortable and was trying to get my breathing under control. In the first mile, a girl in my AG flew by. Oh well. Mile 2 was 7:41, still on pace. During the third mile, my legs left like they were loosening up a bit and I was trying to latch on to shoulders of the super speedy men that were constantly flying by me. Then you run about 4/10 of a mile on grass, which due to the rain and being the swim exit, was basically a muddy mess covered in hay. I think this is where I lost it. My hamstring began to ache a bit, my lower calf tightened up in the grass, and mile 3 was a 7:54. It's so funny, because looking back, this is still totally a fine pace, and I had hoped to be able to pick it up a bit the final three miles.

Mentally, I was done. The last 3 miles are a long, flat open out-and-back with little shade. It was hot and sunny, and right at Mile 3 another girl from my AG passed me. I tried to jump on her shoulder, and looking back, I can't figure out why I didn't try harder to stay with her. I just didn't have it in me- mentally (her run ended up being about a minute faster than mine).

So I struggled to keep it together the last three miles. I didn't have any clue what I had swam/biked, but knew my run goal was slipping away, I just tried to put one foot in front of the other. I walked a bit at mile 5 to get a good drink of water, as I was getting goose bumps and knew I needed to hydrate. As soon as I stopped, DC Mayor Fenty ran past (hello, so cute!). I just wanted to be done. I rounded the last little turn and could see the chute but still couldn't see the clock. I heard my friend scream out my name, and finally saw the clock and realized I had about :20 second to get over the mat to break 2:30. I was ecstatic, so so happy, but also had to pee so badly it was just about all I could think about :)

My Garmin had the run as 6.3, with each mile getting slower :) Fabulous.

I had a lot of team mates at the race and just about everyone seemed to have a great race. I really liked the course (esp the bike) and think I will definitely sign up again for next year. I was a bit surprised to hear that I was 13th in my age group, but I honestly didn't care because looking at the results I realized not only had I broken 2:30, but I had also biked a 1:15.

I am still learning how to get the mental aspect of a 10k (especially off the bike) under control. I think I could have had one more gu at some point which may help, and I think I probably pushed the bike a bit more than my fitness right now, which made my run suffer. BUT seeing that my first 3 miles of my run are were I want them to be, I think it's mental toughness.

I have four weeks until the NYC Tri. Two of those weeks will be spent in France/South Africa sans bike. The next 10 days until I leave will be focused on doing all I can to improve my bike fitness to let my run improve in NYC. Lots and lots of riding, with high intensity, and high intensity bricks are what I am thinking.

Marathon training also officially starts July 13th, in Paris of all places :)