Philadelphia Sprint Tri Race Report

A few notes about the race before I get into the report.

-Getting to the race early, is extremely important! I barely made it to my start on time when the traffic into the park was slow, packet pickup line was slow, bathroom line was slow, etc. I got there 1:45 before my start...obviously, not early enough.

-While I am happy to win an AG award, I am getting a little frustrated barely missing out on the overall podium race after race this year. Little mistakes kept me off this time. I need to iron some things out. I am a better athlete than this and can do better.

Okay onto the report.

As I said I got there and had to rush. Barely got my wetsuit on as the national anthem was being sung. Then into the water.

Swim: 900m, some against current, some with current, 14:23, 74/1436, 17/518 women.

My group was the first wave. There was a bit of a current. More than I remember in previous years. As we were waiting to start, it was pushing us back a little. We were all anxious to start. I had no warm up...but oh well. Finally, here we go! It is crowded for a maybe 100 or so. I only get a little contact some people hitting my feet, a handful of someones butt, pretty normal stuff. Then it is pretty smooth swimming from there. I start to taste a bit of the river. Yuck! I chant "don't-drink-the Schuylkill" with every three strokes. Helped for awhile. I swam well on the out portion to the turn buoys and then had trouble navigating from there. I thought that the buoys were the ones for the direction coming out, so I went off to the left a bit. And then had to cut way back in later. I was off in no mans land by myself for awhile. I finished the swim strong and out of the water well and out of the old wetsuit top smoothly.

T1: 1:36 This was a long transition area and I had some issues here. I had to run around some volunteers that were blocking the way to my rack. Wetsuit came off ok. Whew! Before the race, the clip on my helmet just fell off! No warning. I was running behind and had to fix it last minute. Apparently, I fixed it backwards, so when I went to snap it it wouldn't snap. AHHHHH! I spent a long time in transition trying to get that darn thing to snap. I finally got it on and went sprinting though transition with my bike. I was all the way at the other end, so had to run the whole way with my bike. My HR was probably over 200 when I got to the mount line.

Bike: 24k, 45:20, mostly flat with a few hills, a lot of turns, 103/1436, 10/518 women
I go to mount my bike and my hr is so crazy I cant get on. That and the 12 year old girl in front of me is still running down the street with her bike and I hear mom yell something like "Honey, get on your bike now!" and start laughing.

Finally I get on my stinking bike and get going. I need to practice this when I am crazy tired and hr is high and I am frantic like in a race. I pass the girl and tell her good job. She is adorable. Then I get passed by a 16 year old. Did I sign up for the juniors race on accident? I ended up going back and forth with her a lot of the race. I would get an advantage on u-turns, corners, downhills, etc, and she would pass me on uphills and you know, stuff that actually takes fitness as opposed to skill you acquire with old age :) The first loop was good as there was one woman (Kate) ahead of us (after I passed a couple in the first mile or so). I felt like I was biking well, but I guess with all the turns and with some confusion about what side of the cones to go on etc, maybe not as fast as I thought. Second loop was lots and lots of people. A few close calls. One guy almost started moved out on me as I was passing and I yelled "Watch it!" And 16 year old was passing someone they collided and both wobbled and bumped shoulders. Thankfully they both stayed upright. I was very happy when the bike was over. I finished right behind the 16year old, since she cruised past me as I was slow around the last uturn watching for people.

T2: 1:09, Good! I came in right behind the girl and had trouble passing her as there was no room. Finally, I squeaked by her on the right and quickly got to my rack, shoes on, grab my number and go! I beat her out!

Run: 5k, 21:05, flat, long stretch out and back, I think it may have been long. 40/1436, 2/518 women.
I started off quick. I was pretty sure there was only one person out on the course at this point but I didn't know how far ahead. And the girl looked like she could run and I didn't want her to be able to catch back up to me. The first little section was on grass and then onto the road. I could see way up the road and no one was there. Sigh. Keep moving. I counted my breaths to keep them slow and calm and to keep me entertained.
Then, maybe at 3/4 of a mile or so, I don't know, I saw someone ahead! I was quickly catching up. Then someone on the other side heading to the finish?? What the heck?! No way! I passed first place and she says "Hi! I'm Kate!" I think I said Hi, or good job or something. And then she said that the other women only did one loop of the bike. Oh, ok. I keep heading up the road. 1 mile in 6:35 or so. I felt like I was running quick, but getting nowhere. I took two cups of water at the aid station and dumped them on my head. Sweet relief! Then I saw another women running to the finish. Is she in our wave? Is she really ahead by this much? At the turnaround I had been running for over 11.5 mins. Really? For a 5k. It is almost out and back. That would put me at 23 mins! Anyway. I see I have some room to breathe. I will beat the other ladies behind me if I hold it together. It was a long lonely run back. It is hard to push when you are out front alone. When I finally could see the finish line, I saw Beth and Oscar. I put in an extra finishing kick and hoped it was good enough.

Overall: 1:23:36, 36/1436, 4/518 women, 1st 25-29 women.

It was fun to see Beth and Oscar, so nice of them to come down to watch and to nice to meet Kate. Here's a picture of me and Beth after the race. She was there doing her workout to prep for Sunday race (she got second in a super competitive race!)

I checked the results and saw I was third which I was excited about and then waited for awards. Then at the awards it turns out I was 4th after one of the later waves finished. Sigh, gotta make sure you check the results after the later waves are done. I was 4th by 13 seconds, which easily could have been attributed to me fumbling with my helmet or I could have run down if I was head to head. But what can you do? It is what it is. I can only work to be better next time.