The RDW and I competed in the Philly Olympic Distance Tri this past weekend…wait, competed is a word that conjures up images of speed and podiums. Rather, the RDW and I compLeted the Philly tri. Truth is we probably had no business racing at all, since RDW's had a pretty bad summer cold for over a week now, and she graciously passed it to me about 5 days ago. We debated not going, but at the last minute on Saturday we reluctantly decided to give it a shot. A big part of the decision was the fact that we made the RDW's brother race sick last year at the Riverstock Tri, so we didn’t want to let down the HTFU banner and suffer the consequences of mockery. We left for Philadelphia with barely enough time before packet pick-up closed.
After a very poor night’s sleep (the Indian restaurant we went to might not have been the best pre-race choice, although it was high on the tasty factor), we got up at 4:15 and began the zombie like motions to get to transition area and eventually the swim start. Our strategy was to consider this a training event, and accept that we would not be setting any PRs. Unlike the Gulf Coast tri where we both hammered the bike and paid dearly on the run, we thought the best strategy, given our less than ideal health, would be to end up “disappointed” in our bike split, in order to save enough energy to get through the run with a negative split. The strategy ended up working well for both of us. For the record, it’s much more fun to hammer the bike especially since we do not resemble anything in the gazelle, rabbit, or Fesler/Beck species.
I was in the first wave after the pros (Andy Potts won the race with a course record). The swim was a point to point in the Schuylkill River, so we took a bus to the swim start in order to swim back to transition. Water temp was 78.3, so we missed getting to wear our “water wings” or “personal flotation devices” by 0.3 degrees. Some of you call those things “wetsuits.” Bummer. The only true “fail” of the day was the porta-potties. For the love of all that is holy, race directors, please, please, please, re-stock the TP supply early and often. There was about an hour wait at the swim start location, and no TP after about the 15 minute mark.
The Schuylkill looked nasty, but wasn’t too funky, although after having all those TP-less folks jump in the water -- the quality almost certainly went down. The swim went ok for both of us, which means we survived to ride! The bike course was two laps of 12+ miles included a long curve around the Museum of Art where Rocky ran up the steps. There were several good climbs, but that’s where the RDW and I have a minor advantage over flatlanders after training around Carlisle. We both held our own on the flat sections, to re-pass all the folks pushing the flats any time the road inclined. Fun. I think I blew a couple of Schuylkill river monsters out of my nose on the ride, and yes, I checked my back-blast area first. Since I was in the first swim wave with the old dudes, I was passed by a lot of younger folks, but I really took notice when a set of legs bristling with muscle cycled past me, with a “65” on the back of his leg. I swear they need to start testing amateurs for steroids! I eventually overtook my 65 year old friend (whom I nicknamed Mr. “T”) on a hill. Bike splits and average speeds were slightly disappointing for both the RDW and I, but that was our strategy, after all.
The 10K run was along the river and was completely flat. I would say I felt good on the run, but by this time the mucous monster was death-gripping the back of my throat, and I just didn’t have the extra pep in my stride that I should have felt after a neutral bike ride. I tried to avoid fellow runners while I hocked up pieces of various internal organs. Mr. T passed me on the run at about mile 2, but I kept him in sight, and passed him back at about mile 5. It’s sad when I’m struggling to beat a 65 year old, no matter what he might’ve been pumped up on! The RDW and I did negative split the run, although there was no glory on the course for either of us. Mr. T beat the rest of his age group by about half an hour…wow. Just wow.
The effort was respectable enough for a Sunday morning “training event.” The Philly Tri was a very well organized race, despite the porta-let-down. It had the energy and vibe of a big (2000-ish racers) event, but the details were well thought out and executed (minus the TP supply). They even had ice cold chocolate milk at the finish. Yum! We might have to return next year to give it a shot! The next training event masquerading as a race is the Catfish Tri in a couple of weeks at City Island in Harrisburg. Who’s in?
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