made it out to philly yesterday afternoon. Met mike and we rode out for packet pick up. On the way out, my crank was making some noise, I thought it was my shoe, but it’s not. I gotta check it out.
woke up super early this morning and drove out, racked the bikes and realized that neither of us ate breakfast. marathon bars and clif bloks on the bus over to the swim start. it was cold outside (for june) and the water temp was 75. it felt good to get in the water because it was warmer than the air. the swim felt good, water seemed clean, I was undertrained but it felt OK. 5 minute gaps between waves. We were 3rd, I was enveloped by green caps (women 30-34?) and light blue (next men’s wave?) but it could have been much worse. I think my swim time was like 40 min. Not bad for undertraining.
transition was hilarious, since we rolled up kinda late, I couldn’t get my stuff all layed out properly. right before I got on the bike, I realized that I had put on one bike shoe and one running shoe. ooops. had to switch that.
I felt strong on the ride. I averaged between 18 and 19 mph. at the end I realized that I maybe could have gone faster, but I was still pretty pleased. I have to work on my descents and high speed turns because I still sketch out a little bit on both of them. couse was hilly but way fun.
T2 was cool. jen, cherokee, and holden were there so I got a little smooch and some encouragement.
the 1st 2 miles of the run were HORRIBLE. flat course, no problem. but my shins were on fire. I was slow. real slow. REAL slow. everyone and their mother passed me. but anytime I saw someone in my age group pass me, I still felt OK, because it meant that I took them on the bike. It helps that I can feel good about something even when I’m sucking really bad at something else. 3 miles in, I found my groove. it was a slow groove but a comfortable one. 5 miles in, I made a CRITICAL mistake. I was really thirsty. at the water station I went for 1 water and TWO count ‘em TWO gatorades. then came the cramp full stomach yuck feeling. I was over it by the time I hit mile six. Usually, I think I know where the finish line is, but it’s really much further away. I get close and start to turn it up a little bit, but then fizzle out before I hit the actual line. This time, it totally came out of nowhere. I was able to run it in a little harder and I felt good at the end (in spite of how slow I was). THe final time on the clock was 3:30. I’m pretty sure our start was 10 minutes after the initial go so that gives me a time of 3:20.
pittsburgh time was 3:32.
Naylors Beach was 3:47
any way you slice it, I came out ahead. I blame the orbea. even if my time was worse, it would have been a good day. the swim was nice, ride was challenging but fun, run was beautiful (even if it did involve running) and flat. I had low expectations of this race, but in the end, it was pretty damn cool.
