Tri Rock Philadelphia Triathlon

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This past weekend, I competed in my second Philadelphia Triathlon (the first was back in 2012). The few days leading up to the race in Philly reminded me of cool and rainy Europe, not hot and humid USA summers! Unfortunately, due to a high amount of rainfall, the swim portion was cancelled. Increased amount of rain caused high bacteria counts and large debris in the river!

The couple of days leading up to the race, I had to opportunity to stay busy with all the events! On Friday I was honored to take part in a Q&A at the Philadelphia Insurance building. I met with Bob Babbit and some inspirational athletes in the CAF Foundation. On Friday evening I traveled to New Jersy with Cam Dye and Fuji Bikes to do a meet and greet at Danzeisen & Quigley bike shop. They was a great crowed there and the shop provided some great food and drinks to everyone!

On Saturday I woke up and did a short bike ride and run and headed down to the race site to handout medals at the kids race. There ages where from 1-14 who ran in the Johnson and Johnson #TRPhilly Fun Run. I was wishing that Caroline could have come with us to do the 1-3 age race! The little ones ran 50meters! The kids where really cute and loved running and getting all the free swag!

Race morning was a very early start, with the first man starting at 6:30AM. With the race changing to a duathlon, we started on our bikes, 20 seconds apart. In the several other duathlons I have competed in, we started with a run, but this race was a true time trial event. Alicia Kaye had the first starting number for the women, with number 31. I had number 44, so I started 3:40 behind, although I forgot to check the time gap when I started!!

The rain stopped just before the racing began, but the roads were very wet and had a bit of slippery leaves / braches on the ground. The bike course consisted of a two loop, hilly and technical ride. I did want to have a repeat of the last time I raced on a wet and technical hilly course (when I crashed at CapTex last year). I pushed the flats and hills hard, but I went very conservative on all the downhill sections of the course. I passed seven women on the bike course. When I exited the bike, I had gained ten seconds on the lead women, Alicia Kaye. Here is my Quarq Elsa Power File presented by Training Peaks!

The transition was a muddy slip and slide! Fortunately, the pro racks were close to the front, so we did not have to run far with our bikes. After about 600 meters, we were off the muddy grass and onto the road. I felt good the first 2 miles, my legs were ticking along and I had a strong pace. At the first turnaround, my legs started to turn into tempo mode and I could see after the first lap I had lost some time to Alicia (she was on fire!). I pushed to the finish and ended up with a second place overall. It was very, very strange racing in this type of race start! We are so used to racing head to head, it was weird racing people who were all over the place on the road and having no idea exactly what place you or others were in! I was slightly disappointed I did not have more spunk in my legs during the run portion, but I have to remind myself of the time I have been back running since my injury earlier this year. I am just happy to be healthy and continuing to build fitness with each race and training session. Here is my Polar V800 HR file! I had my first 10k “speed” type workout the Monday prior to the race, so I know it takes a few weeks for my body to get used to all the fitness I have been building upon the last month.

 

I am really excited for the racing to continue in the month of July! Up next I have Pan American Games July 11th and then Ironman Racine 70.3 on July 19th! Thank you to everyone for the support! Congratulations to all who raced the Tri Rock Philly and thank you to all the volunteers and race directors for making this race possible to age groupers and professionals.