Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Philadelphia Triathlon turned Duathalon



We had to wake up at 4am Sunday so everyone could meet in the lobby of the hotel and ride our bikes about 3 miles to the start line. We were in the transition area setting up our bikes and things when we hear over the loudspeaker from the race director that the Triathlon was just changed to a Duathlon, mean run bike run.


Some very sad news as to why this happend. The sprint distance race was held the day before and apparently a 40 yr old first time triathlete never made it out of the water. Everyone wears timing chips attached to their ankles and after 1.5 hours, they started searching for him. Sunday morning we walked down to the banks and could still see the boats and scuba divers looking for him. Out of respect and to not disrupt their search, we ran an extra 3 miles instead of swimming. They eventually found his body Sunday evening around 5:30pm. Sad.


So anyway, sorry to be a debbie downer but I have told this story about 10 times to coworkers. The first part of the run wasn't too bad because it was at 7am, sun wasn't that high in the sky yet. I ran the 5k in 22 minutes then switched to the bike. My bike time was 1:14 for the 40k two loop course which averaged 20.5mph. Put my shoes back on and set out for the 6.2 mile run. The first three miles were all in the shade but I was starting to feel it. I was still passing people and people were still passing me. Around mile 4 the trees went away and we were out in the open in the 95 degree heat. I was starting to fade... real fast. My 6 splits were as follows:


Mile 1 - 8 min

Mile 2 - 8 min

Mile 3 - 8:30 min

Mile 4 - 9 min

Mile 5 - 9:30 min

Mile 6 - 10 min


EEK! a 10 minute mile? terrible. I was walking thru every water stop, drenching myself with water and drinking gatorade. I just felt terrible. My stomach was in so much pain. I tried to make my feet go faster, to turn the legs over faster but I just couldn't. I ended with a finishing time of 2:35.57 which is respectable considering the intense heat. I think I was 47/170 for age group and 485/1800 for the race. Top 3rd in both but I was really dissapointed in my 10k time.

Then I ate about 6,000 calories.


Before the race started I met up with a guy I went to high school with who I knew was entered in the race. He gained a lot of weight and was racing Clysdale division (men over 200lbs) I see his facebook page and thought he was fast, no, I beat him by 4 minutes. He even has a $3,000 bike, with an aero helmet and whatever... Maybe you shouldn't have gotten fat, asshole!


Marathon training starts tomorrow

1 comment:

  1. GEEEEZ...
    he's too fat, I'm too skinny... We can't all be in perfect shape like you, ya know!

    Sorry to hear your big race was far from ideal. Hopefully the tri in August will be much better.

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