Swim .8K .5 Miles
Bike 25.3K 15.7 Miles
Run 5K 3.1 Miles
The alarm went off at 4 AM and I concluded yesterday's visit to Shady Maple's all you can eat buffet wasn't a good idea on the evening of a triathlon. Carol was ready before I was ready and we made good time getting to the Please Touch Museum where we parked for the Philadelphia Triathlon. We walked down the hill to the transition area and I had my bib number scribbled on my my body in five places.
The transition area was setup with 7 bikes per rack which gave us lots of room to spread out our gear. The bikes assigned to my right and left never showed up so I had even more room. Carol pointed out my row had a tree which did make it easier to find my bike after the swim. I practiced running from the swim exit to my bike so I would not have a long transition time. We receive the official word, the river temperature was 77.5 degrees which means we could wear a wetsuit. All the first timers and nervous seasoned triathletes jumped for joy. I should have gone for a practice swim but I ran into friends and missed my chance to swim. There were about 140 people in a wave and my wave entered the river at 7:40 AM and started our swim at 7:46 AM.
We had to swim up river and under the bridge. My arms and shoulders were tired and I wasn't even at the bridge, this cannot be a good sign. Under the bridge, around the buoy, turn right at the next buoy and pass back under the bridge. I'm starting to pass swimmers with pink caps. They were in the previous wave and had a six minute head start; so now I'm thinking I'm not doing too badly. I kept following the people ahead of me when I noticed they started swimming to the left. It seems we headed off course because we aimed at the river exit but we needed to pass around a buoy over on river left. I made it to the buoy and now it's just a straight shot across the river. The river exit was steep and there were rocks under the water. I ran up the river bank, over the timing mat and into the transition area. I had a little trouble getting the wetsuit unzipped but my bike was at the far end of the transition area and I was ready by the time I got to my bike.
You cannot move your bike unless your helmet is on and the strap buckled. I see a guy in my row take his bike off the rack and lay it on the grass. Then he starts getting his stuff ready for the bike ride. If the officials were watching he should have received a 2 minute penalty. I put on my glasses, yeah I can see again! I put on my helmet, grabbed my bike and ran to the exit. After crossing the timing mat I ran into the street and jumped on my bike. My feet slid into my shoes and I reached down to synch the velcro straps and started peddling as fast as I could go. The bike course was flat on Martin Luther King drive and had a hairpin turn around at each end. A slight hill up to the bridge and another hill on the other side of the bridge take us to the other side of the river. Now we are riding on the left side of the road. I never did figure out if I was supposed to stay on the left or right side of the lane to avoid a penalty. I was passing lots of people and just about to come back across the bridge when I got passed by a handful of people of tri bikes. I think they were in the elite group that started 12 minutes ahead of me and they were on the second lap of the bike course. I finished my second lap, undid the velcro straps and slipped out of my shoes just ahead of the dismount line. My rack was only 4 rows in so I made a quick transition to the run.
I racked my bike, took off my helmet and put on my hat. I put on socks and shoes and started running for the exit as I pulled my racing number to the front of my body. I grabbed cups of water and spilled most of it down my chin. I still don't know how to drink and run. I crossed the timing mat as I felt an intense pain in my stomach. The pain wasn't going away no matter what I tried and I just wanted to start walking but I kept running. I wasn't running very fast but I was passing people. Some people passed me and I always looked at their age but so far no one was in my age group passed me. I grabbed more water but I spilled more then I drank. I made the turn around and headed back, only one and one half miles to run but I wanted to walk. I was in too much pain to keep track of the number of people I passed or the ones that passed me. I was nearing the end and tried to pick up the pace when I saw the finish line. I ran over the mat thinking the race was over but that mat just let the announcer know who I was. I keep running as the announcer called out my name and the clock showed 1:45:49.
They handed me a medal and a bottle of water. Carol was waiting for me at the finish line but she missed the perfect photo op when someone walked in front of her as I crossed the finish line. Now I have an excuse to Tri Tri again.
Official results
Bob Gannon
Time 1:33:59
Finished 137 out of 997
Finished 12 out of 46 in my age group
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