so i did a sprint tri this past weekend and figured i would share the happenings of the event.
the sprint was in philly and was a pretty cool course. I had fun doing it but i did really poorly (compared to my last tri). so we did a .9km swim in the schuykill river which if any of you are familiar is disgusting. I grew up like 25 minutes away from where the race took place and if at any point in my life someone told me that i would be in the schuykill i would have just assumed its bc i was killed and dumped there. i couldn't imagine voluntarily getting in it. anyway, it was a lot different than my last race bc we started in the water. i prefer starting on the beach. treading water for 7 minutes while i wait to go is not fun even with a wet suit. but we finally got under way and it was chaotic. i caught an elbow to the nose, i got hooked to the side of the head, and worst of all i got kicked int he nadgers.
i swam out to the first turn bouy and the dude in front of me stops abruptly and goes vertical so to avoid hitting him i stop and go vertical just as i do he lays back down horizontally and kicks to start swimming again and his heel comes right up and catches me in the groin. the wet suit helped but it still hurt like a bastard and made breathing a bit harder for a little while. also i swear i could taste gasoline in the water at one point. maybe they had someone with an outboard on the river but that seems kind of dangerous.
so the bike course was clover shaped and two circuits. not particularly hard just 3 hills. lots of turning though. it was 14ish miles. my over all pace was slower than last time but i am attributing this to the fact that florida was completely flat and i had trained much harder for that race. so i was about 1 mph slower. my wife got DQ'd on the bike course. she is still upset about it. i have to admit it was a little confusing bc we kept passing by the same sites due to the clover shape of the course so when you finished the first circuit you had to stay left to do the 2nd after the 2nd you stayed right to go to transition. she got confused and went right after her first circuit and didn't even realize she had done it until after the whole thing was over and she was trying to figure out her bike pace.
the run was good this time. i improved my run time by more than 2 minutes/mile which is cool bc i was working on it. i only walked through the water stations bc i have yet to master the running gulp without choking. it was hot and there was no shade. and at one point i thought i was going to get the trots and that was really worrisome. i was like should i run faster to try to finish sooner?, or walk to let my body settle? it was a tough call. but it all turned out alright. thank g-d.
anyway,nothing too exciting. my bike and swim paces were worse but my run was better. i think i prefer the olympic length to the sprint length. but they are both a lot of fun. now i am taking a coupleof weeks off from running and stuff bc i think i have turf toe. its been bothering me for a couple of months now and has been particularly excrutiating for the past few weeks. i have decided to join a tri club when i move to japan in a couple of months bu ti think for now i am finished for the season.
i just have to focus on my move for the time being.
philly sprint tri
Linear Mode
