Philadelphia Insurance Olympic Distance Triathlon

The big day finally arrived on June 24, 2012. I had been chomping at the bit over the last three weeks as I felt like I was ready to go. I had really chilled out  the week of the triathlon and tapered accordingly. I only ran twice, on Monday (10 miles) and Wednesday (6 miles) and swam a mile before my Wednesday run. My road bike was in the shop all week getting a final tune up for the race. I hosted Nick Early for the race weekend through the Philly Tri's home-stay program for Pros. Nick is a professional triathlete from Chicago and is in his second year of competing professionally. It was great hanging out with him during the weekend and getting tips and advice on things that I could do to perform better. We hit the Expo on Saturday for our athlete meetings and I got my body marking done for the race. After a big pasta dinner at Maggianno's on Saturday night, I went to bed around 9PM and got a pretty good night's sleep.

Race morning
Nick got up at 3:30 AM and I woke up about 15 minutes later. The Pro's were going off at 6:30 AM so he wanted to get some food in him before we left the house. I put together a bagel with peanut butter, banana and a Powerbar and brought that with me as my wave was starting at 7:40 AM. I had some time to kill and wanted to make sure that I ate a little later so that I wouldn't get hungry during the race. We parked at the Please Touch Museum at 4:30 AM and headed down to set up our stuff in the transition area. It was still a little dark and I had a dyslexic moment and went to the bike rack spot at 1631 instead of my race number which was 1361. The bike racks had our numbers on them so we had to match our bikes to the location on the rack so they would be easier to find. Once I got to the proper location, I put my bike on the rack and started talking with the guy next to me. His name was Chris and he lives in the DC area but used to live in Philly. He had done a couple of Tri's and had done the Philly Tri before. We hung out together on the bus ride from the transition area and while we waited for our wave to go off as we were in the same age group. I'm not sure who contracted the bus company for the Philly Tri but our driver got lost taking us from the transition to the swim start at the St. Joe's boathouse. We did get a scenic preview of one of the sections of the bike course though.

Swim (1,500 meters)
As multiple people have questioned me and the answer is "Yes" I swam in the Schuylkill River for this triathlon and so far I have no water born diseases or extra appendages growing on my body. The water temperature of the river was 82 degrees on the morning of the race so wetsuits were allowed but if you wore one, you had to go off in the very last wave and you technically disqualified yourself. I had already decided the day before to leave my wetsuit at home as it would only make my transition more difficult. I was amazed that the water was so warm since it had rained pretty hard on Friday night. I heard there was a pretty good current for Saturday's sprint triathlon but the water was still warm and there was a lot of debris in the water. I guess the mid-week heat wave got the water temperature up as it was 73 degrees earlier in the week.

When we got to the start, Chris and I hung around and watched the Pros go off. We decided to take a final bathroom break and waited in line over a half an hour which I wasn't expecting but we had some time to kill so it didn't matter. I think the organizers of the triathlon start the slower athletes off first so that they don't have to keep the course closed for too long. Eventually at 7:40 AM our wave got called to the dock to start our swim. Chris told me that we was going to hang onto the dock as long as possible to conserve energy and swim in the back of our wave. It sounded like a good idea so I did the same. Plus I didn't want to be up front and get run over by other swimmers. I breast stroked out to the back of the wave with about 30 seconds to go before the horn sounded.

I figured the swim might be difficult and was worried about getting kicked in the head or have another swimmer run me over. I had trained in a lake so I was comfortable with open water swimming. Luckily, I didn't get kicked but I was bumping into people for most of the swim. My form was really off as my legs kept drifting down and when I would get it corrected, I would run into someone else which would throw me off again. I think when I do future races, I will start closer to the middle of the pack as it seemed like I kept running into the slower swimmers in my wave. I tried to follow the edge of the river to orient myself where I was while I swam. I sited the buoys every 8-10 strokes as I headed toward the Columbia bridge. Since we were swimming downstream, I was hoping for a stronger current to help push me along but there wasn't much of a current to speak of. I guess the current from Friday's rain had died down. As I came under the Columbia bridge, I started seeing different color swim caps meaning I had caught up to people that started in earlier waves. That's always a good feeling but it was getting more congested with swimmers. I rounded the last buoy and headed toward the opposite side of the river to get to the transition area. As I came out I peaked at my watch and saw that the swim took just over 30 minutes. I was hoping to do the swim in under 30 but I found it hard to get into a good rhythm while I was getting knocked around in the river. I ran out of the river and headed toward my bike in the transition area, keeping in mind 1361, not 1631.

Bike (24.8 Miles)
I got to my bike aisle and went to the wrong one of course. Chris told me that he left a green shirt on the bike rack so that we could easily spot our bikes. What a great idea and something that I will use in future races. Anyway, I was in the right aisle, I just went for a bike that looked like mine. I realized my mistake pretty quickly and began drying off and getting ready for the bike portion. I brought a bottle of Gatorade and kept it cool with an icepack in a small cooler. I threw that on my bottle rack. I also had brought a bottle of water, which I used to squirt water on my feet to remove the grass and mud that I collected on my run from the river to my bike. After a quick dry off with a small towel, I put body glide onto my feet (more for running than biking), threw my socks and bike shoes on and strapped on my helmet. I figured I would put my sunglasses and gloves on when I started riding. Big mistake as I would soon find out!

I jogged out of transition area and got to where we were supposed to mount our bikes. I had heard that we could mount our bikes as soon as we got over the curb so I jumped on as soon as I came off the curb. Someone yelled that I was not in the mount area yet, which was about 10 feet further up and marked pretty clearly. I sort of got off my bike and got back on where I was supposed to. It was enough to throw me off though and as I clipped in and started riding, I dropped my sunglasses. I tried turning around but quickly realized that I was heading straight toward the riding lane for the bikers that were completing their first loop. I ate it and just fell over onto the ground, nice little scrape on my knee for my effort. I walked my bike back, grabbed my sunglasses and put them on, and remounted my bike. Rookie mistake #1.

I started the bike really strong and felt like I was riding pretty fast. I was passing a lot of the people from the earlier waves so that was a good feeling. The people that were passing me were generally on high end tri bikes. There are four pretty good sized hills on the course and since it was two laps we would have to do them all twice. My first lap went pretty smooth until I got close to the end of the lap near the Please Touch Museum. The course narrows in this location and as I went to pass another rider, he moved over and ran me off the road. Luckily, I didn't wipe out or get a flat tire but as I struggled to regain control, one of the Gatorade bottles went flying from my bike. Another rule of triathlons is that you can't leave trash on the course and you can be penalized if you do. I stopped my bike and turned around to go pick up the bottle. One of the bystanders picked up the bottle and handed it to me and off I went. Technically you're not supposed to receive outside assistance but I wasn't too worried about it as I made an attempt to get it. I finished my first bike loop around 36 minutes which was a few minutes faster than I expected.

As I started my second loop, I was feeling that I couldn't keep riding in the gears that I was using in the first loop. Not wanting to burn myself out before the run, I stuck with riding the gears that felt right. I still climbed the hills well and attacked the downhills to get speed. After crossing the Fall Bridge to come back down Kelly Drive, I took a sip of Gatorade but dropped the bottle as I was putting it back in the holder. Rookie mistake #2. I swerved onto the running trail to avoid the bikers coming at me to go back and picked it up. The rest of the ride went pretty smooth. I tried eating a small Clif bar but only managed to get half of it down. It was hard to ride and chew.

My second loop took about 39 minutes and overall I finished about 5 minutes faster than I expected with a bike time of 1:15:28. My miles per hour on the bike was 19.7 which I was never able to achieve that speed during my training, I always topped out around 18 mph. I headed into the transition area to drop off my bike and get into my running shoes.

Run (6.2 Miles)
As I got into the transition area, I kept an eye out for Chris' green shirt on the bike rack which I spotted fairly easily. Chris' bike wasn't on the rack so he must have still been on the bike course. I got my bike in the right spot this time and changed shoes very quickly. My last mistake of the day was taking a big swig of Gatorade as I started out for the run. My first two miles were tough as in addition to getting my running legs underneath me, I also developed a side cramp from the Gatorade I chugged and it was really bothering me. I tried to manage a pace to relieve the pressure from the cramp and was careful for the rest of the run to not consume large quantities of water or Gatorade. The cramp eventually subsided as I was going along and I was able to pick up the pace a little bit. I took a Clif shot at the stand around the second mile marker. As I came back to the transition area after Mile 3, I started thinking that I was almost done and the Finish was getting closer with each step, all the hard work and training were paying off big time. I was right on schedule for the time I predicted that I would finish.

The second half of the run heads up West River Drive toward the Art Museum. Not a big deal as it's pretty flat but there is very little shade in this stretch and it was about 10 AM with the full sun heating things up. I've been in worse heat conditions and wasn't really bothered by it. I got some extra motivation as I heard my friend Flint from the WPR call out my name at Mile 4. He had also taken my picture as I was coming. I high-fived him as I went by and told him that I was feeling good.

I came to the last turnaround and started heading home toward the Finish Line. Flint snapped another picture of me as I went by him again and gave me more encouragement. As I passed the Mile 6 mark, the Finish Line was in sight. I remembered one of the coaches at the Expo said to give it all you got so when you cross the Finish Line that should be the last step that you want to take. I increased my stride to pick up my pace and went strong to the finish. As I was coming into the final shoot at the Finish, I could hear my name being announced over the PA system, "Here comes Paul Amos!". Just that little extra motivation to make me feel even better about my accomplishment. As I crossed the Finish Line, I spotted Rich Pogue and Matt Barringer with Rich holding a medal for me and a cold water. I literally fell right into a big hug with Rich. It made the moment even more special to finish and having friends right there as I finished. A Big Thank You goes out to those guys and everyone that volunteered to make the event a success.

My official results were:

Clock Time 02:46:00
Overall Place 558 / 1542
Gender Place 446 / 1084
Division Place 63 / 153
Swim 00:30:51
Trans1 00:04:54
Bike 01:15:28
Trans2 00:02:46
Run 00:51:59
Swim rank 810
Bike rank 492
Mph 19.7
Run rank 550
Pace 00:08:23

Post Race
After getting through the Finish area, I got my picture taken from the race photographer and had a cool towel draped over my head. I took a walk over to the food tent and grabbed a chicken sandwich and pasta salad. After eating, I headed over to the massage area for a free post-race massage. The massage definitely felt great and I almost fell asleep while she was working on me. I heard the announcer state that they were going to be doing the awards ceremony soon so I made my way over to the Pro Athlete's VIP tent to see if I could find Nick. He wasn't there and I figured I should get over to the transition area to pick up my stuff which also had my phone. I ran into Nick as I got to the transition area and he told me that he placed 11th overall and just missed out on getting an award. He was close to catching the 10th place finisher but just wasn't able to. I came in 558th place so I wasn't too far behind them. Nick told me that about half of the Women Pros were disqualified because they swam around the wrong buoy and finished the swim faster than they should have. I don't feel so bad about my rookie mistakes now.

We got home and cleaned up. Nick broke down his bike and packed up to head back home to Chicago. We had some time for another post-race reward so I took Nick out for an authentic Philly cheesesteak at Pat's. He also got a taste of the local flavor as there was a shouting match with some guy and the cashier at Pat's. Good Times!

After dropping Nick off at the airport and getting back home, I finally had some time to reflect on how great everything went. I'm proud of the fact that I feel like I pushed myself to the limit during this race. I raced hard and never stopped or even considered taking a break. One year ago, I was in the last few weeks of wearing the knee brace from my May 1st accident and today I completed an event that very few people will ever consider doing. Now it's time to relax a little, go on vacation to Iceland, and then start up training again for a busy Fall race schedule which includes the Pocono Ironman 70.3. The fun has just begun...