Philadelphia Triathlon 2012: a success!

Well…Adrian, I did it!  That’s right, I finished the Philadelphia Triathlon!  No joke, right when I started the swim, my mind- unprovoked- was suddenly flooded with the Rocky Theme Song and I was like, “Awww, yeah! I got this!”

Seriously a great experience.  I loved every minute.  The volunteers kept laughing at me and calling me “Smiley” because I was just beaming ear to ear, especially during the biking portion- I was literally having a great time!

I had this huge sense of gratitude while I raced.  I was just so grateful for my health and my body.  Not like, “I’m so sexy, I love my body,” but just that I’m grateful to be able-bodied and to have the capacity to do so much and to be strong inside and out.  It was really a great feeling to accomplish this.

So here’s my stats.  I’m not sure how they factored in my transition time, but my guess is that T1 is lumped into the bike time and that T2 is lumped into the run time. 

SWIM 00:15:34

BIKE   01:00:33

RUN    00:25:21

TOTAL 01:46:18

My goal was to finish in less than 01:50:00 with transitions, so I totally nailed it! :D

Since this was a sprint, that means my speed breakdown (factoring in transition times) is as follows:

0.5 mile swim at 1:46/100 yards average in open water

15.7 mile bike at 15.6 mph average

3.1 mile run at 8:11 minute-mile pace

 There were about 1000 sprinters, nearly 500 of them female and in my division I placed 20^th(!) and out of all women sprinters, including the “elite” class- ie, they’ve done this a million times and qualified to start first- I finished 104.  Honestly, for a first-timer who ran her first 5K only about 2 years ago (Wow!  I can’t believe it was only that long ago!), I am VERY proud.

Pre-race, after getting body marked.  Starting to get nervous…

Honestly, what I was most afraid of was the transitions- I just didn’t really know what to expect.  I had run over it in my mind a million times, but when the pressure’s on, you just never know.  I also bought some stretchy toggle shoelaces for my running shoes to prevent wasting time tying them, so that was helpful!

My most confident area is the swim, so I was all revved up for that.  I did not anticipate getting kicked in the face like a million times in the first 5 seconds, causing me to swallow a GIANT mouthful of that nasty Philly river water. [As a side note, I’m pretty sure this caused me to be ill for the next several days…literally, it felt like I had swallowed a hamster…TMI, but just in case you were thinking of doing this race later, its some food for thought ]

I also did not anticipate swimming into a log.   Fortunately, it just hit my arm and not my head.  That could have been a SERIOUS tragedy!

At the end of the swim the burly male helpers at the beach honestly launched me out of the water and sent me running to my bike.  This was crunch time- socks, shoes, helmet, sunglasses –Ah!  My swim cap is still on!- etc.  And OFF pedaling like a madwoman.

 The bike was where I was least confident.  I was the only person I saw with a hybrid bicycle and most people and these fancy racing bikes worth thousands of dollars.  At least I took my basket off before the race so I didn’t look TOO ridiculous.

It was obvious that my bike was heavy when people were zipping my me going uphill but I showed them all who was boss when my heavy bike outran them ALL on the downhills! Ha!  Sweet vengeance!

Unfortunately, it seemed –as it always does- that there were more uphills than downhills.  Oh well, I held my own.  In fact, I got a little hoarse repeatedly shouting “ON YOUR LEFT!” as I passed suckers who wasted money on their bikes. (May or may not be fabricated)

On the second lap of the long 2-lap course, I even conversed with a nice lady (nice in retrospect because I ended up beating her, haha) after my chain came of my gears! AHHHHHH!!!!  MINI HEART ATTACK!!  And then a backwards pedal + a miracle later and I was back on track, hardly even skipping a beat.  We commiserated about our cycling fears. 

And then the RUN.  I was like, “I can do this; almost done!”  But then I was like, “HEY!  Who filled my shoes with concrete?!”

I felt like I was running in sloooooow moooootiooooon and could just not get my legs to go any faster.  My intention was to run with a negative split (ie, getting faster each mile) but my mile 2, I was fighting my frazzled mind just to keep going.  The last mile I definitely did speed up, passing up even willowy gazelle-legged individuals which, as a regular-sized+ person of average height, always makes me feel good J

AND THEN THE SPRINT TO THE FINISH!

It feels like you’re going so fast…but in reality you’re probably not.  Regardless, still a good feeling!

(I kinda felt like that^ afterwards.)

And the best part was the sweet liberty bell medal- SO CUTE!  Well worth the workout!

Although honestly, I don’t even remember receiving my medal or giving back my timing chip.  I just remember things looking hazy and someone helping me not fall down after I crossed the finish line.  Then I walked around aimlessly for a while until I returned from semi-consciousness and suddenly had my second wind was all proud and excited, haha.

SO MUCH FUN!  And now I’m a triathlete!  So dream big and don’t underestimate your body’s abilities and someday you will be able to say to your own Adrian, “I DID IT!” with pride.

*Originally published here