Philly Tri 2014

I have raced Philly Tri for the last three years and have never really had a performance where I was really proud of the whole race. I finally changed that this year and really felt like I put together a full race. Here's how it went.

It's great to be able to sleep at home before a race, and because of that and the short 45- minute drive to race site caused no nerves and I was pretty relaxed pre race.

Got to check out the swim course from both ends by looking up and down river. The swim has been a point of controversy the last few years with last year, many athletes taking a different path than me, and I was dropped. Two years ago, 17- women were misguided and accidentally cut the course. Because of these previous snafu's, I wanted to really understand the course. I wanted to swim with the main group, and if I accomplished that, I would be fairly happy for the day. I have been swimming 30+ km/week for the last few weeks to really try to take my swim to an elite level. I did not back off for this race because my main focus are the two Canadian continental cups in July, so I was not sure how I'd feel. I managed to feel really strong through the entire race, just need to rest up for some more top end speed.

The swim started pretty fast for a non drafting race and I immediately found myself at hip level with some of my competitors including super fish Cam Dye and John Kenny. I just tried to stay with the main bunch as these guys were heading off the front. I made a few surges to stay with the group but mostly was just sitting in the middle of a larger bunch of athletes. I noticed a sleeved athlete next to me, who I recognized as Mark Bowstead from New Zealand and I knew he was a solid swimmer- so I was content to stay there. We exited with a large group including myself, Jason West, David Thompson, Mark, and James Thorpe. Exited in 17:34- one minute off Dye, Potts, and Kenny.

Once on the bikes, I tried my hardest to stay within site of Thompson and Bowstead, but my legs were not having it. I was in a second group with an Aussie and a few others. We eventually caught Matty Reed and closed time on Paul Matthews. I hopped off the bike with Reed and felt pretty solid for the run. Bike split was 1:00:23- which is my best Philly split by 2:30. After the race, I told Matty that it was an honor to get off the bike with him as he is really a legend who I have looked up to for awhile.

I immediately got out hard on the run and gapped Matty quickly with my goals up the road. I did not pass anybody from 1/2 mile until 5.5 miles where I caught Paul Matthews, John Kenny, and Brooks Cowan. I was able to drop all but Brooks to finish 9th overall with the 4th best run split, 34:40- however I, and a few others, had it as closer to 6.45 miles. Overall time was 1:54:15, which would have been top 5 almost every other year, so I am pretty happy with how this race went and shows good signs for continental cups in 3 and 4 weeks.

I did have a pretty funny mishap with water, where I tried to drop some on my head but the centripetal force just carried the cup high into the air, and it was caught on video!