TriRock Philadelphia Triathlon Race Report

The TriRock Philadelphia Triathlon took place on June 23, 2013 and was my sixth time racing on this course. Over the years this has gone from a relatively local race run by local people, to becoming a part of the TriRock series this year. Over the years the race course has changed little, something I can appreciate. It is nice to race in different places on different courses, for sure, but having a familiar race on the schedule is nice.

In talking to others I have found that there are many people who are not big fans, who won't race here any more. I get that. Living 60 miles north of Philadelphia, the race is a long drive on race morning if you don't plan on staying in Philly. The swim is in the Schuylkill River, which is clean, but has a bad reputation; The bike course can be technical and crowded; The run is a little goofy and can get hot. Me ... I really like this race.

Saturday Pre-Race Packet Pickup

Late Saturday morning I hopped into the Prius and headed down the Northeast Extension to the race expo to pickup my race packet and hopefully meet up with Philippe. As anyone who has ever driven in Philadelphia would expect, the Schuylkill Expressway was bumper-to-bumper. Fortunately, I have raced in Philly enough to know how to get around without the main highways, and lost little time due to traffic. On Belmont Ave. I passed pro triathlete, and second place finisher, Andy Potts, who was riding his bike over to the expo.

The lines were short and I got my packet in a timely manner, but they made it a bit more complicated than it needs to be. The expo was mostly the same vendors as year's past with one exception. I read about this product called Swim Spray that says it will take away that chlorine smell that comes with pool swimming. Got a free sample and plan on trying it our shortly. You can get more information at www.swimspray.com. Philippe hit too much traffic and we didn't meet up.

Pre-Race

Due to the layout of the course all athletes need to be out of the transition area by 6:15 am and onto a bus to the St. Joe Boathouse by 6:20 am. The Pro waves go off at 6:30 am and the first age groupers hit the water at 7 am. I get why they do it. By sending the pros off as early as they do, they have a clear course to race without the congestion of age groupers on their second bike loop. While I get it, I am not a fan of the 4 am wake up (I don't stay in the city) or the 90 minutes of sitting around for my 8 am wave to get started.

The good news is I saw Philippe before the race and he looked calm and ready to race (even though I know he was jittery on the inside). I met some of his J&J co-workers who were also competing, and had more than enough time to loosen up and use the port-o-john. Much to my delight, there was plenty of toilet paper, a big issue last year.

Swim: 1500M 21:14

Because you are swimming a straight course with the current the swim is always fast. This year things were a bit different as TriRock ditched the traditional wave start for a controlled rolling start, with 10 people taking off every 20 seconds. Sounded good in theory, but I was skeptical as to how this would in practice. And now I must admit that the rolling start worked really, really well. The staff were good about keeping things moving and efficient.

Once I sat on the dock and took off I found clean water and had none of the usual issues in a wave start. At almost every race the swim start is a bit of a cluster$@ck that takes a few hundred meters of jockeying around to settle in. Once things get comfortable you start to catch the back end of earlier waves, almost always clustered together. Here, it was clear water all the way as people were spread out. I stayed a little to the left and exited the water in a PR time of 21:14.


T1: 3:12

Nothing exciting here, other than a bit of trouble with one leg of my wetsuit costing me a few seconds. Slow times are normal here with the long run through transition and to the bike mount line.

Bike: 40K 1:04:26

This is the #1 reason why I like this race. Two loops around the river with 4 technical climbs each loop. According to my Garmin there was approx. 1200 ft. of vertical, which isn't all that bad, but it is a tricky 1200 ft. Part of racing here is dealing with the bike traffic on these hills, which wasn't as bad this year as in years past. Maybe because of the swim start, maybe because I wasn't in the last wave. The flats, which ride fast and fun, were all that and more.

Overall I rode well and within myself, producing a 30 second bike split PR.

T2: 1:35

Was about as efficient as I could have been. When I got to the bike rack I could see I was second in my age group, but not sure how far back and how I would hold up with little running in the last six week. Changed shoes, grabbed my race number, hat and gel and headed out for the run.

Run: 10k 49:24

Coming out of T2 I had no idea what to expect. The plan was to run what felt like a comfortable pace and adjust based on how I was feeling. Mile one felt ok but not great. After seeing I was holding a 7:16/mile pace I decided to just hold there and see what happens. About a 1/2 mile down the road I passed Philippe whose wave started 30 minutes before mine. He looked good and had a smile on his face .. a good sign for sure.

Long story short, I held pace through about 3 1/2 miles before the legs decided they had enough. The last few miles were a struggle, with some walking breaks. The legs simply decided they were done a little too early.

Overall: 2:19:52  8th in AG40-44, 108/1333

All things considered I am happy with my performance. Coming off a calf injury I knew my run would be a crap shoot. While I swam and rode faster than I ever have at the Olympic distance, I don't think that was the cause of my run problems. It also got a bit warm ... but again, not an issue. Run fitness - or lack there of - was the issue on the day. And fortunately, that can be rectified.

Philippe finished in 2:58:xx.

Like I said earlier, I really enjoy this race. TriRock has some work to do as it wasn't 100% as smooth as it should/could be. There were two rookie mistakes, both dealing with water, that I cannot give them a pass on. At the St.Joe Boathouse there was no water available when my bus arrived. It did eventually show up and wasn't an issue for me, but should have never been an issue. The other issue of note was the water on the race course was lukewarm at best, and way too warm at its worst. I would expect this to be rectified for the 2014 race.

Up next: a little vacation time and my two week, mid-season break.

Train hard, stay focused.
Jon