Women’s Philadelphia Tri Recap

Why yes, I forgot about my blog about health and wellness. LOL.

I competed in another triathlon this weekend, the Philadelphia Women’s Triathlon. It’s been two years since I did a tri. A friend of mine and I have become regular event junkies, and we both like the same ones: running/walking races, biking and of course, triathlons. I introduced her to the sport four years ago before COVID and it just clicked for her. For me, I was glad to have someone to partner with on races as most of my friends that I would do events with have stopped.

We heard about this tri through my friend, who thought it sounded fun. Our local women’s tri has since gone out of business. My friend heard good things about this one, so after some back and forth, we decided to sign up for our first destination event.

We arrived on Saturday to check in. The weather was steamy and the forecast was for thunderstorms for that day and the next. First great thing about this tri: you can check your bike in the day before. We got there at 1030 and immediately checked in (before the official check in time, nice) and got all of our materials. We had preordered merch and that was available too. Within forty minutes we were checked in and our bikes were racked and we were set. We were told the Philadelphia Police Department watched the bikes overnight, so we felt comfortable leaving them there.

Speaking of, this was the first tri I have done where your bike was assigned a spot. Every other tri I have done (and this was my seventh), you had to basically jockey for position on the bike rack. When you came back from the bike portion sometimes your spot was occupied. To have an assigned spot seemed so civilized, and so logical.

We spent Saturday having a lovely lunch in Philly and dodging raindrops before heading back to our hotel for a quiet night. Before we knew it, our 430am alarm went off and up we were to head back to Fairmount Park.

We got to the park around 530 (having stayed out near the airport since we didn’t book hotels quickly enough) and were relieved we’d done so much the day before. After putting our gel seats back on our bikes (we removed them due to the rain forecast since they’d be sitting outside overnight), we set up the rest of our transition areas next to the bikes and worried about the weather.

Let me take a moment to talk about how this photo is a wake up call for me. While I knew I could do this tri, my clothes that I have for triathlons are two years old. When I bought this gear I was twenty pounds lighter. I have been kind of OK just accepting my post menopause weight gain, but this photo is killing me. Obviously I’m the person on the left. I haven’t gotten my event photos yet but I know I will probably hate them all. I’m desperately trying to crop all of my photos but this one doesn’t lie. Since I started this blog I’m 35 pounds heavier, and there’s no hiding it. I’ll get back to that later.

Finally it was time to head over to the Kelly pool for the swim portion. Nearly 1000 people queued up meant a long wait to get in the water. Originally my friend and I seeded ourselves where we thought we would be for completion of the 300m swim: 9 and 10 minutes respectively. But after about twenty minutes of frustratedly waiting, we noticed no one in the water seemed to be in their proper timeframe. The official group in the water was supposed to be finishing their swim in less than 7 minutes and there were people not even getting their faces wet. Walking some of the swim. Stopping at the end of the lanes. Finally my friend and I agreed: we were totally fine with cutting the line and getting in the water as soon as possible (don’t judge us). So that’s what we did. I ended up hopping in Kelly Pool at about 7:33am.

300m Swim: 9:44

This was better than I had anticipated, having estimated my swim at around 10:10 or 10:20. 300m is the shortest tri swim I ever have done, and it felt fine. My first 50m felt almost easy but then I was trying to push. By the fourth lap (6 laps of 50m each) I found my groove and it went quickly. A few passed me, I passed a few and it was clear I was not out of my ability range. I have been swimming about once a week since January, sometimes twice, so I have been keeping up on it.

Transition: 5:06

I didn’t run the very long stretch from the pool to my bike, and my time shows this. I was out of breath and I mostly walked it. But beyond that, having used a tri top helped tighten my time here. I had trouble with my new helmet, having to try three times before I got it buckled, but overall I felt OK with my speed here other than my walking to the bike.

8.1 M Bike: 36:18

The bike portion of this race is lovely. It runs all along the Schuykill River and is a closed course, so no cars. It never felt crowded although I did get annoyed a few times with people just riding in tandem. Really? It’s a race, people! My bike is my best portion so I wanted to pick up some time here. And I did that, until the very last bit where there is a very unpleasant hill. This was where my lack of prep killed me because I was afraid to change gears to the lowest gear. I hadn’t practiced it much and the few times I did I popped the chain. Since I had to work hard to get up that hill, I was really huffing when I finally made it back.

T2: 2:37

I normally don’t drink while out on the bike during a race, and this time was no exception. So I had to get some water in me since the heat was really ramping up. Thunderstorms were in the forecast, the sky was gloomy and the humidity was oppressive. So I knew I had to hydrate. I racked the bike, grabbed my handheld water bottle, dropped the helmet and off I went.

5K Run (well, mostly walk): 49:56

I was spent here and it shows in the time. This is also where the extra weight killed me. I could have probably run more if I wasn’t carrying so much extra weight but I just didn’t have it in me. I would try for a bit and feel so hot and heavy and crampy that I walked most of it. I was OK with it, I knew that’s likely how it would go since I hadn’t trained, but it was hard watching so many pass me, some of whom I’d passed on the bike. But I also was grateful that I could put one foot in front of the other and do this. I knew I’d finish and that was really the bottom line.

Finish Time: 1:43:39

I crossed the finish line about 7 minutes faster than I predicted, but I also thought the bike was going to be about a mile longer, so it’s really about a wash. They handed us ice cold towels and huge bottles of cold water as they presented our medals to us. A nice touch: they called out your name as you crossed, said where you were from, and read your “why you tri” statement. For me, I wrote that I was honoring a Sandy Hook victim with every tri I did, and I welled up with tears to hear it read aloud at the finish line.

Overall, this was a great race. I didn’t love the hill on the bike course at the end, but honestly it is about the only complaint (other than the cost, which is high for a short sprint tri). The park is beautiful and both the bike and the run are completely closed to traffic. Everything was well marked and there was even plenty of food by the time I got to the food tent, which is often gone by the time slow people like me head over there. Checkin was smooth and I honestly loved the pool swim.

I think my friend and I will be signing up again, and my goal is for next year to be very different. To really use this as a motivation to get my health back and lose some weight to feel better. My mom died at 53 and I’m two months away from that. I don’t want to cut my life short because I can’t get my eating and drinking under control. Time to get back to using this blog as an outlet to help me navigate my way back to a healthier place.

Thanks Philly Women’s Tri. You made me look within and helped me move (mostly) forward.