On Father’s Day June 21st, 2009 I raced in the Harrisburg Triathlon on City Island in Harrisburg, PA. Overall it was a fine triathlon and I felt cool sporting my new Triathlete T shirts.com stickers on my bike and helmet.
The day began at 4am on a cloudy Sunday morning, but as in any triathlon I’ve done, I didn’t get enough sleep. I’m always up late, cutting my hair and trimming my legs. I’m not sure how many other triathletes shaved, but it always makes me feel faster, even if I don’t go faster. By 5am we had the kids in the car and headed to Harrisburg. The cloudy sky threatened to rain on the triathlon all morning, but we never saw a drop, and we arrived in plenty of time.
Triathlon Swim
The time passes quickly before a race and I soon I had my transition area setup and headed to the north end of City Island for the swim start. Last year the Susquehanna River was low and slow and the swim was very challenging, but this year it was much deeper and swift. Most of the other triathletes were holding on to the swim barrier rope just to stay in one place. I did a little warm-up swimming into the current and found it challenging just to stay in one place!
Before I knew it they were calling us up to the starting line and the gun went off. The swim is my best part of the triathlon so I was feeling confident and
Triathlon Swim Start
quickly found my rythmn at the front of the second pack. I like to draft behind someone usually, but found that there was no one matching my speed today, and everyone in the lead group was a seasoned triathlete with impressive swim speed, so there was no catching up. I came out of the water in an impressive 11:32 for 0.8 miles swim, even though it was with the current, it was one of my best swims ever during a triathlon.
Running out of the water I felt good, and headed into the transition area only a little shaky while I got my land legs back. Quickly I threw on my sunglasses and helmet, unracked my bike and headed out onto the bike
triathlon bike with triathlete t shirts dot com stickers on the side
portion. I, like most of the fastest triathletes, use a running barefoot start onto the bike while keeping my shoes clipped into the pedals. It helps to have triathlon specific shoes for this, and plenty of practice. By swinging my leg up over the seat and landing on the inside of my thigh, I avoid racking myself on the seat during the flying mount. Once on the bike I pedal on top of the shoes first, then slip my feet into the shoes then tighten the straps. I use plenty of vegetable shortening (Crisco) around the openings of my shoes to make this easier.
I’m also wearing my new triathlon TT aero helmet, which is awesome and I think really helped my bike time this year. Heading out on the bike there were some crazy crosswinds going across the bridge to downtown Harrisburg from City Island and riding north along the river was all into the wind. Luckily my triathlon bike is pretty aerodynamic and I’ve worked hard to tweak my position. The only thing that might also help me would be some nice aero racing wheels, but you know, we all can dream right?
Coming back on the bike was like a dream and I was hitting 27 mph on the flat course with a tailwind (finally). After 14 miles in the aero position I was
Triathlon bike and Triathlon Helmet
getting a little crampy and the bike seat was starting to chaffe because I forgot my Beudreaux’s Butt-Paste. Other than that, I felt pretty good on the bike, took small sips out of my aero tri bottle mounted inside my aerobars, and started to back off a little coming into transition in order to recover my legs a little before running. Because the women went out in the first wave of the swim, I found myself passing a lot of women on the bike portion. A few of the fastest 40+ men passed me during the bike, but I don’t mind because they’re not in my Age-group and most endurance athletes get better with age (up to 45 or 50) especially in triathlon.
Shoes off, Triathlete T-shirts stickers on triathlon bike and helment
I like to take my shoes off just before finishing the bike so that I can have the fastest transition possible. I also do a flying dismount by swinging my right leg off of the pedal, over the seat and behind my lead leg. I keep some speed coming in and then get off the pedals and start running just before the dismount line. This allows me to keep speed coming into the second transition and this is the technique used in the really fast pro triathlons that you may have seen on TV. Once I got to my rack inside the transition area I quickly racked my bike, and took off my helmet.
Harrisburg Triathlon Run Start
The run is my worst part of the triathlon, so I’ll take any advantage that I can get. Today I decided to wear socks with my running flats to prevent blisters, and I had applied more shortening to the rims and insides so that I could slip them on easily. I also used the Yankz elastic shoe laces so I wouldn’t need to tie them. With my running shoes now on, I quickly grabbed my race number belt and visor then headed out of transition for the 3 mile run.
Getting off the bike and running during a triathlon is always a little weird (the triathlete shuffle), but I like to keep a quick short stride at first, then settle
Out on the triathlon run
into a good rythmn as I speed up a little. Today this worked perfectly and after about a 1/2 mile I felt my self really hit a solid stride. The doesn’t mean that it was easy, but that I was at an appropriately fast pace; any faster and I’ll redline, any slower and I’m out of rythmn. I found that a few more people passed me during the run, and because I’m a relatively slow runner, I only passed a few people, but this happens at every triathlon I’m in, so I’ve come to expect it. For this reason, I always check out the calf of the person passing me, where they have their age marked. If they are between 30 and 34, and not moving too fast, I’d better catch them or risk losing places in the standings.
Sprint Finish at the Harrisburg Triathlon
The Harrisburg Triathlon Run leg is mostly flat and follows along the Susquehanna River closely. There were some more strong crosswinds going over the footbridge, and headwinds running north along the river, but when I reached the turn around I saw that I was making good time, so I bumped it up a notch and ran a little harder with the tailwind. Coming back across the footbridge I still felt good so I wanted to finish the run really hard. Anytime I finish a triathlon I like to sprint to the finish line from about 100 - 200 yards out, because “if you didn’t puke, or pass out, you could have gone harder.”
In the end I had a flawless race even though I didn’t win anything, I raced hard, and had no hang-ups. Basically, I couldn’t have done any better without just being in better shape, and that always feels good. This was my first triathlon of the season, so I hope to improve upon all my times as the summer goes on. Check back soon, for more triathlon race reports, racing, and training tips from triathlete t shirts .com.