Triathlons and weddings, weddings and triathlons. Both occur most frequently in the summer which is why if you do half a dozen races most summers, the two events are bound to collide at some point. I am no longer a wedding weekend triathlon virgin as I had my first of these a couple weeks back. Well... I guess technically, I'm no longer a wedding weekend DUATHLON virgin since the swim was freakin cancelled AGAIN. That's right folks - Gered and I have now been to three races this season - all of which have cancelled the swim. What the frick man?! I'm just glad that we were able to get the swim in on that first race of the season. :-) Anyway, here's the play by play:
Wedding weekend was fun. We arrived late in the evening the night before and hung out a bit with Skeeter and my beloved swim buddies. Got up the following morning for a short swim (at LINEBERRY natatorium with some swim buddies....man, I used to swim in a beautiful pool), bike (all by myself), run (with a triathlon buddy from Colgate, Amy Cole). I felt pretty good through the whole workout. Especially the run... I let myself open up a little on the back half of the run, and was holding a pretty comfortable 5:20 mile pace. Then a shower, a bit of packing, and a wedding. It was great to see Skeeter (whose real name is Mike) and Emily (a different one, not my wife) tie the knot. To be honest, I think that's the first time that Skeeter has publicly acknowledged his romantic involvement with Emily, which I'm sure she was pleased to finally see herself. :-)
Then it was off to Philly! The drive and evenings events were nothing to write home about, but the race day was a bit of an adventure. The swim was of course cancelled (as usual), though it was difficult to complain about the fact that they were searching for someone that didn't finish the swim the day before (our sincerest condolences to the family). The run that replaced it wasn't too bad - though I did not enjoy watching Gered run away from me about a mile and a half in... I never saw him again... sad. The rest of the race was a (insert colorful language synonymous with poop here) show. In my opinion, the Philly race directors need to work to get a full length course without doing two loops, because riding the second loop through over a thousand age group athletes (many of whom like to traverse as they ride up hills) was not only frustrating and unpleasant - it was downright dangerous. If you race Philly, ride carefully.
And then there was the heat. Our friend Joe Maloy was escorted to a tent immediately upon finishing - he couldn't put together a sentence. Dehydration or over heating, he was out of it at the end - as were about a dozen other victims. The highlight of the day was Scrappy's own Gered Dunne finishing on the podium for the elite age group division. Congrats buddy, but remember this race, because I refuse to let you run circles around me like that again. :-)