Pittsburgh Triathlon 2007

Even though the week leading up to the Pittsburgh Triathlon wasn't great, the race was a personal best. I arrived in Pittsburgh Saturday afternoon very excited for Sundays race. I spent the majority of the day resting, however, I did have to wait in a extremely long line when I was trying to get my bike inspected (huge waste of time) for the race. After leaving the race sight on Saturday, I got some food and took in the scenery. Downtown Pittsburgh is very nice, especially by the river front. I woke up Sunday feeling very good. I did have a little trouble trying to make coffee in the dark, but I was at a hotel and didn't care about spilling coffee on the carpet. I got down to transition an hour and a half early this time (I didn't want a repeat of the Deer Creek race). I got a nice warm up jog in and found a perfect spot to stretch by the river...very far from other athletes. After my pre-race routine, I joined everybody back at transition for the national anthem and announcements. Then, we headed into the river...Because the start was in deep water, I got to tread water for 5 minutes with 100 other nervous athletes. The gun went off and we all sprinted against the current. The first 500 meters felt like they lasted forever, but after I maybe the turn, the last 1000 meters flew by. I exited the water in 24:30 (5 min faster than Deer Creek) and I felt very strong. My transition was pretty quick and I was on my way to a very hilly bike course. The bike course was the worst kind of hilly. It consisted of two 6 mile climbs and two 6 mile descents. Luckily I was able to catch some decent speed on the downhill and gain some time on the leaders. My bike split was 1:07:00, which was pretty quick for the course. Coming out of the second transition I was pretty tired, but I was looking forward to a fast, flat run. Exiting T2, I was only 4 minutes off the leaders. Unfortunately, I am not that great of a runner. The run was very well shaded and felt good. I pushed hard on the last few miles and was able to finish in 2:11:52, 20th overall (out of 269). That time was 11 minutes faster than Deer Creek. Unfortunately, I was only able to finish 2nd in my age group. The kid who beat me finished 4th overall. After a long morning of racing, I drove back to Cleveland with a new sense of accomplishment and I can't wait to go even faster in Cleveland on August 5th.