Race Coverage

"Du Rock" Philly...

Friday, 17 July 2015 00:10

By Heather Lendway (heatherlendway.com)

TriRock Philly Race Report - The past month has been tough physically and even more so mentally. It’s still hard for me to comprehend that a sickness could wear my body down so much. The week leading into Philly I finally had a couple decent rides and swims, my running on the other hand still seemed a little behind. I was excited to race to test my fitness but nervous about performing at the level that I expect of myself.

Friday I arrived in Philly early afternoon, followed shortly by my parents who made the long drive out to watch me race. After a long, exhausting overnight trip I was glad they were able to sleep through my loud trainer workout. That evening we picked up my packet and checked out the bike course, two laps of a highly technical course with four climbs each loop. I wasn’t too worried about the climbs but it had rained all week and rain was still in the forecast so I wasn’t looking forward to the fast technical downhills....

Saturday morning I slept in and did a quick bike and run. Shortly after noon I received a race update email, apparently the water was deemed unsafe to swim in. Due to the many inches of rain that week the water quality was too poor. So I would be racing my first duathlon; we’d do a time trial bike start heading out 20 seconds apart, followed by the run. I had a feeling this might happen. It was more than disappointing but I tried to stay positive.

I got to bed early but slept poorly and I woke up Sunday morning to more rain. Since we didn’t have to bus to the swim start anymore I didn’t need to get to transition until about 5am instead of 4. The rain was still coming down when we arrived. I was happy to see fellow “Minnesotan” Dani Fischer was the first lady in transition with me that morning. We were joined soon after by Robin Pomeroy (The three of us shared the LTF Minneapolis and Worlds overall podium last year and are all racing pro now). READ MORE