Hot Philadelphia and "The Wall"

I suppose I should at least write a little about the Philly experience since it was a memorable one.

Cara and I drove the BMW up for the 8+ hour trip. We spent the night at her aunt's near Hershey, PA (go chocolate!).

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in downtown Philly, just a couple blocks from the finish line of the race. We had an 18 story view of City Hall which I enjoyed one evening while talking with my Mom on the cell. Even at night, it was hot in Philly.

There is a 16 mile path that goes to Valley Forge. Only half of it is paved, however. It follows the river and under some historic bridges (such as the Columbia).

We pre-rode the race course as much as possible... the "Wall" on Levering Street and Lemon Hill. Is the "Wall" really 20%? I could believe that it is in one section. This hill was much longer and steeper than I had imagined, yet it was doable. The only problem is that I had only one speed up the hill which was the same speed on our pre-ride as on race day. Yes, the pack quickly pulled away from me during the race on this hill. Hmmm... maybe I should've been training on Kitchen's Branch this year instead of so much flat River Road. Even the hill on Dicks Creek would've been better training... the one I would avoid by turning around before reaching the hill on training rides.

Could I have stayed with the pack if I had trained more on hills (and not gone to Spain the week before)? Hmmm... not sure... these women were all bone and muscle... not an ounce of fat. Looked like men unless you looked close (did I register for the right event?). I'd have to lose some of this extra paddling to compete with that. Oh, and maybe not work full time nights, either. Ha ha. Race full time? Is there any other way? Who knows.

I actually enjoyed riding in a pack of 200 women for those first 7 miles. I played the game of jockeying for position to the front. Was successful until we started to climb... then my heart rate made a big leap from fairly comfortable to big effort. The pace seemed to pick up here, too, which sank my confidence going into the "Wall". All my teammies passed me on the hill, too. And for a moment, I thought that maybe this was an ok pace because I'd catch the pack on the downhill and not be blown out. Ok, I never saw anyone again. Didn't work out that way (poor strategy). I managed to ride with a girl until we got pulled after the second lap (yea for riding 30 miles and twice the "Wall"). She had crashed herself early on before the climb.

The second lap was blazing hot... I ran through my water and had a difficult time getting a water feed... no one wanted to feed me since I was off the back. I finally discovered a bottle. Will have to scope the feed zone better next time. Apparently, the temperature had gotten to 98 degrees and over 110 on the pavement. It was humid and sweat poured off my brow. I unzipped my jersey wide open. The only thing worse would've had to be a cop marshaling the course in their hot black uniform, not being able to move out of the sun. No wonder they weren't smiling.

I watched and took photos of the women's finish and some of the men. The whole racing scene was big and exciting. Impossible to describe.

Before the men's race was over, I wandered about trying to find some food and cold drink (I was starving). It was Sunday, so not much was open. I found Starbucks and a cold frappuchino while running into someone who pointed me to some real food choices... the 12th St Market. It wasn't a long walk and inside it was air conditioned. There were so many choices from Philly Cheese Steaks and falafel to the crepes that I enjoyed. And, of course, there was candy, smoothies, and other treats. The only thing missing was someone to share the experience with. :(

I used my stair conditioning from Spain and climbed the stairs twice to our 18th level room. It didn't take much longer than the elevator because the elevator often had a long wait. 18 stories did feel much harder than the 6 I'd been climbing in Spain. Definite quad burner.