Its a small local event.. why would it get mentioned?

If you like it, do it!

There's a serious problem with the new swim course. Apparently the weed overgrowth is so bad boats are having a hard time navigating it

Interesting changes to the swim.. so the Oly starts across the river from the St Joe's boathouse instead of from it? And the Sprint is all downstream now too?

i'll be there. i was happy to see there's no more bus to the swim start, but then i saw this:
guess i'll treat it as a forced warm-up.


by whose standards? granted, there's no more pro prize purse this year...but it's typically a very competitive regional race.

I'm in for the Olympic. Crashed hard into the hay bales on Black Rd halfway through the bike course last year and looking for redemption.

NYC tri has a one mile walk to the swim start too.. not that big of an issue IMO. Everyone has to do it and you're not burning any matches.

The Schuylkill is pretty nasty even with green water quality; hope the weeds aren't an issue.

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Strava

Almost 900 finishers in 2015 in what everyone thought would be miserable weather (and a canceled swim).

Almost 1200 finishers in 2014 in pretty much perfect weather.

Those aren't small races by anyone's measure except a few people on ST. Add that its an Olympic on a fast mostly closed course in a park in a very popular day trip destination for millions of people I would have thought it would be more popular with this crowd.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

Still not a national race, no more than most RocknRoll 1/2Ms. There aren't that many TriRock races (just 6) and given that TriRock Clearwater is still listed as TBD, I would bet they pull the plug on it this year -- it only attracts a small fraction of what you are getting in Philly.

Its a nice, well organized event with good competition.....TriRock has done a pretty good job since taking over (4?) a few years ago. This will be my 5th year. And you can thank me for the hay bales on Black Road. I crashed hard there in 2014 into a parked police motorcycle when there were no bales. And yes, plenty of other events have the one mile walk to swim start.....just hope they have a decent clearing on the shorline for the start. Supposed to be great weather....unlike last year....looking forward to it.

Actually, correction - I don't know why I said last year (time getting away from me)- I crashed in 2014 as well. I saw you crash!! You were about 3-4 minutes behind me. You hit that bike hard and just got up and kept riding (unless you weren't the only one that hit the bike). Crazy.

I think there were some hay bales actually two years ago, but I skidded hard into a ditch and the one I hit barely helped. Besides the road rash I wasn't injured. Road rash sucks, by the way.

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Strava

I would be interested in knowing the history of the event. Someone mentioned last year that it was the 25th running of the event. I know it predates TriRock by a lot, because we started doing it in 2009 and I think it was the Philadelphia Insurance Company Triathlon back then, but I'm not sure, and I don't think they were the original sponsors anyway.

I know TriRock as an organization has had problems. I hope (and assume) that this race will continue on regardless of TriRock's financial health, because it really is a very well organized and executed race. Much better so than other much bigger races sponsored by that very big organization the will remain unnamed.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

I did it in 2008 (first ever tri, the sprint) and again in 2009 (Olympic). In 2010 they had special-edition shirts for purchase at sign-up (I signed up for Olympic again but had to ditch because of PE's a few of months before) with blurb on them about it being the 5th anniversary and the dates 2005-2010 (so technically the 4th anniversary?). Not sure if that referred to PIC's sponsorship of it or not.

Hang on, are you saying you crashed on Black Rock Rd more than once? Seems to me most riders would have learned enough from the one crash to not repeat?

ETA- I think I read the post incorrectly. Just 1 crash, right?

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To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

You can Google some of the history. Appears the previous owner, Philadelphia Triathlon, LLC started the race known as Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon (PhlyTri) in 2005 and announced the sale to CGI, San Diego just before the 2012 event.....my first year there. I just realized that, apparently for the first time, there is no pro race this year. I hope this isn't the start of some cost cutting for this event. Wonder if it is tied into not having buses this year taking you to the swim start.

No, only in 2014. Didn't do it last year as I believe Challenge AC was the same weekend.

While I take full responsibility for going too quickly around that corner, I think TriRock should really put up caution signs as you approach the bridge. After I pulled myself out of the ditch I saw 2 more crashes in the following 5 minutes (one of which was the poster above)

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Strava

I've done the Oly in 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011 and also the sprint in 2010 and am signed up for both sprint/oly this year. Alas I have a conflict and won't be racing this w/e.

This event used to sell out. I know I had stopped signing up due to conflicts with other races (Challenge AC) plus disappointment over the # of times the swim's been cancelled (recognizing there is always a good reason for that), but I wonder if course crowding and road quality have contributed to lower enrollment as well. As noted above, someone always crashes, which gives an impression the course isn't safe. And from my experience in 2010 the sprint was way too crowded with people having no cycling ettiquette, which was annoying as well as creating danger.

Anyway, I hope it's a fantastic 2 days 'cause I'd love for this event to remain viable.

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To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

Yeh, there may have been several crashes. It maybe wasn't me who you saw get back on the bike....it was too damaged. I had to walk it in to the dismount because my bars had totally snapped off and I had a flat. At the time, I was in 3rd or 4th place and was told not to go out the run because I was pretty banged up, but I did anyway and finished. I made the mistake of doing the Sprint the day before and coming back to do the OLY....started to feel tired on the bike and just lost control.....last time for that. As a side note, I had a phone message on my house phone the next day from the owner of the motorcycle I hit (an off duty cop working the event) asking me to pay for damages to his bike! I contacted an exec at CGI who said she would take care of it and not to call him back....unreal. Too bad no pros this year....I've always enjoyed talking with them in the past. Looks like great weather.....have a good race.

Race has been going on since the 90's. Allen Kutz and I put it on for years and then it went dormant but it's a great race. Albeit the river isn't the best, the water quality is always tested before the race.

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Steven Harad
215.359.6964

Allen Kutz? The Pennsylvania Triathlon Club. Haven't heard that name for a while. I'm dating myself. To date myself even further, I once bought a bike from Steve's Bike and Fitness. At the original location.

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"Honestly, triathlon is a pussified version of duathlon on that final run."- Desert Dude

I did TriRock Annapolis several years ago, then they really messed it up with the next year and cancellations and refunds and such. Very frustrating, I don't think I would do another TriRock race.

this was my biggest problem last year (did the olympic). the second loop of the bike was pretty sketchy; i was pretty much constantly dodging both potholes/cracks and slower athletes on their first loop. a bunch of people flatted as well. it was definitely a consideration when i was deciding whether to sign up again this year, but there are a limited number of competitive olympic-distance races in this area.

and I would be steve!

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Steven Harad
215.359.6964

I know. I remember you well. BTW, that bike was a Trek 5200 and the year was 1994. I still ride that bike to this day. I've certainly gotten my moneys worth.

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"Honestly, triathlon is a pussified version of duathlon on that final run."- Desert Dude

That's ridiculous! It might have been the same motorcycle, then, that the guy I saw crashed into. Extremely poor positioning at the apex of the turn on the steepest(?), or at least trickiest, hill of the course. Sorry to hear about your crash and bike, that really sucks. I just banged myself up to the point where it wasn't worth continuing. Most importantly my bike was fine...

For those asking how long the event has been around; the athlete guide says this is the 12th year (but not always owned by Trirock)

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Strava

You called it! Just got an email that the swim start has been moved to the sprint start. The Olympic now swims up stream and then turns 180 and goes down stream. They don't say it's been shortened so that's good.

I guess if the water level is that low there will virtually no current.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"