Anthracite Triathlon

This race is my favorite small town, local race. It doesn't really get a lot of people at it but it's well organized and a nice race. If you are looking for a smaller race that is well priced and well organized, I highly suggest Anthracite. It's in the lovely town of Jim Thorpe, which is a great place for hiking and history. Truly a lovely place. Onto the race though.

Swim: 

No pictures for the swim here, but this race is I came out first for the swim. Like I said, it's a small race so not many athletes race here, but it's a nice swim as the water is pretty calm. It's not a fast swim here though, I normally have a below average swim time. But It's a great race if your not very comfortable with swimming with many other people as it field is limited. 

When I came out of the water though, I just wanted to see how much of a lead I could open up and see what the body could do. 

Bike: 

Here I decided to really push myself. The goal was to shoot for an hour for the bike. Statistically, it was possible if I pushed my ftp at 330 watts. However, reality set in. I was about 5 minutes short on the time. The power meter was not working this day, so my estimated FTP was about 298w according to Strava.  I still set a course record bike split coming in at 1:05. It was a pretty good accomplishment considering over 1500 feet of climbing for the 40k course. 

Run: 

Here I wanted to just leave it out on the course. I had about a 6 minute lead on my competitors which was a pretty comfortable lead. My goal here was to set a course record. I targeted a 6:00 min mile pace. This run course if very deceiving, You think it's flat until you hit the half way mark. Then you realize that the course was a slight downhill and turned into a slight incline. I knew this going in and made sure to leave enough in the tank to really tear up the second half of the course to get the course record. 

Overall: 

I got the course record coming in under 2:10 and first overall. I can't speak enough good words about this race, It's truly great. The post race food is chicken fingers, pasta salad, chocolate milk (they added it due to my suggestion the previous year) ice cream, and a few other things. You can't go wrong. Sign up next year! I'll be there! link is below

https://hazyracing.weebly.com/anthracite.htmlLink to Anthracite Triathlon!