A Different Kind of Race

So, today I was in the Philadelphia Women's Triathlon. Now, I've done two of these before, but this one was different. First of all, there were almost 1000 competitors, where the other two had only two or three hundred. And there were more than 70 women in my age group today as compared to six or eight the last two times. Plus, this time the athletes were all women, which was cool. The other two races were both at a rural park, too, while this one was in the center of the city, so there were a lot more spectators today as well. But most notably, there was a huge sense of community or camaraderie this time. It all began with the pre-race meeting/pep rally event on Saturday. I met a couple of nice women there who were doing their first triathlon. I found them again on Sunday, too, so it was nice to kind of know a couple other people even though I signed up for the race alone. Anyway, after the race, most people hung out for awhile, too, and they even had an awards ceremony! All this was new to me, since the last two times, people pretty much took off as soon as they were finished. So, put all these things together, and you have a great race experience! I did well, too, though I'll post the details later, once they're online. And now I'm totally excited for my next race in two weeks, which might be even cooler since there will be 2500 triathletes there!