Whenever (and wherever) I have attended meetings of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) and the American Association for Justice (AAJ), I have been able to locate races in or near the major cities where these international law meetings are held. In fact, I usually come hope with a prize, and more importantly, a story about some place that the other attendees have not experienced.

When the meeting schedule was posted, as is my practice, I was able to find a race not too far from the convention hotel in downtown Philadelphia. The “Journey For Joann Triathlon” is an event supporting the Towamencin Community Wellness Foundation in Kulpsville, Pennsylvania.
My wife and I stayed in the town the night before so that I would not miss the start (which I have done, more than I care to remember !). WIth no opportunity to “preview” the course, I nevertheless felt optimistic since it was a short pool swim followed by a short run 1km., then biking and a 5km., so I packed my “pyro platforms” so as to reduce transition times.

The Sunday, July 13th, 2008 race consisted of a .25 mile pool swim, followed by a lengthy “rest period,” 1 km run, 10 mile multi-loop bike ride, and finally, a 3.1 mile run. Mrs. Landau especially liked the pristine pool and the time after the swim before the run, where she could change out of her wet swimming suit and dry off.

Despite learning the bike course during the warm up period, I finished second to a local racer. There were prizes galore, lots of smiling volunteers, post-race fun and I would recommend this fun, short (!) charitable event to anyone looking for a race in this area of Pennsylvania.