Chicago triathlon

I am going with a whole group.  

It's a great race.  Have you done it before?  It's kind of a tradition every year for my wife and I.

It will be my first oly distance

I'm a bit nervous about the crowds in the water and on the bike. 

jarvy01: The crowds in the water pretty much depends on when you start, which you won't know until the day before the race.  For the wave start, if you are not a strong swimmer, definitely just stay back in the wave and wait a minute for people to get going.  It is hard enough starting from already treading to begin with.  Oh, and if you aren't planning on wearing a wetsuit, you should plan on it!  The warmest it has been for me was 72...the other 2 years were in the 60's!

The crowds on the bike really aren't bad at all.  There are a lot of people out there.  But there is always plenty of room to pass and keep a fast speed.  Maybe at the turn-arounds it gets crowded, but you have to slow down anyways!

It is such a fun race and I like that there are so many people doing it, you are never out there alone.

rnner66:  It is expensive.  But it is Chicago!  You do get a medal, not solid gold though.... It is worth it though, a lot of fun.

Thank you for the information!  I'm starting to get really excited!

Does anyone know what the bike course looks like?  Is it flat?  I've heard lots of potholes, but I'm wondering about hills (can't be many there in the city). 

It will be sooooooo nice to ride flats for a change.  Don't think I've EVER done that living and racing in Cleveland.  LOL

The bike course is fairly flat.  There is a hill getting onto Lake Shore Dr right at the start (for this I would recommend having your bike already in a somewhat lower gear so you can get going and get up the hill).  After that, there a few very small hills that maybe would only require you switching up 1 gear, so not bad at all.  Then there is a nice downhill at the end coming off Lake Shore.  

When I did it in 2009, the wind was pretty bad.  There was a headwind all the way out Lake Shore.  But then it was really nice coming back towards downtown.  Finally, just note that the turn arounds are pretty sharp turns.

Has everyone looked at their wave yet?  What are you in?  I'm in 49, which makes a 9:30 start, which really sucks!

My wave starts at 8:38 a.m.  That blows!

What do mean by you wish there was checkin on Saturday?  Do you mean Sunday?  You check in on Saturday at the Expo...

Yeah, I also just realized that my wave is the VERY LAST one!  Probably going to get passed by the pros!

Can't wait!

It was an interesting race to say the least.  This was my 4th time doing the race.  The swim was warm, but the current made it very difficult.  It was the worst current I have had in my experience.  I think it slowed a lot of times.  

The bike was great.  Strong headwind heading north on Lake Shore, but coming back was nice.  The headwind wasn't that overpowering though.

Run went really well.  It was getting pretty hot, being later in the morning.  But it is a good run course with good views of the city!

Did you do it?  What are your thoughts?

stinks about the current. hope the swim didn't give too many problems to people. i know that's a big worry of most there it appears.

i did not do the race. i signed up for it in March but actually deferred to next year. had a race on 8/7 and my first HIM on 9/11, so wanted to really focus on finishing up the training...not that ambitious yet. i lived in Chicago for 6 years until '05 and still work there, so i'm always interested in the races there.

was the bike course crowded?

Yeah, I think the swim slowed a lot of people down.  I noticed leaders in my age group with slower than normal times (by about 4-6 minutes).  

I started in the last wave at 9:30.  The first lap of the bike course was pretty crowded, especially with people not riding on the right (closest to the median on LSD) side of the road.  But the 2nd lap was a lot less crowded.

That swim was beastly.  LOL  I normally do 1500m in 27 minutes.....did this one in 31.  Bah.  Quite shocked when I got out of the water and saw that I'd been in the water for 31 minutes!!!!  Headwinds were brutal going south but smooth sailing on the way back.  The run was most difficult for me...only because I'm a weaker runner.  I finished 34th out of 252 in my age group.  I loved the race and had a blast!  I will definitely do it again sometime (next year I'm going to do the Half Rev at Cedar Point instead though). 

We had a great time in chicago but poor planning as we had to rush out for people to catch planes...

If we do it next year we will stay through Monday