Chicago Triathlon - Sprint Distance - TriathlonSprint

I do not do well in wavy water. This swim was really bipolar- it started off with large chops, I mean I was bouncing all over the place, but then settled into small managable chop for the last 1/4 mile. I was struggling so much the first half, I was embarrassing myself (and it takes a lot for me to get embarrassed) and doing a lot of side stroke and belching up water I kept swallowing. I FINALLY got back into a grove with the crawl about halfway through the course where the water magically calmed down. I had very little interference from other people, probably because I stayed way out to the east side.

I should add that while my overall time was a LOT slower than I'd hopeed for, it did include the 1/4 mile hobble on asphalt back to T1, which probably took about 3-4 minutes.

Get more comfortable in crazy water. Also get more comfortable bilateral breathing again because it may have helped with the wave in the face situation.

My "eff it" attitude started here. I stopped at the porta potties halfway up the hill to my rack (did I mention my rack was at the top of a hill?) Pulled off my wetsuit over there and then jogged to my bike. I put one sock on upside down and then actually stopped to fix it, I mean who does that in T1. Anyway, I was just taking my time to calm down after that swim.

Not care about my socks? The porta potty visit is inevitable so I'm just going to live with that.

I was really trying on the bike but the headwinds were clearly pretty bad (but I don't know just HOW bad, I don't have any computers on my bike). It was also a crowded course, lots of blockers and d-bags passing on both sides. I almost got sideswiped by a moron passing my on the left while I was passing someong on the right. RAGE. My left arm also went numb which was fun.

We all know I'd like a road bike instead of my franken-MTB.

I will continue to rock the T2 as long as I don't have to change my shoes. Also my rack was right next to bike in/bike out so I didn't have to run across town with the damn thing.

Beautiful run course, the wind that made the swim and bike difficult was nice here. Really appreciated the Team to End AIDS aid station where everyone went crazy when I ran through! I did get a side stitch but it wasn't bad enough to make me walk, just enough to keep me at a below-average "run" pace.

Wish there were mile markers for M2 and M3. I like to start picking up the pace during the last mile and then sprinting at the end but I honestly had no idea where the finish line was until I saw it, and it was hard to make any gains at that point obviously.

Grabbed a banana and water and then crashed at the team tent. Waited in line for an absurd amount of time for a stretch from Athletico (at least I got to chat with a lot of interesting people.) Did some foam rolling too, of course. Also hit up the picnic for a hamburger and watermelon.


Being a weak swimmer. This was my slowest race of the year, and even though only the swim was overwhelmingly bad, everything else was just slow enough to add up to a really embarrassing total time. I'm only being hard on myself because I know I CAN do better, even though I know I was trying the whole time. If that makes any sense.


Even though the size of this race had me nervous, I only really noticed it on the bike. It was really fun doing a BIG race for once, but I still might prefer the smaller ones.