Accenture Chicago Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

Finally the time came and we were lined up in a que for the start. My brother 2 waves in front. This was the last time I saw him before the end of the race. Amazing organization of all the people, again - everything went really smooth. Finally we're in the water, the gun goes off and the madness starts. I'm at the back waiting for the fast guys to go and gradually started swimming. The area designated for us was too narrow and inevitably sooner then I thought I was getting bumped and also hit few people. Nothing serious, just an interuption to the regular rhytm and an opportunity to sight properly (which was kind of easy as the pack never really thinned out).

And so we swam around the buoy and headed North. After we went past the starting point the water widened, but it was still crowded. I was catching up the wave in front and getting overtaken by the fast guys from the one behind. Tried to draft, but it just didn't seem to work good, as the swimmer in front had to stop many times because of the traffic. It seemed like long swim for some reason... Finally the stairs appeared and some volunteers helped me the get out.

BTW, the swim time incudes 4 minutes of slow jog to the transition, it's just the way the swim finish was positioned.

Be more careful not to drink the water since it wasn't clean and you could see some nasty algae/ weeds growing on the bottom.

Wetsuit off, took time to fold it and put in in the bag - with this crowd didn't want to lose it - people were kicking things around there...

Put the sunscreen on!!! I really have to remember this one - got burned pretty bad on the shoulders. Dumb.

From the transition we started on a ramp up, small chainring, then as we hit the Lake Shore still easy spinning but in the big chainring. Tried to go really conservatively even for me and I guess it worked. Still passed lots of people, but the fast guys were flying by too. Lots of potholes, cracks, bumps etc, bottles on course and slow riders going too far to the right. Spectacular scenery though with the fans on the side, like TT of TdF... OK, maybe not, but still great energy around. This part went really quickly and I felt like riding more. Maybe because I've been along this route so many times I knew every turn and bridge, the mind didn't have to work overtime. Spent all the time against the wind in aero and some of the downwind part too. The tricky part was - it was so incredibly bumpy and aero just didn't work, specially when going faster.

Maybe I should have brought my mountain bike instead...

It was easy to find the bike, the walk before the race paid off. Took bike shorts off I had on top of the jammers (comfort first), belt on, grabbed the bottle and went to the start out. Forgot to take bike gloves off, no biggie (glad I took the helmet off...) Now, this transition area was at least 1km long and with lots of people changing between the bikes it was hard to run.

Nada.

The legs felt fine after the bike, no problem at all. Was a bit careful at first thinking the quads might not like it, but no, everything worked just fine. As it was hot and sunny now I decided to save my energy at the beginning and didn't try to be a hero. Still was passing some runners and felt quite good. Again, this is the path I have run most of all my running and knew every bump in the road. People around looked really tired and sweat was literally pouring from most of them. At this point I decided not to go faster at all and just enjoy the day with my family afterwards. After all it would only save a couple of minutes if any. I still had to play with the baby, go to a post race party, have few beers, have some fun with others and walk back home with the bike and the bag.

And so we were all trotting along the lake, sweating and drinking happily and time just went by. Soon the turnaround point came and now it was the last part of the race. The pace was still the same, no walking at all, slowed down only once to get some water (I had 24oz bottle with me with 2 gels dissolved and some lemon juice and that was working fine). Soon we entered into the last stretch, tons of people around, cowbells, cheering, the works... I sped up to an all out sprint and passed all the people in sight like never before (true!) The announcer called every runner passing the finish line by the name and sometimes made some funny comments, which felt nice.

Picked up the medal, some bananas, water and a wet towel.

Should have picked up two or more towels...

Called my wife (yes, I had the phone with me on the run), found them in the crowd and we sat on the grass near the finish waiting for my brother. This took more than one hour, but so what? He finished, was really happy about it and thanked me for 'dragging' him into it. Then we went to get some pasta and beer... I don't remember much aftrwards... no, only kidding, had a few but the light kind so it was like drinking water (right...). That was also the last time I saw my brother for the day as he mixed up with some familiar crowd from the yacht club, he also mixed some vodka and whiskey with that beer and really didn't remember the 'ride' back home. Oh dear...


Didn't really want to go any faster, this was fine for the level of training I did.


Great race with spectacular scenery, but seems like it is getting too big... I had a good time though and if my brother wants to do it again, I will sign up again.