Chicago Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

Straight forward swim except for the 600 yard run on cracked concrete to T1. Slows you down and ruins the swim time. Felt unexpectedly good, caught swimmers in the 4 minute and 8 minute wave ahead of me. Stopped to take of wetsuit for the run to T1, no idea what the actual swim time was.

This was my first tri. so I hung in the back during water treading with the 100 or so guys in my wave. Then I had to work through a bunch of slower guys to get into open water. Next time I'm going close to the front for the start.

I never practiced with shoes pre-clipped or jumping on bike so I sat down, put the shoe on at the rack, ran out, then mounted standing still. Slow, but safe.

Practice the jumping on bike/ having shoes pre-clipped in. Also buy some tri-bike shoes with a single strap.

I knew it was going to be HOT HOT so I drank gallons of fluids but my swim wave went off before I could hit the porta-potty. By the time I got to the bike my bladder was screaming at me. Had to stop for a natural break on lap 1 but the relief was well worth the lost time. My 2nd lap was much faster more comfortable.


Train more, this was my 1st race and it's been hard to find time to put in the riding hours laid out in the 20 Week Olympic Training program. Watching a guy on a MTB in tennis shoes drop me was just brutal. But dropping the guy with Aero wheels that cost more than my bike made up for it.

Room for improvement but for my 1st time, I don't care that much.

Again, comes down to practice. I stayed safe, stopped, climbed off, took off my shoes and then ran in.

Disaster! This has always been my strength. On fresh legs, I can do a 10k at 7:30 pace so I was hoping for an 8ish average after the bike. But the HEAT and Humidity got me, I cramped in both quads almost immediately and had to stop, sit down and stretch. It took every ounce of will power just to keep moving. Passed tons of people walking and suffered every step of the way.

Not sure, maybe I went to hard on the bike but the temp and heat index were so high, it was crazy t be out there. Kona? -No thank you

Stumbled across the finish line to wet towels and cold fans, laid on the ground for a while. Stopping never felt so good.


Xtreme heat and humidity. I was well hydrated, almost over-hydrated and I still felt the heat stroke coming on.


After investing 8 months in training I would have liked better race weather conditions. If you don't enjoy heat and humidity, skip the Chicago Marathon and Triathlon. Still, all in all a good experience for my first time. I'll do more races, but this one, never again.