Chicago Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

Our mob got in the water. We were truly like corks floating in the ocean. 100 or so people getting into the water in one minute is disconcerting at best. I was hoping to stay to the front, but somehow ended up at the back of the pack. There must have been some in front of the start line, so they pushed us back which pushed me even further to the back. Horn sounds. Off I go. NOT! I waited what seemed like an eternity to have room to swim. I could take a couple of strokes, and then be cut off. I was getting frustrated (swim is by far my strongest of the three). After taking a major kick to the chest, I said “the heck with this” (well, maybe not those exact words) and decided to get swimming. I did my best to thread my way through the crowd without trying to disrupt others. Several times I had people hanging onto my feet – I know drafting is good, but this was ridiculous! Got around the turn buoy without much trouble and had good open water. Open water until I started catching the previous waves. The water was pretty rough. Lots of people in trouble- hanging onto the boats and seawall. It didn’t happen to me, but I heard they were having trouble controlling the lifeguard boats and they were getting into the swim lanes. I grew up in Chicago, and it was VERY cool sighting off of Sears Tower (I guess it’s Willis Tower now). The swim felt good when the traffic was light. This was also my first race in a wet suit. I got to the exit at the Yacht Club feeling far better than expected- I get seasick pretty easily and was worried that might happen but it didn’t. There were many volunteers helping us out of the water. It was VERY much appreciated, but they must have been freezing! The distance to transition is included in the swim time- I believe it was about a third of a mile. At least you get some time to start getting out of your wetsuit

The only thing I should have done was stick with my plan and get to the front. The wet suit wasn’t an issue, but I didn’t use Glide on the back of my neck- I sporting a nasty burn at the moment!

Found the bike easily and walking it earlier gave me a plan how to get out of there. Someone else on our rack said that our rack had fallen down, but they put our bikes back as best they could. Mine was fine, but my wife’s aero bottle was almost empty- she didn’t know that until she was out on the ride. I took my time (obviously) in T1 – the wind was strong and I knew what was ahead!

I’m finally getting a clue and had my bike in a low gear to get started. There’s a fairly steep ramp to get on Lake Shore Drive. I passed a woman halfway up the ramp that didn’t gear down and she looked like a turtle on her back trying to unclip her bike. She was fine, just embarrassed. The ride was wild. Two loops for the International distance. I suffered in the wind going north. The south was obviously better, so I tried to conserve some energy. The course was rough in places- it got easy to tell where the bad spots were as they were littered with water bottles. As a slower rider, I stayed close to the guard rail. However there were LOTS of slower riders out where they weren’t supposed to be and in the way of the fast people. I lost count of how many people I saw broken down or with flats. Every bridge expansion joint successfully crossed gave me a sigh of relief. It was pretty confusing figuring out how to finish- at least I was going slow enough to figure it out! On my second leg north, I was starting to get a headache – d’oh, I hadn’t been hydrating! I was feeling better by the finish.

Hydrate sooner and push a little harder. I recently got clip-on aero bars, but I hardly used them due to the roughness of the course, the number of people in close proximity, and my lack of experience with them. Since this was my first Oly, finishing in one piece was a success.

Again, I took my time to hydrate and take a GU. My early morning Diet Coke was really yelling at me that it wanted to go to a new place.

It was very cool starting the run. So many great spectators. So many great spectators that I had to run into the Porta-Potty in front of! Oh well. My run can be best described as fast-walking. I’m a few months past a foot injury, so I was just hoping for the best. It was a beautiful course. It was a little intimidating to see Soldier Field and McCormick Place in the distance and think; I have to run past there, AND BACK?? I plugged along. There were many people again in tough shape- cramping, puking, etc. Oh well, I just kept telling myself to keep my feet moving. Lots of very nice people that were very encouraging. My pace starting picking up when I realized I might be able to make my secondary goal (Goal #1: Finish; Goal #2: Finish in less than 4 hours- I told you I was slow!!). It seems that every time I get within earshot of the finish line, I get totally choked up; this race was no exception. On to the finish- I did my best to run, but I think I was doing my impression of the Ironman Shuffle. So great to cross the line!!

Run more- simple as that.

My wife was waiting (she did AWESOME!!!) with water and a G3. I’ve never had one before (hey, race was over, I could try something new!). It didn’t taste all that great (I was eating a banana too) but I think it kept me out of a ton of hurt- I will try that again. They gave a VERY nice finisher’s medal. We eventually got in line for food- it looked good, it tasted good, I just couldn’t eat much. Very nice vibe in the post race- more chairs would have been nice, but hey, they had almost 10,000 racers over the three tris!


My top three limiters are my brain, my brain, and my brain. I did loosely follow the BT Olympic Training Plan, and it did EXACTLY what is said I would do; allow me to finish and be a BOPer. Yeah, I could have pushed harder, but I had a great time and wasn’t too miserable at the end!


IMHO, every triathlete should do this race once in their life. The scale of the entire event is beyond description. Will I do this race again? Maybe someday, but not in the foreseeable future. It was a blast, and I will always remember it!