Chicago Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

The swim was so rough and wavy. I stood in line, sick to my stomach, watching all of the waves ahead of us bobbing up and down. It truly felt like we were in a washing machine. I've never been in a race that was bunched up like this one. I swam freestyle as much as I could but kept getting pounded by the waves. Decided to resort to my comfort stroke (breast) and started diving through the waves. That worked pretty well and I was passing a lot of people. It finally smoothed out close to the end and I started freestyle again. Wow, can you move fast in freestyle and a wet suit.

Get a wet suit that had the expansion areas behind the knees.
Prepare more for open water swimming instead of pool swimming.

This race had a long run to the transition (barefoot on pavement).
Thank God for my husband, who finished the swim before me but didn't run much on the transition. He came up behind me while I was pulling the wet suit off and kept me from falling over. Thanks Rob!
When we got to the transition, a guy next to us said "Hey, the bike rack fell down this morning so we picked your bikes up the best we could. Hope they aren't scratched." My chain was making some noise during the ride after that but most surprising was the fact that I only had 1" of Gatorade left in my Aerobottle. Thank God I had a spare bottle on the bike!

Really glad we checked out the "bike out" for transition. We had a very wide tree blocking our lane and would not have been able to get past it if we headed down that direction.

Practice more with the wet suit. Should have tried getting off a few more times while it's wet.
I'm really glad a put Body Glide all around my neck. Rob didn't put it behind his neck and ended up with a really nasty burn.

The bike was a shock. Loved it but wow what a frenzy. The road had a lot of holes and cracks. The expansion joints just about shook my body to death. I was very surprised by the number of water bottles in the road.
During the pre-race meeting I kept wondering why they weren't lecturing about the non-drafting and blocking. Not a word was mentioned. During the race, at some point, we were 5 people wide passing. It was crazy. I was also shocked at all the people broken down on the side of the road.


Really tight turns and not very clear how to end the bike leg. One volunteer was yelling where to go but the sprint finish was at the same point as the oly 2nd turn.
Very grateful I wasn't one of them!

Figure out a new drinking and gu system. Didn't think about what would happen if someone knocked the rack down. My gu was attached with this clip device and it didn't tear, but opened the clips.

The only part of me that was really sore after the event was my jaw and front part of the neck. I'm assuming that it's from being in the aero position for so long. I need to find some exercise to strengthen those muscles.

Need more practice running with bike in bumpy terrain.

Loved having the gu station at the beginning. Great job with all the water/Gatorade stations.
Found out that pouring the water over me really helped.
I wore my hydration belt and was glad to be able to drink when I was ready.

I would have picked up my pace more in the middle.

Loved the cold towels at the finish. Attribute my recovery to the Gatorade 03 protein drink. I've never felt so good after a race.


I probably could have pushed the run/swim more but had never completed and olympic distance and was worried about finishing. Had some IT band pain starting in the last 1/2 mile.


This was a well run race that I think everyone should do once. I don't think I'll do it again. Way too much hassle with the transition area/distance. Had to wait quite awhile to get our bikes out etc. Maybe all the walking to collect our stuff helped on the recovery. There's something to be said about giving your gear one last check before the race. Would never be able to happen on this race. Felt very safe and thought the volunteers were terrific.