ITU World Triathlon Chicago - Olympic Course - TriathlonOlympic

water temp was perfect! calm water, perfect! Had to walk out on a floating pontoon and jump in the water. I sat on the edge of the pontoon and dangled my feet in the water. It was cold, but not crazy cold, lowered myself in the water (holding on to the pontoon) and gradually got wet - no issues at all. Bobbed up and down to get my face wet and swam around the back of the wave to warm up. Swim was extremely crowded, I could not find any open water. The channel was narrow, we had swimmers coming towards us, and everyone seemed to be swimming the same pace. Unfortunately, as we crowded up at the buoy and were making our turn, we ran smack dab into a 40' sailboat sitting crossways directly in our path. We all stopped to tread water and try to figure out what was happening and what we were supposed to do. Apparently the buoy had floated away and the race marshalls couldn't retrieve it because of all the swimmers, so they had to wait for us to stop. They had us swim around the boat (while the race was delayed) and then put the buoy back in place. My swim distance shows xxxxx

probably nothing -

This was THE LONGEST transition I have ever seen. The run from the lake to transition was long, but then the run THROUGH transition with the bike was LONG. I was faster than others who were walking more slowly through transition.

maybe NOT wear my gloves - took a little extra time to put them on WET hands. I was concerned it might rain and I would want to have a firm grip on the handlebars, so it was worth the extra few seconds.

I also french-braided my hair - so didn't have to mess with getting my ponytail through the bike helmet (saved some time).

I was concerned that with the number of athletes and doing 4 short loops that the roads would be over-crowded. This was definitely not the case. We had two lanes in all directions. Most everyone stayed in the right hand lane unless passing. I thought it would be impossible to NOT draft. This was not the case either. There was plenty of room and no fear of drafting. The U-turns did slow things down and there were a LOT of them. Then tunnel was great at blocking the wind, but it was hot (from exhaust fans from nearby buildings). You could feel the wind when you exited the tunnel. Overall, this was a really fun course - the 4 loops made the distance seem really short. I used the first loop to get a feel for the conditions and watch for potholes, bottles, etc. and then really pushed more on the next loops.

I could not see my power tap in the tunnel and was not able to gauge my output - turns out I fell below my target (always a problem for me on the flats).

Definitely need to drink my fluids. I only drank about 6 oz of my gatorade and ate one gel (earlier than anticipated, but at the first hunger pain). Not nearly enough calories and impacted my run performance.

This was a great PR for me! Fastest Race yet :)

Again, CRAZY LONG distance to return bike to transition - running on the road in bike shoes for 1/4 mile, then THROUGH transition (I was equal distance from either end in transition).

I leave my run bottles in a small cooler on my fuel belt - awesome to put that on before the run.

nothing - all was good.

It was HOT! No shade and a little crowded. Only enough space for two people across in some places, made it a bit challenging to pass, but would open up in front of fountain. So glad I had my garmin, because I realized that 3 laps was not going to be enough miles. In my head, I had figured that each loop was about 2 miles - not the case. Aid stations were about every mile. I used the water to pour on my head, face and chest and drank my own gatorade. Forgot to eat my gel. Never did seem to get my "run legs" probably because of poor nutrition.

get my nutrition on both the bike and the run. In spite of this, I had a good time on this run - almost 2:00 faster than my prior olympic race.

get water, finisher picture and banana. waited for results - taking way too long, so walked 1/2 mile to gear bag check to get my phone and check results online - no results. found my cousins family and hung out with them. Really hungry - disappointed that the only food was bagels and banana's/oranges. I don't eat bagels, but went back for one because I was starving. Also - I did not have cash and when I went to buy lunch - that's all they took. Are you kidding me? No credit card machines. So a very nice athlete gave me $7 to get a hamburger. Lots of walking around to watch my cousin race (who was 2.5 ours behind me). Big problems trying to get from transition to finish line - roads were blocked due to race so required lots of criss crossing to get from one end to the other. Good decision to allow athletes to retrieve their bikes from transition before 11:30 - that would have been nuts. As it was, there were very long lines of athletes with bikes waiting to cross Columbus to get to parking and/or hotel.


lack of nutrition.


For a first time race, this was excellent. The venue is fantastic and the courses were good. Still some logistics to work out. It was disappointing to not be able to easily access the host hotel after my race - lines were crazy long to cross the road and required LOTS of walking (from transition to gear back check back to pedestrian crosswalk). At the end of the day, after getting my bike, we found a tunnel near transition that lead us back to the host hotel. Would have been good to have a FORMAL route available to use this tunnel (we had to sneak across the course). Also, more food options (either free or to purchase) and credit card purchases are a must! A lot more food would have been sold, had credit cards been accepted. Lots of folks asking to borrow cash. Overall, really enjoyed this race, can't wait to do it again next year!!