Accenture Chicago Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

I really should be practicing backstroke. The swim is definitely getting the better of me. The shock of the cold water was something! I managed to feel ok, I thought, for the first few 100 yards or so, then I realized that I was having trouble exhaling which caused a bit of trouble inhaling, so when in a state of panic (he he) roll over onto my back and do backstroke. My swim time out of the water was 38: something, then after running the longest 1/4 mile ever to transition they clocked me finally going over the mat at 41:22. Hey, I was praying I came in under an hour, so I'm definitely happy with that.

Not swim back stroke. I feel like I'm punking out.

um...What was I doing in transition? According to my time you would think I was sipping tea or something. Oh, I remember...I was almost one of the idiots who couldn't find their bike. I finally found it and took care of business fairly quickly.

Realize that the way I come into transition to set my bike up in the wee hours of the morning isn't how I would be coming into transition out of the swim. Next time I will at least acknowledge where the entrance is to transition and where my bike is from that point.

Transition area was awfully muddy. My bike managed to stay very clean but my feet were a mess and I forgot my towel :(

I had such poor nutrition on this bike ride. Also I'm not sure if the swim didn't take too much out of me or not. My drinks were piss warm by the time I got to them 6 hours later. I could feel myself, my legs, being fatigued. I definitely didn't feel strong on the bike. I should have felt stronger than I did. It was hot, I was tired (only slept about an hour), poor nutrition...Overall I will take it ;-)

Drink! Drink! Drink! Eat something.

I don't know if this is a decent time. I had to run a decent way to my rack. There were some slow pokes in front of me.

I'm not sure. I thought I did ok...I will have to check and see what the average t2 time was and see if I should be looking for ways to shave off some time. I'm sure there are improvements to be made.

I felt really good on the run. I definitely could have kicked it up, but I was trying to keep it easy because my foot was killing me. It was killing me Saturday too. Unfortunately, I think it may be another stress fracture. Anyway, I got my legs under VERY quickly, found someone I knew (a fellow TNT'r) and we ran together. She was keeping a lower 9 pace and I thought that was great. I would run with her then kick it up a notch at the end. She slowed down significantly about mile 3ish. I probably shouldn't have stayed with her and just went for it, but I was trying to keep it slow myself because of my foot. I think I helped her though. She said she would have walked if I wasn't there. That makes me happy.

hmmm....Run faster.

Walking around


My foot & poor nutrition


Since this was my first triathlon this size I'm ecstatic that I finished and I'm going to use these times and this experience to help assess the improvements I need to make for next year. There is much improvement to be made here. I have to find a better way to keep track of my overall time during the race. I believe had I known I was only 16 minutes away from 3 hours I think I would have hustled a little more here and there and shaved off a lot of that time.