Accenture Chicago Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

No nerves is a good thing. The course for the Olympic was to head South 300 M then around a buoy and back past the start along the lake wall to the swim exit. Spoke to a guy who stated that he avg. 24 MPH on the bike course last year. He didn't look all that impressive so it made me wonder.

Jumped in and assessed my strategy while floarting amongst 100 others in my wave. Moved towards the wall in the back. The race started and I started amongst the thrashing. The lane was about 15 yards wide which made for a congested start. I was kicked by a heel which suprisingly had a lot of force behind it. First time for this experience and I was glad it was a glancing blow. It would've caused some damage if it would have hit square. My left goggle filled up with water and I couldn't tell if my contact was in place. Michael Phelps I am not, so I flipped over and emptied the goggle and continued. The contact was still in place but the goggle was still leaking slightly. Rounded the buoy and headed to the swim exit.

Felt like I was making good time. The water was relatively clear which I have never experienced before. I could see the wall so I kept in line and turned to the wall to breath to ensure I was going straight. Flipped 2X to clear the water and it stopped leaking after the third clearing. I thought I was 3/4 of the way complete before an actual sighting of the swim finish. As I looked up I saw the that I was exactly even with the Starting Line!! UGH. Some quick underwater math told me I had completed 600 with 900 to go so I settled in and knew it would be a long day. I found a few feet to follow and aligned myself with the wall to remove any navigatational errors and fought through it.

Finished, got out and checked the watch 34 min. I was elated since my previous best was 39 min. Headed down the 450 yard trek to T1.

Get new goggles. Improve the technique. Need to break 30 min. How the pros and elites do it in 17 min still shocks me.

I purposely headed down the aisle where Big Techs set up to see if he was in range. I found him drying his hair so I quickly and quietly ran past him and headed to my bike giggling that he didn't know that I passed him. This encouraged me to make this a quick T1. My staging area was strategically placed by the bike exit.

I put on my shoes at T1 b/c of the dirt and grass. I couldn't get on the bike on the run so it was a slower start.


Push it harder on the second loop and try to maintain a higher RPM.

I headed up Lake Shore Drive into a headwind but noticed that I was averaging 19 MPH. SWEET, thought of the EOL crew and smiled.

The course was 4 lanes each direction and the bikers were in the left two lanes with cars on the right two lanes with a median in the middle. A flat meant you were out of the race unless you wanted to cross traffic. Ride on the left, pass on the right.

The first 5 miles were smooth and being the most awesomest cyclist on the course I was going to stay in the left passing lane the whole time. In reality, it was much smoother and less traffic...but wait what's that??? Damn it was Big Techs heading the other direction. How can that be? Well it's on! (Throughout the rest of the race there must have been 18 to 20 people in the same outfit Red top black shorts) I hit the potholes a 1/4 mile before the turnaround. This road looked as though it was carpet bombed. I was swerving in and out avoiding each one and popping wheelies over others all while watching the other idiots swerving into my lane to avoid their own obstacles. Tough stretch. The turnaround was over a median covered in small rocks and glass. My whole race depending on not getting a flat.

So I'm wondering how this guy avg 24 mph. Well after the turnaround I was rolling at 22 mph. Too Sweet. High gear, big chain...that's how we Texans roll. Get out of my way. I was passing everyone which is a first. I thought that the EOL crew would've loved this course and would have killed it.

Heading back South you had a view of downtown and the Sears tower, beautiful scenery. Four cyclists with the disk wheels passed me which fueled me. I got behind one and tried to keep up picturing Hogan taunting me to push it. He left me but I realized I was still in big chain heading up a short incline over a bridge. On the other side everyone was coasting...That's not the way to do it...hammer down and I hit 29.7 on the flat and kept it at 24 to 25. Maybe that guy knew what he was talking about. Second loop was filled with prayers to just get me through it without a mechanical failure. The course was littered with dejected athletes trying to fix their flats on the median. I survived, no flats and coasted around the final turn into T2 and Vlade will be happy with that.

Hit T2 with a sense of urgency. I looked at the socks and said screw it but I double knotted the shoes. Need to get some yanks. Took too much time here.

see above.

9:34 pace = Greatness for me.

To back up, going into the race I calculated (using my best previous times) that there is no way I could make it under 3 hours with the 1/4 mile run from the water to T1. The goal was 3:07.

Imagine my surprise when I checked my time exiting T2 and saw 1 hour and 56 min. To freaking sweet. Time to GO! I sprinted out of T2 and saw my cousins and parents cheering. I wasn’t expecting the family cheering at this point; my mind was really focused on averaging a ten min mile but it was REALLY a great boost having their support for an out of state race.

This was an awesome course for me b/c I lived in Chicago for 10 yrs and grew up a Bears fan. I was trying to keep a good pace knowing that my training runs were all under a 10 min. Easy pace was the strategy to keep it within an hour and set a PR. I saw Blane right before the turnaround and knew I was almost on the backstretch. I hit the turnaround and was hit with a strong breeze and got a chill…no 104 temps = greatness once again. I noticed a slight decrease in my momentum and saw mile 4 written on the cement. I had a Fast Toad quote run through my head, “If you aren’t about to die go faster!” I picked it up and passed a few of the runners I was previously pacing myself with..not sure why I was running with them for so long because I should have passed them earlier and so I pushed it, maybe I didn't want to bonk. I think the tempo runs really helped leading up to the race b/c I think I was running about a 9:15 pace and it felt like I sprinted the last ¼ to the finish. Didn’t walk once except through the water station.


Continue working on the run incorporating longer distances along with the tempos.

Found Big Techs and the family and then treked a mile back to the transistion to pick up the bike and gear..along with 3 waters and 2 gatorades.


More training, just need the time to get better.


Loved the course, previous best in an olympic distance was 3 hours and 17 min. I cut 22 min off of that. Not sure when that is going to be beat but it's a great feeling. Hope you enjoyed the report as much as I enjoyed the race. I would highly consider this race again next year.