Accenture Chicago Triathlon
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Accenture Chicago Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic
View Member's Race Log
![]() Swim
Comments: Was shocked to see my husband and DOG following my progress along the wall of Monroe Harbor! I was swimming about as fast as they were walking, and they were able to cheer me on stroke by stroke! That was pretty cool. Caught a major mouthful of water at one point, and I swear it was as cold as the water I keep in the fridge! Who knew my fridge was set at 63 degrees??? (Either that, or this water was somewhat colder than the advertised 63!!) What would you do differently?: Not much... I was a little disappointed in my swim time. I wonder if it takes into account the exit and run to the transition area. The run was about .25 mile (shoeless!) Although the water was COLD, the conditions were CROWDED, and I did the best I could. ![]() Transition 1
Comments: Decent T1. My rack was located pretty close to the entrance after the swim, and I found it right away. Off with the wetsuit, on with the helmet etc, and I was off. Ran to far away exit with bike in tow. Most of the time in T1 was spent MOVING from one end of the transition area to the other. What would you do differently?: Not much. T1 went fine. We'll talk about T2 a bit later. ![]() Bike
Comments: LSD is in pretty bad shape, and in my opinion, needs to be resurfaced!!! There were some pretty big potholes that looked like they were filled with random huge glops of tar... Also saw some 3 inch gaps in the pavement, where it looked like the roadway had separated...? Very unusual repair work... But I didn't spend the whole time critiquing the condition of LSD... spent much of the bike leg looking at the skyline and appreciating the view of both the lake and the city! What would you do differently?: Not much. ![]() Transition 2
Comments: OMG!! Where's my stuff?? It should be right here... no wait... right here, no wait... over here... "have you seen a black Speedo transition bag? And a Revlon towel lined in lips??" (Seriously, that's my towel! it was a freebie from ULTA make up...brightly colored, never hard to find!) Transition area looked like a bomb had exploded. I could not find my bag or ANY of my stuff... Looked around.... walked my bike up and down my rack, looked around some more... considered CRYING... wasn't sure what to do... ended up racking my bike miscellaneously and running out to the run. I did not have my hat, and I did not get the chance to apply Bodyglide to my arms as they were chafing for some reason. (Went back to Transition after the race and FOUND everything about 30 feet NORTH of where I was looking... I was WAAAAAY off.) What would you do differently?: Literally everything. I think I'm going to tie a great big yellow bow around my transition spot... My husband suggested a more brightly colored transition bag... I don't know...AAAAARRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!! ![]() Run
Comments: I thought I was doing pretty well for the first 4 miles or so... For the first mile I stayed with a girl who seemed to be going about the same pace as me... Although I dropped her around mile 2. At that point I pickedd up someone else, but SHE dropped me around mile 4, when I stopped to walk through a water station. Miles 4 and 5 were generally lousy. Couldn't get feet going one in front of the next...Legs started to ache. What would you do differently?: Not sure... Maybe train longer distances MORE. ![]() Post race
Warm down: Walked around found husband, mother, father, best friend, her husband and daughter, and my dog. (Amazing all these people found each other, and then **I** found them!) We then gathered up my stuff from transition and proceeded to the last leg of the race which is... Finding parked vehicle in the underground recesses of Downtown Chicago. We walked the mile and a half back to the area where we thought the parking garage was located, but could not find a pedestrian entrance into the garage. Finally ended up punching the button and getting another parking ticket so the door would open... Then my husband, my dog and I sprinted through the door before it went back down. I kept my fingers crossed, hoping we were in the correct parking garage... Luckily, we were. And so, the race was concluded. Phew! That's what you get when suburbanites invade the city early in the morning on race day! Confusion! What limited your ability to perform faster: Seriously, I think it's my running... If I could run consistent 11 minute miles I'd feel better about myself. I don't know why it's so hard for me to perform the simple human act of running. But it is. Event comments: Great race! I loved it, despite the fact that I was pre-occupied with the location of my transition pack as well as the location of my car throughout the run leg of the race... It seemed like a fog or a dream... One minute I was waiting in line to start the swim... and before I knew it I was finishing the swim, biking LSD, and finally exiting out to the run... I got a bit teary around the finish line. I don't know if it was tears of relief... knowing now that my gastro-intestinal issues should be resolvesd... tears of joy, knowing I set a goal and reached it, or tears of actual pain, because my legs felt really pretty crappy. I don't know... I was happy happy happy, though, and I'm still happy now!!! I wore my shiny new race shirt to bed last night, and will probably wear it again tonight as well!! :) Feeling fine! Last updated: 2004-05-17 12:00 AM
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General Discussion-> Race Reports! |
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United States
Capri Events
63F / 17C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 2984/3596
Age Group = 30-34
Age Group Rank = 0/
The Chicago Triathlon is actually a 6 event race. 2 events take place BEFORE the 3 event triathlon, and the last event takes place afterwards... I'll detail the events in their entirety:
The first event is the "Waking of family and driving to race" event. This occurs in the middle of the night, usually pre-3:30 am, and in this case pre 3am. Loaded husband and dog into car and we took off pointed in the direction of Chicago. All went well, traffic was light and as you can imagine, the streets are virtually deserted at 3:30am.
The second event is called "Car parking and race finding"... unfortunately I didn't train very well in this event. Once we found ourselves in the heart of downtown Chicago, we consulted some sketchy parking garage directions provided by my brother-in-law. We wound up in the bowels of the city, amongst the pigeons and homeless. We parked the car in a deserted parking garage, and took off eastward, in the direction of the lake, hoping to find others pushing bikes in the same direction.
The trip to the lakefront wound up being about a mile and a half walk. I have taken the liberty to consider this my pre-race warmup. (!!!)
As per above! I ate a PBJ sandwich on the ride into the city, around 3:30 am. Ate a Powerbar Harvest bar around 7:30, and had a quick Power Gel around 8am. Did some general stretching from 6:15 to 8:15 (my wave start time.) Yes, my event warm up largely involves eating... and walking and driving, I suppose.