Update/Report on Chicago triathlon (international distance). WARNING: long-winded report follows.
Summary: Ouch. Long-winded recounting follows.
The day started early. Transition (where you park your bike and running stuff) opened at 4:15 a.m and closed at 5:45 a.m. Being the ****y guy that I am, I thought I'd get a little extra sleep, so I didn't get up until 4:30. I had every thing ready to go, so I ate some breakfast, and left by 4:45 a.m. I live about 4.5 miles away from the area, easily bikeable. Two errors: thinking that getting to transition by 5:15 a.m. would mean still plenty of room to park the bike (nope nope nope, it was mighty crowded), and that the bike path (along the lake) would be relatively free. Apparently all of the north side of Chicago triathlon athletes had the *exact* same plan. I've never seen so many bicyclists out on the path at that hour in my life.
There was something like 50ish waves--you're grouped by age, and distance, and then sometimes subdivided if your group is big, I think. I was in the 40-45 yo, international distance guys. Our wave was no. 31--which didn't get to start until 8:21! The first wave started at 6 a.m. (reserved for veterans of the event--there were people there who've done it since inception, about 28 years....). The pros started at 11 a.m.! So what do you do for 2.5 hours? I shopped out the swimming area and route, and then...waited in line for the bathroom!
Finally, it was our turn. The swim was the best part, which was interesting because it was the worst part in my sprint triathlon in July. I rounded the first corner, and couldn't believe it - that was a quarter of the way done. I fully expected to be overtaken by at least the two waves behind us (and I was), but my problem was trying to pass others, not stop when I hit someone, and for crying out loud, swim in a straight line! The other challenge was that Monroe harbor smelled like gas. Apparently, my instinct was to try to smell the gas (is that really gas?) and inhaled a nose full of harbor water. Blech. (and can we talk about the bottom of the harbor? Totally disgusting).
The swim was 1500 m (about a mile). The transition was 400 m away! I got out, shed the wetsuit, and started heading to the transition when, of course, nature called. There was a bathroom along the route, and apparently I wasn't alone. What I didn't know was that they counted the time it took you from getting out of the water to enter transition as all part of the swim! I was in the water 37 minutes, but the unofficial time, including potty break, is 40! UGH! On the other hand, 37 minutes is really good for me compared to the first tri. I was as fast, if not faster, on a pace basis. You expect to be significantly slower on longer distances, so that was a pretty good improvement in 6 weeks.
The weather, by the way, was stunning. The lake water perfect temperature, and I understand why they moved the swim to gassy Monroe Harbor from Ohio Street Beach: no waves. Ohio Street Beach was almost unswimmable that day.
So got to the bike (YAY! This was my strongest event last time). The route was Randolph to Foster, back to Chicago, back to Foster, and then off at Randolph (Lakeshore Drive; they closed the two inner lanes for us--pretty cool).
What was NOT cool was the wind. It's been a pretty calm summer all season, wind-wise, so this was a real bummer. It blew (or so it felt) south, so the northern leg, especially the second time, was really hard. Having it at your back was great, but it was hard to take advantage of it when I was so pooped from going north. I need to learn to spin better. They had said at orientation that if you got a flat, you were done with the race, so I hadn't packed a spare tube. That was a lie. People found ways to fix their flats while staying out of the way (I hear one woman got off the course, went to a bike shop to have her flat repaired, and then finished the race!). It was interesting--the $5K to 20K bikes seemed to flat more than us lowly 1.5K and less bikes. I couldn't believe how many people flatted. Partly has to be the condition of the Drive, which is atrocious on the north side, especially if your heading south, especially around Foster. Although the route was very cool, you couldn't watch much of it as you had to really pay attention to the pavement, and there were a bunch of tools who thought it pretty nifty to pass incorrectly and annoy everyone, so you had to be looking over your shoulder all the time. There was also an awful lot of bike water bottles (full and empty) along the route, plus some other bike-related debris that I couldn't identify, and of course, dead bike tires. I am amazed at how fast some people can go. There were a lot of women smoking some pretty geared up men in the passing lane. Pretty amusing. There were a couple of guys who didn't have functional legs, so they had contraptions that let them "pedal" with their hands. Pretty inspiring. The wind killed my time. 90 minutes! UGH. Although now that I do the math, it's a little faster pace than my first tri.
(*When I went to get my bike out the next day to commute to work, the rear wheel was ruined. The spokes were lose, and the rim was very bent. When the bike shop trued it, they had no confidence in the wheel, the tension was so uneven, which meant to be safe, new wheel. UGH. That was expensive. It also meant that I probably ruined it during the race, and that I biked at least part of the race with the rear brake rubbing the tire. Now that makes me angry!)
Finally got back to transition, changed into the running shoes and stood up. Ouch. The bike ride had done a number on my butt! I was ready this time for the awful transition from being pretty swift on the bike to feeling like you're not moving at all in the run. But let me tell you, the first mile marker cannot come fast enough. The route was a criss-crossy-thing around the museum campus, down to 31st and back to end at Balbo and Columbus. Even though the run is fairly flat, there is no shade whatsoever, and even that day, a mildish 78, you really felt it. 80 minutes for the run (less, but don't know transition--last time I did a 10K, I was at 61 minutes, and that's pretty pokey, too). That was very slow, although at the time, I didn't think it was so slow for being tired. But compared to the first tri, it's significantly slower. It will be interesting to see the official results which will have it all split up. Anyway, I was doing my usual run-walk thing, except when I saw the 6 mile marker, I still had a little left in me, so I sped up for the finish line. Only two incidents. One was a guy who was down and had to be fetched by an ambulance, and the second was some Nimrod thought it'd be really cool to bike with all the runners. Boy did he get thrown off the course by the officials fast and with little tact.
I was a very happy camper at the finish line, and I didn't even throw up. :) I could hardly move my legs for the rest of the day. My partner and I went to a favorite neighborhood restaurant to celebrate. In a cab.
Here are the official times, if you're still reading:
Overall Rank Class Rank Swim Swim Rank Trans1 Bike Bike Rank MPH Trans2 Run Run Rank Pace Sex Rank Final 3155 of 4103 355 of 403 00:40:18 3359 00:04:25 01:27:12 3028 17.0 00:05:06 01:05:00 2948 00:10:29 2349/2804 03:22:02
Next season (yeah, this was fun!), my goal is moving from just finishing, to improving my times. I'd like to do the international in under 3 hours.
G