I wrote this update for some friends who aren't triathletes, so excuse some of the obvious explanations of things.
My alarm went off at 3:50 am yesterday. Time to get up and get on the road down to Chicago.
The Chicago triathlon is the largest one in the world. 5000+ competitors do the International distance and another 300-3500 do the sprint distance. An event of this size takes a massive amount of planning and coordination. Understanding why transition opens from 4:15=5:45 regardless of what time you are racing does not make the wake up call any easier.
Anyway - up at 3:50, contacts in, tri-suit on, bag packed and on the road by 4:10. I arrived at transition by 4:50 and space on the bike racks was already tight. I set up my bike and running shoes, put my gloves in my helmet, packed my bento box with energy options and put my water bottles into their cages. Knowing that fussing with things further was not really going to help, I packed a small bag of things I would need for the next hour and headed over the swim start area.
I put my ipod on with some inspirational music, stretched and tried to stay calm. Soon it was time to line up, so I checked my gear bag and got into the chute.
Due to the size of this event the start is done in waves - I was in wave 5 of 30-something. The day was predicted to be in the 90s, so I was happy for such an early start time. We jumped into the water at 6:15 and the horn to start the swim sounded at 6:16. I placed myself toward the front of the swim wave and started off. It was a choppy day, or maybe it just felt that way due to the large number of people in the water with me. I am lucky that I am most comfortable breathing on my left, as I had the bulkhead in constant view and swam straight.
I exited the water in about 17 minutes, grabbed my flip flops and headed towards the transition area - about a quarter of a mile away. In transition I changed into cycling shoes, got my gloves and helmet on and headed out on my bike. Lake Shore Drive is a road that seems flat when you are driving, but there are a ton of overpasses that definitely feel like hills when you are peddling. I managed to maintain an average speed of 16.8 miles, which is faster than when I last did this race 4 years ago, and damn impressive for me considering that I did not training on the bike.
Back to transition I grabbed by running skirt, with my number attached and put on my running shoes. The run was painful - I just never felt like I got into a groove. Putting one foot in front of the other was an act of will for the entire 3.1 miles. I think the main problem is that you are not allowed to use an ipod during the run. I hate running without a music. Granted, I am not a hugh fan of running with music, but music helps make it far less painful. For all the pain of the run, crossing the finish line was an amazing feeling.
I am so happy to be back at the point where I am fit and healthy and my weight is not an obstacle to doing events I enjoy. Next year - faster!
