Accenture Chicago Triathlon - Olympic
Wow, I cannot believe that I did this. I must start off by saying that for such a huge race, and for the inconveniences that I will ***** about in the course of this report, this is a remarkably well run race.
I left my house at 4am to drive down to chicago. I found a parking spot and walked with my bike and my stuff over to transition. (you are going to hear about a lot of walking). Transition is huge, as you would imagine at an event with this many competitors. I entered near the swim entrance/run out and my wave's transtion rack was at the far end of the area. I set my stuff up and prayed that it would not rain. I walked the transition mapping out the best routes to and from my spot to swim in, bike in and out and run out. They began announcing that transition would be closing soon so I got ready to leave. Because of the long waits for the later waves they had a swim gear check, so I packed a small bag with a snack, and a long sleeved shirt and headed out. There was actually a line to exit transition as they were trying to get people in still.
I finally got out and began walking to the swim start - about half a mile away. I had three hours to kill and was kicking myself for not having brought a book. I watched the sprint participants take off. The swim didn't look too bad. It was a straight line from start to finish and the crowd spread out fairly quickly. Killed some more time and ran into two friends who were doing the race. One was in my wave, the other the wave after us. Finally, it was time to drop off my gear and line up in the chute. While in the chute I ran into the friend of a friend. I had met her once or twice, most recently just two weeks ago and all we did was talk tri. It felt good knowing I was getting in the water with the two of them.
And now we get to the part o the story you have been waiting for. Our heat gets sent into the water. It was about 72 degrees and I felt great in just my tri suit. I was amazed at the number of people wearing full wetsuits at that temperature. The olympic distance swim was not quite as simple as the sprint. When the horn sounded we headed south for about a quarter of a mile. I hung back to avoid the swarm and things began to stretch out. Unfortunately, at the turn around it began to bottleneck a bit and bunched back up. I alternated breaststroke and free style depending on how the crowds were. Like Lynne, I resolve to freestyle more next year. My swim time was 41:51, which includes the over quarter mile run from the swim to my bike. I was kind of racewalking it, and just before the transition entrance I hear people yelling, Go C! I looked around and didn't see my friend, but a few minutes later she came up behind me and urged me to run and we entered t1 together.
My t1 time was about half of what it was at danskin. Rolling your socks down really helps, as does not having to pin your number on your jersey. Lake Shore drive seems like a really flat road when you are in your car, but is quite rollie when you are on a bike (lots of overpasses). it was quite windy, blowing mainly north to south. The race was 2 oblong loops (up one side of the drive, down the other). The northbound legs were harder and slower than the southbound legs. I had a packet of sport beans and half a large bottle of water on the first loop and a mocha flovored gu and the other half of the water on the second loop. I never did touch the endourox that I had in my other water bottle. Somebody crashed into my rear wheel as I was dismounted my bike to enter t2. No visible harm done, but I haven't looked too closely yet. My bike time was 1:33.03 and I averaged 16.3 mph - about .2 mph faster than I did at Danskin.
I switched out of my cycling shoes and into my running shoes, swapped helmet for hat, remembered to take my gloves off and grabbed a 12 ounce bottle of gatorade. I walked across transition and out onto the racecourse. I was still walking and people were cheering and one guy gave me a high five and said, "now when you get to that cone, start running". The cone was about 5 ft away and for some reason I did it. And I didn't stop running till the finish line. I wasn't going fast (average was 12:55/mile, turtle slow I know, but my heartrate was hovering around 168, so I was't going to push any faster). I saw two of my friends as i was heading out on the run and they were heading back. We cheered each other on, and I kept plugging. it is a beautiful run, along the lakefront, around the museum campus. I wondered at it and I kept plugging along. There was a woman I passed with a big knee brace, the kind you wear just before ACL surgery. I told her she had true athletic spirit and she thanked me. Cose to the end, say 3.5-4 miles into the run we began to see the pros, with mopeds with guys with cameras ahead of them. I knew there were going to pass me before I finished. Just past the 5 mile mark the first guy passed me and this huge cheer went up for him. I looked at the people cheering, through out my arms and yelled, "thank you, thank you". The laughed and continued to clap for me. A guy on the course started cracking up and said, "good for you".
As I was running the final hundred yards I was kind of by myself. Lots of people cheering and the announcer says over the loudspeaker, "here comes Brina across the finishline. How are you feeling Brina? you're looking great." I laughed and ran into the chute. I think this race I will actually have a good finishline photo. And then, I think I started challenging Lise - I took a breathe, and it caught in my throat, and I realized I was about to cry. I kept gulping back sobs, with a part of my brain in awe. I am not a crier in general and I was just shocked that this was happening.
After some lunch at the finish party and a beer I went to collect my stuff from gear check only to learn that it was still by the swim start. So I walked back over towards the start, collected my bike from transition and learned that the gear check stuff had just been transported over to the finish line. So I walked back over to there. (told you there was a lot of walking in this report).
I finally arrived home about 3 pm and just crashed. This morning I went for a massage. I can't believe I actually completed this race. I don't think i am going to do another oly for a while. I want to conentrate on speed and then think about distance again. Overall, this was an awesome experience.
