After working until 10pm or so on Saturday night, I finished packing the car and getting everything ready for Sunday morning. I was in bed around 11:15pm and asleep a little after 11:30pm. I got up at 3:00am feeling pretty good considering I wasn't asleep very long. I was out the door at 3:25am and had a casual drive downtown. Very light traffic. I pulled into the parking garage and started getting my stuff out. A few other people were unloading as well. Some were already heading out of the garage which made me feel behind schedule. I spent 10 minutes pumping my tires up because of a problem with the valve on my pump. Note 1: Need new pump. Then a woman asked me to look at her brakes. When she squeezed them they would not let go of the wheel. After a moment we traced the problem to the clamp she used for her bike lock. It was clamping the brake cable and loosening the clamp fixed it. +1 Karma. I made my way to the transition area amidst a lot of people arriving about 4:30am. I found my wave's rack in the maze of racks. There was still plenty of room to rack my bike so I felt pretty good. It was still night time and I couldn't see in my bags and I was paranoid about dropping something in the grass and losing it. So...Note 2: Next time bring headlight flashlight. I started getting everything setup when I was asked by a guy for help filling his tires. His bike was MUCH nicer than mine, but the stem on his inner tube was too short for his deep wheels. He managed to totally deflate his tire trying to use his pump. After messing around with it for 10 min I decided to ask someone else for a pump with a different valve (Schraeder). Using a Presta-to-Schraeder adapter we pumped up his tires and I returned the pump to the guy I borrowed it from. +2 Karma. I finished setting up my stuff and put everything that I needed for the 3-hour wait in another bag, leaving the rest of my stuff at transition. I checked the paths to and from the area where we enter for from the swim and exit for the bike. It was kinda funny because you have to duck under tree branches and skirt a pine tree in the middle of my rack's lane. I looked for some landmarks to make finding my bike easier and I felt pretty good about where I was located. Other people were taping arrows on the grass, tying balloons to their bikes or taping swimming pool noodles to the racks next to their bike to assist them in finding their bike. I gauged the location of my bike based on that pine tree blocking the lane. I wasn't too worried.

It was getting really crowded now. I thought there were a lot of people there when I was heading into the transition area, there were a TON of people now. I took one more look over my stuff and headed out of transition. You always have this feeling you forgot something, but I felt okay about things. I made my way upstream through the crowds and finally rested on a hill looking over Lake Michigan. It was 5:30am at this point. The Transition area setup was supposed to close in 15 min at 5:45am, but I didn't see how that would be possible. There were too many people still heading in with their stuff. On my hill, people were laying down and napping. I just sat there watching stuff. After a few minutes I decided to call the one other person I knew was doing the Chicago Tri. He was about 200 yards away from me at that time which meant it took us 10 minutes to find each other. At this time the sky started to lighten up. We both snacked on some of the food we brought. I had a banana, peanut butter sandwich, and water.

The triathlon began at 6:00am with the Sprint waves going first. My wave didn't go until 8:08am, so we took our time heading to the swim start. We scouted some of the other waves starting the swim, visited the bathroom (Note 3: always bring toilet paper), and tried to stay out of the sun which was beating down on us at the lakefront. With about 40 minutes until my wave I took a light jog swinging my arms around to get warmed up. 20 Minutes before my wave I took a Cliff shot gel and then checked my bag at the bag check tent next to the swim start. With 15 minutes until my wave start I began putting on my wetsuit when I realized that my wave was already lined up. Ah! I tried to make my way to the chute where the various waves were waiting, but there were so many spectators and athletes that it took a while. I wormed my way through the chute and through the other waves that go after mine which were already queued up to finally get to my wave. Note 4: Line up earlier. As soon as I joined my wave I pulled my wetsuit up the rest of the way and put on my swim cap. I had just zipped up the back when they put us in the "on deck" area. 2 minutes later we were jumping into the water and jostling for position by the starting line. For some reason I am a pretty good triathlon swimmer. A real swimmer will blow me away, but I am a much better than average triathlon swimmer, so I moved as close to the front as possible. They blew the horn and we took off. It was a mad rush of arms and legs. I got pushed and swam over, kicked and hit. All normal stuff. Nothing was intentional. We all had the same goal to get through the swim and did the best we could to navigate each other. The swim started with us swimming South to a marker then we turn back North swimming past the starting line to the swim exit. I managed to accidentally swim under the rope dividing North and South bound traffic at one point. I looked up and saw a bunch of swim caps coming at me and freaked. I got back in my lane just in time. Note 5: Watch out for currents carrying you of course. It didn't take too long for me to pass a swimmer from the wave before mine. I also found that I had fallen into a good rhythm. My swim stroke was tuned to the rhythm of some song that I can't recall now. It carried me for most of the swim. I eventually started passing people from 2 waves in front of mine. Toward the end I got kicked in the crotch by someone doing the breast stroke. It caught me off guard, but I was okay. I reached the swim exit where they had set up metal stairs into the lake. The volunteers would grab your hand and help pull you up. Another volunteer pulled my wetsuit zipper down. My swim time: 28:19.

I removed my swim cap and goggles and pulled my arms out of the wetsuit leaving the wetsuit around my waist with my goggles and cap left in the sleeve of the wetsuit and I took off at a light job. I would later learn that during the jog to the transition area my goggles and cap fell out. Note 6: Carry my goggles next time. It was about 2/10ths of a mile to the transition area from the swim exit. They had mats for about half the run. There was one rocky spot that hurt the feet. Some people had stashed aqua socks near the swim exit. I don't think I needed them. I entered the transition area and followed the path to my bike. I found it amazingly easy to find considering the number of bikes. I removed the wetsuit, got my bike gear on and headed out to the bike exit. I jumped on my bike and started pedaling before clipping into my pedals. After I had some momentum I clipped in and settled in for the bike. I was feeling pretty good.

The bike route went North up Lake Shore Drive. Two lanes were closed off for the triathlon, 2 lanes for traffic. It was strange biking so close to the moving vehicles. I settled into the bike and took another Cliff shot gel and started drinking Gatorade. Note 7: Gels are supposed to be taken with water, not Gatorade, so make sure you have some water on the bike. The wind was keeping me cool, but I could feel the heat so I wanted to make sure I drank as much as I could. My stomach was cramping here and there, but not as bad as during my last triathlon. I was just hoping it would feel better on the run just like before. Overall, the bike was pretty uneventful. I did see 3 people who piled up laying in the street being helped by race personnel. It was a good reminder that this was just a race and that I should be safe no matter what. About 10 minutes away from the end of the bike I took another gel, and I was feeling good about my nutrition. I came in from the bike, unclipped, and entered the transition area again. My bike time: 1:12:47.

I jogged back to my transition spot once again finding it easily after skirting that darn pine tree in my lane. Gear seemed to be strewn everywhere. I must have run over 3 wetsuits on the path to get to my spot. I had my bike racked and running shoes on and was ready to go in no time. Then I realized that I wasn't sure where the run-out was. Note 8: Know all the entrance and exit points perfectly. I asked someone which way and they pointed South, and I took off. My hesitation probably cost me 5 seconds. It felt like 5 minutes.

I hit the run trying to go slow. A lot of people take off on the run way too fast because they are used to the speed of the bike. I was feeling I was going slow which meant I was probably on pace. I wanted to run 8 min miles, but I could immediately feel the heat. I was looking for shade, but there are very few trees on the run path. My run strategy was to run to each aid station and then walk for a minute. I dumped a lot of water on my head and continued to drink Gatorade. Note 9: Don't pour too much water on your body since in eventually drips into your shoes and makes them heavier. The run was pretty miserable. It was hot with very few breaks from the sun. I tried to walk in the shade and run in the sun when I could. I knew I wasn't going to make an 8 min mile average so I just tried to do my best. I didn't feel fast, but almost no one was passing me which I thought was odd. With the heat I thought maybe I was doing okay in comparison to everyone else. Finally the crowd started to say things like "Almost there!" and stuff like that. I don't trust when the crowd says this because in the Chicago Marathon they start saying "Almost there" at mile 22. I held back on my final kick until I could see the finish line. Unfortunately the crowd was right and I could have kicked it quite a bit earlier. Note 10: Know the finish of the race better. I finished at a sprint and the announcer called my name as I crossed the finish line. My run time: 53:29 (8:37min/mile avg).

After crossing the finish line someone cut my timing chip off and someone else handed me my medal. This was my 4th triathlon, but my first finisher's medal. I immediately put it on. I then realized that they had a huge ice bucket with towels in it. I grabbed a soaking wet ice towel and squeezed it over my head. It took my breath away and was a most wonderful experience. I grabbed another towel and put it on my shoulders. It was heaven.

My total time: 2:38:51

The numbers:

Clock Time 02:38:51

Overall Place 294 / 3859

Overall Percentile 7.6%

Division Place 45 / 375

Div Percentile 12%

Swim Time 00:28:19

Swimrank 254

Swim Percentile 6.6%

Bike Time 01:12:47

Bikerank 882

Bike Percentile 22.8%

Run Time 00:53:29

Runrank 420

Run Pace 00:08:37

Run Percentile 10.8%

Summary: After looking at my numbers I was quite surprised and pleased. I knew I had a decent swim, but I just felt okay with my bike and run times. Granted that I was not going up against any amateur elites, but I never would have thought I would rank as high as I did. Maybe there are just a lot of slow people in the Chicago Triathlon. ;-) I don't know. I suppose it doesn't matter. I had a really good time. It was a really cool experience and a great way to finish off my triathlon season. Bring on the marathon training!