It’s time for my first olympic triathlon, and my first “big time tri,” ITU Chicago. For those of you not in the know, this is close to the same race that the professional triathletes do as part of the ITU tour.
The day started off wet. As in, my car nearly hydroplaned into a concrete highway divider on 294 due to the torrential downpours. Not the best way to start the day.
Given than transition setup was the day before the race, some athletes had the foresight to cover parts of their bike to protect from the rain.
This was a massive transition area, but thankfully my spot was near the end of a row and right by a sign. I felt bad for those in the center somewhere without an easily recognized landmark.
Annoyingly, transition was a good half mile or more from the swim start. Preferring to not throw away my newly-purchased $2 Old Navy sandals (seriously?), I walked the half mile barefoot.
My first real open water swim went smoothly, doing the 1500m in 30:20, not bad for never training for the swim.
Thankfully, the rain stopped and the bike course had enough time to dry off for a safe ride. I averaged about 40km/h or 24.4mph, netting a 1:02 40k ride, giving me my best split over the three discipline race.
My run was to be expected. I clocked in a somewhat disappointing 53 minute 10k. Clearly I need to do more bricks during training.
The ITU was nice enough to record my finish from two angles and post the video stream online. I’m the guy in the black tri suit and a lime-green race belt:
And here’s my official results:
