Last Sunday the ITU World Triathlon for professional
triathletes held their first race in Chicago. As a special promotion for their
first race in Chicago they held an age-group competition before the pro race –so
us age groupers could experience what it would be like to compete on a
pro-style course.
It was a great day if you were old and lucky enough
to get an early wave assignment like I did.
The 60-64 age group went in the water at 6:15 a.m. and our race was done
before 9 a.m. Later in the day the sun
rose and the clouds disappeared and it got HOT and HUMID.
We swam south from Buckingham Fountain towards the
Shedd Aquarium and then ran across Lake Shore Drive to the transition
area. For the bike course we rode north
on Columbus Drive to Wacker and then went west and south on Wacker, then turned
around and rode back. We did that four times. Portions of Wacker were the
underground segments which are always being used for films like Batman Returns
and the Blues Brothers. It was a flat
and very fast bike course. I averaged over 21 mph and I was passed by a bunch
of riders who were riding MUCH faster.
The run was also a loop course. We ran along
Columbus Drive and adjacent to Lake Shore Drive for three and half loops
finishing next to Buckingham Fountain.
My coach (Heather Collins of Precision Multisport)
and I had outlined a strategy for this race, which is my last race before the
Nationals next month in Milwaukee. The
ITU course was flat and fast and similar in that respect to the course in
Milwaukee. So this was a good preparation for my last triathlon of the
season.
The plan was to swim easy and straight (not
something I always do), not blow up on
the bike (i.e. keep my heart rate at around 140) so I would have legs left for
the run. Last race in Elkhart I pushed
too hard on the hilly bike course and that resulted in a run time of 55
minutes.
This race I got off the bike with fresh legs (it
helped of course not having any hills) and I ran the fastest 10K leg of my triathlon
career, finishing with a time of 47:48, which is 7:42 pace.
Finished 18th out of 40 in the age group
and 624th out of 1209 overall in the Men’s division. My overall time was 2:37:29, which included
10 minutes of transition time due to the distance between segments. Compensating for that was a bike course that
wasn’t quite 25 miles long.
My faithful photographer, Suzanne had a great
location near Buckingham Fountain and I was confident she would have some great
photos each time I passed by. But her camera broke so I had to buy the race
photos, which are displayed below. (I know they all sort of look the same, but I paid for them so I am going to get my money's worth.)
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| No heel strike |
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| See I can ride in Aero |
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| Finished before it got HOT |
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