The Super-Sprint Triathlon - Midwest Meanderings Part II

The weather was perfect all week, in fact – I maintain that there might be no place better than Chicago in the summer. Ah, but I know the weather isn’t always like that and that winter will be coming soon and lasting long. Perfect weather for the triathlon. I rode Edie’s bike over to Foster Avenue beach, getting there just as the sun was peeking over the horizon – a wonderful way to start the day. I got there earlier than I had to, but that gave me a chance to get a good bike rack location, set everything up, walk the transitions a couple of times, and talk to fellow participants. There were plenty of people near me (that is, in my age group) who were doing their first triathlon. There were also a couple who were doing a triple – the Super-Sprint on Saturday morning, the Sprint and then the International on Sunday. I’d consider a double; could I ever do the triple? Something to think about (I still think about doing another marathon some day, too – so far, there hasn’t been a good time for all the training).

Off to the swim start – I think I was in wave 4 (again, it’s by age group – it’s okay to have an early start, especially when as the morning wears on, you see people in much later waves pass you – and you’re certain of it, because their wave number is marked on their leg). It was a short swim – you could walk out to where it got deep, swim just a little, and walk back. Hello, Lake Michigan! I hadn’t been in it yet this summer – cold at first, but I had time to get used to it and to appreciate being in it, and then it was time to get out! I usually let most of the wave pass me so I can do the backstroke unimpeded. I also enjoy swimming so I don’t want to rush through it! Not the way to think during a triathlon, I know…

Run, run run up the beach – transitions are the key to a triathlon – and then on to the six-mile-long bike ride. The Sunday big triathlon goes on Lake Shore Drive, which makes my spirit soar. The Super-Sprint goes along the parking area down to Montrose – wide enough to bike without worrying about the other bikers. Edie’s bike suited me fine – it’s faster than the bike I used for the Tour de Cure, for sure, and faster than the one I toodle around Southampton with. But I can’t say I’m fast…. In fact, what’s remarkable is that I’m just about equally slow in the swim, the bike and the run!

The run seemed long - 1.5 miles – and here is where the lack of training really showed. For a good part of it, it was hard to do much more than put one foot in front of another. If/when I do another (and I might have convinced Edie to try it with me!), I may not train much, but it would behoove me to practice getting off the bike and running. When I first thought of doing triathlons, I heard Jeff Galloway say that the hardest thing to do is get off a bike and run, and he is right. But somehow I finished – in about 1:05. Could I shave six minutes off my time and finish in under an hour? Well, I certainly feel motivated to try! Here’s a case where inshallah applies – inshallah, I’ll be back to do it again soon! It’s a good time of year to visit Chicago anyway. Why not make it a tradition!

Didn’t bring my camera to the triathlon, so I’ll close with a picture from a walk I took on my last day in Chicago.... This is the building where I lived for almost 20 years! I almost didn’t make it down to the Gold Coast area, and when I did, it was raining, but I still had a nice walk along the lake. I know that for 12 of the 19 years I lived there I was ready to leave, but I also know I had a good life there!