Two race reports in one. Chicago ITU race report At the beginning of the year, I was planning on doing this race. But, before hawaii, my wife said hell no to this and many other races that I told her I wanted to run. She wanted me to cut down on the number of races especially since she just found out about Ironman Madison. Also, I emailed the ITU and asked if I could do both and they said no. Lastly, everyone was telling me that if I ship my bike back from hawaii, I wouldnt get it back until right before the race. But, the stars aligned right before the race. It was still open, my bike came back the day after we got home (June 11), and the schedule came out and it was possible that I could do both. I emailed them and again they said no, but I said hey, I am going to pay for both so what is the problem. They finally agreed. Lastly, it was my birthday weekend. I told my wife, I didnt want anything except that I do this race. Done deal. I had a good nights sleep. Went to bed at 11:00 and woke up exactly at 4:00am. Got up, took a shower, packed everything up and left. Walked over to transition. Got there pretty early cause there was no line for body marking. Quickly setup everything. I put everything in the plastic bag just in case it rained. Sure enough, right before I left, it started pouring. Saw the whole CARE crew waiting in line for body marking. By then, the line was a mile long. Saw Edwin and walked back with him to the CARE tent. It was pouring and happy to be in the tent with JB, Nik, and Edwin. The whole crew started trickling in. The rain also stopped. Walked with the whole crew to watch the first couple of waves go. Walked back to the tent to hang out. Watched Charles go by on the bike. Finally, headed back to the lake. Sat on the steps, as wave after wave went by, chatting, laughing, and hanging out with all the CARE peeps. With about 10 minutes to go before my wave, put on my wetsuit and headed to the start. They let us out there and finally jumped in with 3 minutes to spare. Swim Time: 35:09 Boom. Went out in a flurry. Felt good. Some bumping, but expected. Ahead of me I saw a swimmer to the far left. I saw the orange punching bag, but because of that swimmer I was thinking, do we keep going? then, I knew it, he took a sharp right. I knew we were going to run into each other when he got close to the bouy. He like punched me the face. OK, no biggie, but his next stroke he grabbed my goggles and tried to take them off. I thought about getting pissed, but instead It actually got me motivated to get around that bouy. I lifted my left side of goggles to get the water out, then the next stroke, the right side. Worked. Clear again and kept going. Since I breathed to the left, I dont remember passing the start. Just aimed to be between the boats and the bouys. Finally saw the orange field goal post. Went for it, but I saw a guy ahead of me going for the last bouy. The guy to my left was also not turning in so I kept on going. Half way through, I looked up and saw everyone screaming and yelling to us to come on in. So, did a 90 and went straight for it. At least, I didnt have to fight with everyone on the right side. Got out and the guy that was next to me said he was following me. Transition Time: 6:32 Saw Nik coming into t2 from the bike as I was coming in fro the swim. I told him we was doing it and to stay strong. Somewhat ran up the hill until I got to the grass. Sat down and tried to take off my wetsuit. could not take my left leg out. Finally, a guy came over and pulled it off. He said I look like I could have worked on it for another 20 minutes and not get it off. Ran down the aisle that I thought my bike was on. Good choice. Got to my bike and took my time. Took out the towel of the bag and wiped my face. Took my bike shoes out. Turned on the camera and made sure it was recording. helmet and sunglasses and the way I went. Bike Time: 1:00:54 Weird cause I had my shoes on already, but thinking that I had them strapped in. Figured that out quick. It wasnt that crowded as I thought it would be. Got it going pretty quick. Saw the wife and kids almost immediately. Great to see them cause I did not expect to see them until later in the day. Then got to lower sacker which was a bit of a shock cause since I had sunglasses and it was pretty dark, I could not see anything. Took my eyes a bit to adjust but once it did it was ok. It was quite an experience in there. It was still wet from the rain so some maneuvering had to be done. But, it was flat, fast, no wind. It was like being indoors, almost like a vela drone. You can hear it. Almost a buzzing sound. I was passing so many people, but so many people were passing me. Bad thing was lost signal on the GPS. The only way I knew how many laps was I take a gel every 12 miles or so. I was surprised cause my power was relatively low. Every time I looked, it was under 200. I knew I could push harder, but I was in a good groove and knew I still had another race after this one. I was visualizing doing the ironman and I knew I could do this level of effort at that distance. There was a wind going north. So, coming back, I tried to push through the wind going back. The little section on balbo was a bit annoying, but slowed you down to give it the bit of a push at the end. Going back north toward sacker was fun cause I would hit close to 27-28 mph going with the wind. Waved to the family and CARE group every time I saw them. No issues on the bike except for my helmet. Did my head shrink or my helmet get larger? I usually wear a bandana inside my helmet, but used it many time without one without a problem. The adjustment was fully closed and couldnt make it smaller. So, every time I hit a bump, it would slide one way or the other or in front of my eyes. I kept on adjusting it Some faster folks got me pumped up especially in lower wackier and tried to keep up with them. Tried to finish under 1 hour. Got close. Transition Time: 5:03 Ran on up and had to weave through traffic to get to my spot. Again, took my time. Turned off my camera. I had to conserve battery for the sprint. Took all the stuff out of the bag. Put on socks. If I wasnt going to run the sprint, I would have not used socks. Shoes. race belt, and bandana. I usually put on the bandana on the run, but what the heck. The first few steps I actually walked. Dont know why. Then finally started to run. As I was leaving, I saw Fransico coming in with his bike. He yelled I coming to get you. I said come on!! Run Time: 49:02 Ran down and through the straight away. I was going about 7 pace. Way too fast. Saw the family right at before hitting the street. Good thing. I stopped gave them a kiss and when I look at my watch my pace was at 8. I was planning on doing 8s for this one. Nice and easy. Great seeing CARE everywhere. Both on the course and those that finished already and were hanging out at the CARE tent. Saw Ron a few times. Love seeing Nik. This was his first and he was looking good. I love the circle and buckingham fountain. I would dance the whole time with the music blaring. A woman came up to me after the race and said I did a quadathlon. Swim, Bike, Run, Dance. I think one guy thought I was from Hawaii. Maybe cause I was wearing Kona socks. He kept on saying Aloha to me every time I passed. I would respond Mahalo with a shaka. Fransisco came flying by me like I was standing still. Glad I had my GPS watch on for I would have no clue how many laps I should or have done. Rusty even confused me more cause he said he seen me like 8 times. Wife confused me also cause three times she told me they would see me at the finish. The last loop was incredible. A girl asked me if we go on in. I told her it depends on how many loops she did. Asked her if she did 3 loops. She didnt know. I told her I hope so and go on in. I felt bad cause I hope she didnt get disqualified. When I got to buckingham, I danced the whole time around. Did some gangnam style, some shake and bake, fist pumps, raise the roof. Anything I could think of. Crossed the line and did the usual jump. After the race, I thought I didnt have a lot of time. So, I took a moment to drink, a few moments at the tent to congratulate people and see everyone, then headed back to transition to reset. A little upset, cause my sis-in-law gave me the new gopro for my birthday. I put it in my rear suit pocket right before the bike and had it there. It is way smaller and lighter than the old one. I forgot about it. I wanted to capture some stuff during the run especially buckingham and the finish. Oh well. Analysis: I could have went harder on all phases of the race. I felt tired after the swim and bike. I could tell cause usually I have tons of energy after each one, but this time I wanted to walk and take my time. I could definitely gone a lot faster on the run. The heat did not affect me at all. Didnt feel hot at anytime. I did want to conserve some energy cause I had to do the sprint. CARE was incredible. The support team, the tent, the music, the noise was nuts! So, may people came up to me during and after the race, talking about CARE. Love your group, CARE is incredible, GO CARE, We know who you guys are. You guys are everywhere. Wish I were Asian. Race report #2 I reset everything in transition, but I kept my shoes clipped into the bike and put all my run stuff out. I put my glasses inside my helmet, but kept everything pretty tight just in case other will move things around since everyone was checking out and leaving. I had another space for the sprint but I had a good spot for the oly, plus I dont have to remember a whole new location. Walked back to the CARE tent. I had too much time on my hands. I still had two hours before my wave. Thanks Edwin for the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Cheered everyone on until an hour left. Started walking to the start and ran into JB, Eric, Ruthie, and Jonathan. Thanks. they made things bearable. It was getting so hot. We all sat on the steps. Thanks Ruthie for the shades to cover my eyes and Eric for the umbrella to keep us cool under the sun. Then, with 5 minutes left I put on my wetsuit. Talk about cooking. It was so hot. I wanted to get into the lake as quickly as possible. I jumped in and did a few strokes to warm up and waited in the middle of the pack. Swim Time: 17:12 Boom. Put my head down and start swimming. I was really tired at this point. The sun just zapped everything out of me. Or maybe the oly I just did:). But, I was so tight. Sitting around for two hours can do that to you. I just tried to push as hard as I could. What a difference between the oly and sprint. When I first looked up, there was so many people already wading in the water, doing breast and back strokes. I had to do a bit of traffic management. Finally found someone at my speed and stuck next to him for a while. They I made a move and pushed forward. I caught the wave in front of me. I really tired to hammer it hard. Finally got to the last bouy and hit a traffic jam. I couldnt go anywhere cause there were slower people in front of me and people on both sides. Reached the ramp and on up. Transition Time: 5:42 Good to see everyone. JB, Ruthie, Edwin, and Eric. Eric ran with me videoing me. I, again, felt really tired, but tried to run as much as I could. This was deja vu. Went almost to the same spot to take off my wetsuit. Still had problems but was able to take it off myself. Ran to my spot. This time is was a lot easier to spot cause I was the only bike left in the rack. There were a couple of guys I was talking to earlier in the morning and were chitchatting with me about the race as I was changing. Then, finally told them that I was in the middle of the sprint. Oh, they said ok, we will leave you alone and good luck. Replay except for the shoes. Turned on camera, wiped face, helmet and sunglasses. Bike Time: 30:50 Same except now I gotta strap in. Went off and was able to strap in with no issues. I was a bit worried cause I didnt open up my bike shoes like I usually do when I setup my shoes on the bike. But, was able to readjust on the fly. Powered as hard as I could. This time I was passing people up, but no one was passing me. One guy tried to pass me. He was also in my age group. So, I powered through. He was right behind me the whole time, I kept on looking every once in a while to see if was still there or I dropped him. He was right there. Thanks for the push bud. Helmet was still slipping, but since I got used to it, I let it be. It is only two loops. What a difference inside and outside of sacker drive. Coming into it, you felt the coolness coming out of it, you felt the blast of heat. My goal was sub 30. Or at least less than half of the oly. But, not today. 30+ some change. 30 minutes less than the oly. Transition Time: 4:20 Dismounted and ran up the hill. The guy behind me past me up. No biggie, let us see his run. Same process, except didnt turn off the camera. Took my time and put on my bandana. Off I went. I was exhausted by now. Run Time: 28:30 Ran down. I can feel I was losing energy. I just ran out of gas. I couldnt even maintain an 8:30 pace. It is not like the heat bothered me. I just could tell I couldnt speed up. This time it was a crawl. I wanted to get the finish line. Still danced around buckingham but not as enthusiastic as last time. Those three miles really hurt. When it is going to end? There was a lot of walking. Never seen so much walking for a 5k. Nobody really passed me except for the teenagers. I went up to a couple of them after the race and congratulated them and also said to be young again. My wife made everyone running next to me laugh. She yelled, hurry up, everyone here is hungry A guy next to me said, no worries, like we are not hungry. She was right, everyone was waiting for me. But, the last mile I did push it and was averaging under 8. But, it was way long. My watch said 3.31. Did my similar dance on the blue carpet and jumped at the finish. Saw Jen and Angel at the finish. Chatted with them a bit and headed to the CARE tent. Everyone was packing up. Yes, everyone was hungry!! Analysis: The sprint hurt way more than the Olympic. Not only was a second race of the day, but way hotter. When I started the Oly it was at green, during the run of the oly it was at yellow, and the whole sprint was at red. What pushed me the last three of the sprint was the last three in hawaii was way harder than the last three here. Just had to survive and finish. I did it again. Forgot about the go pro in my back pocket. Again, the support was tremendous. Edwin, JB, Ruthie, Jonathan, and Eric were there at 5am and stayed until I finished. Love you all!!
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 18:24:06 +0000
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