Big Shoulders Report

Well the race is over and Courtney and I are back in Ohio. We had a great time in Chicago but are glad to be back home with Riley and Jake.

The Race...

I ended up finishing 45th overall, 6th in my age group in a time of 1:05:36. Overall I was very happy with my performance. Going into the race I thought a time between 1:07 and 1:12 was doable so when I saw 1:05 I was very happy.

The race was a lot of fun. The water was awesome. Clear and somewhere between 70 and 73 degrees Fahrenheit. It was a little cool when you first got in but was nothing but comfortable the for the rest of the day.

Courtney and I got into Chicago around 3, found a place to park and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Allerton on Huron, very nice place and within easy walking distance to the race start. After settling in at the hotel we headed off to Ohio Street Beach where the race would take place. I wanted to get a quick swim in so I could get accustomed to the surroundings and not shocked when tomorrow rolled around. I did an easy 15 minutes in the lake and then we grabbed dinner on Navy Pier.

We got up around 5:20 on race morning which gave us enough time to get to the beach early and still allow for Courtney to stop at Starbucks :) I got registered, and Courtney found a good spot to watch the race. I stretched really well and drank Gatorade and water but did not get in the water and warm up. Maybe this was a mistake but I did not want to get in, get cold, and then have to warm back up again before the start.

I was scheduled to go off in the first wave at 8:00. At 7:55 we walked
out into the water and got setup for the start. The way the start
worked was that they had a person in a boat holding a rope and when the
horn sounded he raised the rope and everyone takes off. I worked my
way toward the front for the start right behind the guys from
Northwestern University Swim Team. I figured they would take off fast
and I could get go with them for a while.

Turns out the beginning of the race was pretty fast and I ended up swimming at a decent pace to get clear and then settled in. The first lap around the course was
pretty uneventful. I did force myself to take in the beautiful skyline
of Chicago and enjoy the view. I felt good the first lap but I didn't
really have any idea of how I was doing in terms of placing and time.
It would have been cool to have some sort of in-water timing system so
you could get a sense of splits and how many places you gained or
lost.

Once I started the second lap things got much more crowded. It
seemed like you were passing people all of the time which makes you feel
good nut also slows you down as you have to navigate through the crowds. I felt good throughout most of the second lap but I would tell I was fatiguing with about 500-600meters left in the race.

After the race Courtney and I hung around for a while and enjoyed the festivities. Then we headed back to the hotel to enjoy the rest of our stay in the city. All in all it was a lot of fun and a race that I will definitely try to attend in the future.

Many thanks to Courtney for all of her support and to the guys at the pool(Dan, Kip and Chris) for keeping me in line.

Up next? The Central Ohio Adventure Race at Caesars Creek on September 26th!