I grew up here in Chicago (the burbs, actually) and know Lake Michigan to be eternally frigid. On race morning they said the water temperature was 68 degrees. WOW that is really warm! Well, my husband did the sprint race and when I saw him on the run, he told me the water was REALLY COLD! I don’t know where they took the temp, but trust me, it was not anywhere near 68. It was colder than Coeur D’Alene! My guess is a balmy 62.

I must say this is the biggest transition area I have ever seen! It’s situated on a hill and you can’t ever see all of it! AND after the rain and flooding we have had all week, the hill was a MUD BATH. I took a photo with my phone, but it does not capture the depth of the mud. So I was lucky in that my transition area was pretty dry and close to bike in/out. The less running in transition with the bike, the better!

Swim – Cold, lots of seaweed and a deep water start. I tried very hard when I first jumped in to tread water as fast as I could to warm up. I swam pretty hard for the first 200 yards and then settled down into a good rhythm until the turn buoy. I wanted to keep up with the group and catch the draft. The swim area is very narrow and its hard to swim off course, which is good for me based on my last two races! I had trouble sighting due to foggy goggles, I forgot to lick them, because I was running late to my wave. The biggest issue with this swim is you quickly catch up to all the previous waves slower swimmers. I had to practice defensive swimming. I got kicked in the head a few times when I came up on someone swimming breast stroke. There was so much seaweed and it kept getting caught on my goggles and around my neck. What an icky feeling! I didn’t want to stop every time to take it off so I developed a system of when my hand passed my head in the swim stroke I would just pull it off my face. Worked quite well, I only lost a little momentum doing this. My swim time was 29:00. the timing mats are at the end of the run, right at T1…so the official time is 32:30. That is the longest T run I have ever done. Longer than IMLP! 450 yards, in bare numb feet. And then I had to run to my rack which is on the complete other side of transition.

So this really cool thing happened to me in this race, normally, when I hit T1, a lot of bikes are gone….this time, most were there. So my mind goes and says “they are SO much faster than you, they are already back and on the run!” which I know was impossible. I passed a lot of people on the bike, and I didn’t get passed by to many people, mostly men from the waves behind me, very few women in my age group passed me.

BIKE - I borrowed a bike from my mother in laws personal trainer, thanks Alison! She rides a Trek 1000 and just completed a 150 mile MS ride on the bike, so it was in good shape and broken in! I test rode the bike on Saturday and found that shifting into the big ring was a little tricky, so I left it in the big ring for the race, which I thought was going to be dead flat. WELL, it wasn’t dead flat. The bike out went up a pretty steep on-ramp, and I didn’t feel like climbing out of my saddle and jacking up my heart rate so soon, so I shifted down into the middle ring (yes, a triple) and spun up the hill. Wouldn’t you know it, I get to the top and I can’t shift back into the big ring! Darnit. So I rode the whole course in the 42/12 or 42/13. I topped out at 25 mph. I would have loved to have about 2-3 more gears than I ended up with. My total bike time was 1:16.

I did something totally out of character, I was feeling really great. I passed a guy wearing, of all things, a Purdue University uniform. I yelled at him, “Purdue SUCKS! Go Hoosiers!” and sped off. I am an Alumnus of Indiana University, 1995. I looked back to see him pop out of his saddle and sprint to pass me. He got about 100 yards in front, and he then sat back down. I reeled him in at my steady pace and passed him again, this time not saying anything, but passing very close so he would know I passed him again. I feel bad about that, but in a really good way.

When I came into T2, there were a few bikes on the rack, but most were missing! WHOO HOO!

Run - we went south to the Planetarium and around the Shedd Aquarium and down to  Fireman’s memorial park, which was quite nice. It was hot and I was struggling to get 9 minute miles going. I almost lost my gel at mile 1. I ate it but it didn’t want to stay down. I was able to pass a lot of people in the run, which always helps to keep you motivated. It seems like every time I picked someone to pace, in about a mile or less, they slowed way down and then I would pass them and keep going. Total run time 56:36.

I placed 50/256 in my age group for a PR race that was 2:51. I was hoping for a 2:45, which I think I could have done better on the bike and swim. Oh well, there is always next year! I finished in the top 20% of my AG, which is huge!

Rachel won the Female Elite with a 2:10:33

Kim Dunker won her Elite age group with a 2:27:09

Great job to everyone who raced last weekend!

Sharpie threw down a 48 minute Ironman swim at IMLOU!