Back in STL

The Chicago race was pretty cool.

Left St. Louis on Fri afternoon - a lot later than expected - and arrived in Chicago after midnight. Went to our friend's place and straight to bed.. exhausted!

Sat am headed to the Expo at the Hilton in downtown Chicago. Awesome Expo, loved it, lots of cool stuff.

Gave my race number, got my bib, got the chip, confirmed it, got my goodie bag and swimming cap. Got body marked. They wrote my wave number on my calf: 46, and the lady told me to go check my wave time on a chart... my start time was 9:21AM! D'oh! Bummer... because they opened TA from 4:15AM until 5:45AM, meaning every single athlete needed to be there in between that time and then out of there.

Sun morning was nice, in the low 70s and no humidity, and it stayed like that pretty much the whole day.

I got there just a bit before 5AM, got all my stuff ready in the biggest transition area I have ever seen.... sadly I don't have any pics of it, I didn't have my cam with me... I know, what was I thinking?!?... sorry! Anyway, done with TA setup and I was like: uh... ok.. now what?!?!? Walked around, saw the sprinters start... walked some more... laid down on the grass, took a 15 min nap.... I tell ya.. it sucked! I was there just walking around for about 5 hrs!

The family got there about 30 min before my start, thank God because I had a bag on me - and even thought they had a check-in bag area, I felt better leaving all my stuff with them. Got ready got on line with my group.

We started right on time, and for the first time I drafted in the swim.... the whole swim! It was awesome! Got behind this girl who pretty much lead me until the end.

- 1,500 meters (.9 miles) Swim time: 26min 15sec

Got our of Lake Michigan and jogged a quarter of a mile to TA!!

Took wetsuit off, grabbed my stuff and took off.

- T1 time: 3min 30sec!!!

I made a very bad/dumb/stupid/rookie mistake on the bike. I left my shoes (on the pedals) but... with the velcro on! So after a few min I was pedaling I reached to get my feet in the shoes and I realized the velcro was on.... I of tried to opened them up but couldn't.. HAD TO STOP!! I was so mad... quite frustrating. Stopped, got off the bike, took the shoes off the pedals with my hands, got the shoes on, clipped them and took off again. Surprisingly enough I had a great ride, in fact my best race ride ever. I ended up with an average of 20.1 MPH, really fast for me considering the bike is my weakest leg. The bike course was pretty flat though, and bumpy too.

- 40Km (24.8 miles) Bike time: 1hr 13min 44sec

Got back to TA, got my running shoes, bib and visor and I was gone.

- T2 time: 2min 35sec

Needless to say my legs were tired for the run and I could tell... I obviously went too hard on the bike... still I felt ok and just ran!

- 10Km (6.2 miles) Run time: 48min 46sec (7:51min/mile)

AG: 64/499

OA: 470/4089

It was a fun race, great experience racing with that many athletes and all but don't know if I would go back. To me it was one of those 'had to do' kinda race.

This weekend I got Lake St. Louis Oly tri. Last year my time was 2hrs 44min. And even though this is not an A race for me I am still curious to see what time would I have.

PC

accenture Chicago Triathlon

Tomorrow I am heading to Chi-town for the accenture Chicago oly tri. Can't believe it's already here.. can't believe we are almost done with August!!

This race should be fun and interesting. I read there are over 8,500 athletes registered and probably about 6,500 or so will race. I've been wondering how TA is going to look... it's gonna be massive! I understand the Expo is huge as well and they have a ton of cool stuff... it's gonna be hard not to spend a lot of $$.

Even though it's an Oly distance race they have this feature called: "Accenture Triathlon Alert System" where you registered for free, provide a cell number and/or an email address and a message it's sent each time the registered athlete passes a mat to the cell or email you gave. I just registered so my familia knows where and when to look for me. It's a useful tool since there will be so many people racing.

The weather here in St. Louis has been rainy with temps of 70s - 80s... which is not bad... I would be happier with out the rain though. AccuWeather says this Sun will be in the 80s and no rain in Chicago, I hope it stays that way.

Good luck to the all athletes who are racing this weekend as well and if you are not racing, have fun training! :)

PC

Miscellaneous

Can't believe it's mid August already... 4 more months and 2008 is over! And after that I move to the 35 - 39 age group LOL.... funny how we think about our age like that now.

Aug 24 I have the 'accenture Chicago triatlhon'. And next month my second 70.3 in Cancun, Mexico... can't wait!

Training has been great. Last weekend I had an awesome work out. Sat I did the Ghisallo Scorcher 4 mile race. For the first time ever I felt pukey before the finish... the last .5 mile or so... weird. Time: 27min 34 sec.

Sun met with Coach and some people she knew to do a brick. It was 7 of us, we rode 80 miles and then we ran 2 miles. It was the perfect day for it.
I bought a new saddle for Diabla and tried it on Sun, loved it. It's the Blackwell ISM Adamo Racing/Tri Saddle, very cool!

I haven't been able to swim ever since my tri at Innsbrook (Aug 2). The following Tue after that race I had a mole taken out of my back and got 3 stitches. The doc told me to not swim for at least a week. This past was a week and today I'm going back to the pool for a 1,700 meter swim.
The mole results came back negative, it was just a normal mole.... The stitches need to come off next Tue.

Weather has been excellent. Low to mid 80s and very low % of humidity... Even though I was supposed to be training in the super hot and humid Midwest August weather in preparation for Ironman Cancun 70.3, oh well.

PC

Who Tri's Harder Quartermax - Priority B

I had a pretty good race last Saturday at the "Who Tri's Harder Quartermax" tri. Considering I almost didn't do it. Last Wed I was in bed at 7pm with a fever! Thu felt a bit better and had to go to work since I had some mandatory training I couldn't miss... I was considering not doing the tri by then. Fri I took off work and tried to rest as much as I can and ended up going to Innsbrook, MO (about 50 - 60 mile drive west from St. Louis)

Sat morning I got there at 6:30ish and did the BAU stuff.... set up TA, got body marked, got chip, etc.

Saw and talked to some STL Tri Club peeps and then got with a couple of friends and waited until a pre-race meeting they called right at the lake beach. The race director provided the last updates and we had a minute of silence for the guy who died last year during this triathlon. He had a heart attack during the swim and drawn. It was pretty weird to think it was only a year ago and we were about to get in the same lake....

The Octomaxers went first... guys wave, then ladies wave. Then it was our turn, Quartermaxers.... ladies and then guys, plus relay teams. Great mass start practice. Got kicked and pushed a bit but nothing major. Started pretty relaxed.. stretching and focusing on staying straight towards the buoys. Half way I felt really good so I decided to go a bit faster. Out of the lake and run up hill to TA. It was a long jog.... Grabbed bike and all and took off.... the ride went fine with no issues. Came back, and took off for the hilly run... I could feel the sun by then as well.... and the worst part was the horse flies..... they were everywhere and were chasing me!! Got bitten 5 - 8 times... bastards! - I know what you meant Sam when you ran at WyCo -

1000 yard swim: 16min 31sec - 1:39min/100y

T1: 1:39

28 mile bike: 1hr 21min 20sec - 19.9mph avg

T2: 1:29

6.5 mile run: 48min 42 sec - min/mile: 8:07

Total time: 2hrs 29min 43sec

AG: 7/25 - OA: 60/238

Had a great time and enjoyed it a ton!

Last week I sold my Fuji bike to this guy from work.... I liked my Fuji and it was the bike I start doing tris with but I was never fitted to it, so it was big for me. It was time to let go... I needed a different bike anyway to take the familia for rides (My wife and I pull the kiddos in our bikes). The Fuji's gone and yesterday I bought a hybrid: The Trek 7000

Here's a pic of me and my new addition: "Lola" :)