Race Report: Chicago Blues

The Finale 

So sadly, this race became less about competing and more about survival.

I still had a nasty virus that had given me the flu, a fever and a cough and with minimal sleep I was struggling badly the morning of the race.

I did a little run warm-up at the start and was struggling to 'suck em in' (I couldn't breathe), which is not ideal going into the most competitive field I had competed in.

So this meant I would have to be a little smarter in how I went about this race, which is not my usual approach (my usual approach is to go all guns blazing and see how it goes).

The start of the swim was lightning quick. We were in the A-group and I parked myself at the back and tried to breathe. The water was beautiful except I kept swimming through lots of seaweed, which tickled my feet.

During such a competitive swim, people are very very aggressive in the water. They will rip at your ankles, swim over the top of you and try to use you as an ironing board. Luckily I am too big to be moved around, so generally I am the one who glides over the top of smaller, weaker swimmers.

I jumped out in 22 minutes, which I was happy with and proceeded to run the 3 minutes into transition (yeah 3 minutes, WTF). In prior races I've gotten so excited that I've finished swimming that I'll break into a full on sprint and blow myself up in the space of 2 minutes. Luckily, because I was being smarter, and I physically couldn't run hard, I ambled into transition and onto my bike.

The bike course was unusual in that it traversed a number of tunnels and underground areas, which is also where they filmed a lot of the Batman chase scenes. While this made me happy that I was following the Batmobile, I couldn't breathe very well for the first couple of K, and the thought of pulling the pin entered my head. Yet I recovered, and proceeded to have a decent ride (I think it was very short, but aw well).

Now the run. I had actually put myself in a position for a decent overall time if I could churn out my usual 37 minute 10k (with a goal of 36minutes pre-sickness into the race).

Yet it was hot, and that whole breathing thing was really affecting me (who would have thought?), so I was on struggle street for the last 7k.

What do you think about when you are battling hardcore, well below what you can and should have achieved and feeling pretty shitty? Honestly, in the back of your head you want to stop. Put an end to the madness and pack it in.

I had a couple of songs that I was rotating through my head (I was trying to pump myself up with Wolf Like Me by TV on the Radio, which you can listen to above, but to no avail).

I was also really keen to go back to bed and finish watching Kill Bill, and it helps having the support crew (Mum, Dad and Fiona) madly cheering and looking on with great concern as I slowly fell apart in front of them.

So overall I was pretty disappointed with how I went, with an overall time of 2 hours and 11 minutes, which is 7 or 8 minutes off my PB and nearly 10 minutes off my goal time for the race. Yet I was happy and proud that I had gotten through a race feeling like I did, and with a truly terrible 2 or 3 day preparation.

What's next? Have a couple of weeks off, cos my body is hurting and then gear up for a couple of triathlons in November.

Thanks for reading, I hope it gives an insight into the life of a friendly triathlete.

Luv,

Murray