This triathlon was not by any means my first, however, it does feel like my first grown up tri.

Growing up, both of my parents were triathletes which means that some of my earliest memories are from inside a Burley trailer to help my dad with resistance training or sitting in a jogger while my mom gets her run in. So once I was old enough to start participating, my parents signed me up right away.

This summer has kept me busy — between trying to see all my friends, travelling when I can, moving apartments & working at the shop to help y’all find new bikes or repairing your old bikes, I didn’t really need anything else to add to my plate. Despite all that, I signed up for the Chicago Triathlon — the Olympic distance, which would be the longest race I’ve ever done. So somehow I had to find time to squeeze in training too. I managed it with early mornings & a great support system through BFF; going on lots of our group rides as well as a couple run clubs helped to motivate me since the social aspect of these workouts made them way more engaging.

The whole week leading up to the triathlon I was racing to get everything ordered and ready for our booth at the expo. Setting up our mechanics to be the official bike support on the course. Working the expo all day selling Abus helmets & Perspective Fitwear. I barely had time to actually think about wrapping up my training and getting myself race ready. So when I left the shop to go back to the expo for my packet pickup on Saturday, I had to shift my mentality from helping run the event to actually participating in it.

What really helped was having my mom with me to walk me through race day & help me strategize the logistics of everything. Back in the early 00’s my mom raced this course and won her age group – now, two decades later, I get to race the same course on the same bike, with her there to cheer me on the whole way. She even booked a hotel close to the transition area so that we wouldn’t have to travel very far race morning. All of this is to say that having her there to walk me through each of the steps for the triathlon was instrumental — she made sure I have enough nutrition to get me through the day, an extra pair of clean socks, helped me put on my race numbers, braided my hair & remembered everything else that I could easily forget.

Race Morning

Everything from when I wake up to when I got in the water is a a bit of a blur — I know we got a little lost & had run through sprinklers to make it to transition in time and I remember waving to the BFF mechanics as they took care of everyone’s last minute bike needs, but mostly I was just focused on not forgetting anything that I needed to set up ahead of time. Even as I lined up in the swim corral, I was so worried about seating myself correctly that I had no time to get nervous. Before I knew it, I was jumping in the water and my race had begun!!

Swim

I’m a decent swimmer, but my real advantage in the water I knew would come from my one season playing water polo in high school and my lifetime growing up with brothers – I could handle getting kicked in the face and swimming on top of people in the start, which definitely was helpful here. I was chatting with another woman at swim start about the water temp who was saying how cold it was going to be at 71°, but it felt really nice once I got going! Plus, with such an early start, the water was so calm — there were certainly a couple waves that made me swallow some lake water, but way less than I thought there would be.

What was really fun was seeing my mom & my boyfriend walking with me along the seawall and cheering me on as I turned my head to breathe. Hauk (my boyfriend) had also gotten up extra early and (as I would find out later) had to take two different taxis to get here to cheer me on. When I swam up to swim exit I saw a run club regular there pulling people out of the water and while I didn’t get to collapse into her arms, it was still nice to see a friendly face. Shortly after, I ran into my friend’s mom who was there for her daughter who was also racing, but she still yelled for me as I ran into transition. Right before transition, though, I got to see my dad who had the biggest smile on his face as he took pictures of me. You can see here that I’m having the time of my life and feeling great coming out of the water. It really helped having so many friendly faces there to support me, it certainly gave me the extra boost I needed to run from swim exit all the way through to getting on my bike.

Bike

I was pretty confident getting on the bike. This would be my first time racing on my new (to me) tri bike, but I’ve been riding it all summer so even though she’s an older bike, I’ve been getting a lot of PRs while training, which felt great. I was a little nervous since a lot of my training had been for a century in July (if you’re interested in hearing about how that went, check out our Instagram story highlight), but all that had been for distance rather than speed so I was worried that it wouldn’t necessarily translate to a fast bike split. But then soon enough, I found myself running by the BFF mechanic stand again where I got another burst of energy — honestly, the atmosphere at the race in general is so electric that it feels just as good as any energy gel.

After clipping in (for the 4th time ever), I got a good burst of speed on the downhill onto Lakeshore Drive with a great tailwind which was a great way to start. Although, that turned into a headwind when I turned around, which felt less great. Pretty quick I was able to forget about all the wind as I descended down onto Lower Wacker where the course became a little more technical; having to wind around corners, dodge potholes & weave through other riders all while getting to look at the underbelly of the city. So. Much. Fun. The best part of the ride, however, was running into the woman who started out in the swim corral with me — we were neck and neck for most of it, with her passing me on all the climbs and then with me passing her on the flat sections. I felt like I had a real rival out there.

Coming back into transition, I passed the mechanic stand for the last time during the race when Gillian started to jog with me. She reminded me to eat and gave me some final words of advice going into the last leg. Throughout the whole summer she had been there for me and coaching me so it felt right for her to be there supporting me by my side.

Run

Going into the race, I knew that my run would be my worst leg. I knew I made a lot of progress this summer when I got my PR for a 5k at the BFF run club the Wednesday before the race, but I didn’t have to swim & bike before that. Plus, it was only half the distance I needed to run in the triathlon. So even though I was feeling great coming off the bike, I was still worried. Gillian had advised me to take it easy for the first half of the run to conserve my energy so that I would still have gas in the tank to finish strong. That advice kinda fell to the wayside when I saw my cousins & uncle cheering just outside of transition; they were there for my other cousin who was racing the sprint, but it was another instance of having a friendly face there to give me a energy boost. Shortly thereafter, however, I realized that I could not keep up the pace I was running so I had to slow wayyy down. The sun was rising too so the day was only getting hotter & I was only getting more tired.

Sometimes, it doesn’t feel very good to be right and in this moment I was not feeling great about my run, just like I had predicted. But I pushed through and made it to the turnaround where I started to speed up — only because I was done racing and I knew that the faster I ran the sooner I could be off the course. Going back, I even saw my friend who was racing the same distance as me. I’m so glad got to see her and cheer her on. I finally reached the final hill where someone was playing Kate Bush’s iconic anthem which helped me gain strength for the final stretch. As I turned the last corner, my mom, dad & Hauk were all there shouting for me to finish strong, so I did exactly that. With the finish line in sight & only a couple hundred yards to go, I kicked it into high gear and ran as fast as I could until I finally reached the end.

Done

I am so proud of not just finishing, but finishing really strong and feeling great for (most of) the whole race. But I would not have been able to finish if it weren’t for everyone supporting me along the way. I am so lucky to have had Gillian coaching me the whole summer and to have my dad & Hauk there to cheer me on at every turn. I’m happy I had such a great cheering squad made up of friends & family. All the people on the course were great too, whether it was folks pulling people out of the water or handing out Gatorade or racing along with me, everyone who was there on race day contributed to making the atmosphere feel so alive. And of course, I am so incredibly grateful to have my mom walking me through every step of the process & letting me use all her old race gear. She is the one who signed me up for my very first kids triathlon all those years ago and my inspiration to continue being a triathlete now.