Life after the Chicago Triathlon Triple Challenge.

I completed the Chicago Triple Challenge. 68 miles of swimming, cycling, and running in one weekend. Anyway here is the breakdown of all three races.

Super Sprint Wave #18 starting at 8:20 AM
375 M Swim, 10 K Bike, 2.5 K Run

• Bib # 11767
• Clock Time: 00:42:31
• Overall Place: 63 / 707
• Gender Place: 59 / 324
• Division Place: 17 / 76
• Swim: 00:08:45
• Bike: 00:20:29
• Run: 00:13:15
• Swim rank: 165
• Bike rank: 57
• Mph: 18.1
• Run rank: 51
• Pace: 00:08:33

In short I felt great and rocked it out. It was soo short it was too easy. Another Triple challenger told me in conversation that the bike part was hard because it had three loops and you lost so much time turning around. I kind of agree with that. The water was a little cold but it was so short it didn’t matter. Water temp was like 63 degrees.

Sprint Distance - Wave #1 starting at 6:00 AM
.75 K Swim, 22 K Bike, 5 K Run

• Bib #: 304
• Clock Time: 01:26:49
• Overall Place: 154 / 2304
• Gender Place: 129 / 1248
• Division Place: 24 / 204
• Swim: 00:16:51
• Trans1: 00:03:40
• Bike: 00:39:34
• Trans2: 00:02:30
• Run: 00:24:13
• Swim rank: 235
• Bike rank: 119
• Mph: 20.7
• Run rank: 321
• Pace: 00:07:48

This portion was probably my best sprint triathlon ever. I felt so good after the sprint. I thought I would PR the international too. The water was warmer then the air. I had so much adrenaline pumping I didn’t care. As for the pace I didn’t feel I was going all out. I found out I was wrong during the run portion of the International. One of my favorite parts was when I came out of the swim I took off my swim cap and I saw my Dad cheering for me. For those of you who don’t know my Dad is my inspiration and one of the reasons I keep pushing myself to raise money for cancer and my body to new limits.

International Distance: Wave 45 starting at 9:12 AM
1.5 K Swim, 40 K Bike, 10 K Run

• Bib #: 7350
• Clock Time: 03:02:13
• Overall Place: 2144 / 4243
• Gender Place: 1760 / 2951
• Division Place: 328 / 543
• Swim: 00:31:10
• Trans1: 00:03:22
• Bike: 01:19:02
• Trans2: 00:02:21
• Run: 01:06:18
• Swimrank: 1123
• Bikerank: 1641
• Mph: 19.2
• Runrank: 3476
• Pace: 00:10:41

Looking back at my times in the Chicago Triathlon 2007 (My first triathlon ever and international distance too) I improved upon everything but the run. The run was my down fall. My swim, transitions, and bike times all improved. You could tell I ran out of steam when I went from an 8-9 minute pace (looking at all my triathlons) to a 10:41 pace. During the run I had to power walk miles 2 and 3 and do intervals for the last half. I was so hungry at that point. Maybe if I ate another Gu or had peanut butter sandwich at transition things would have been different. I was planning on doing 5:1 run/walk intervals but my body told me I had to slow down.

All in all I was happy with my times. I expected myself to finish the sprint distance around 1:30:00 hours and the international in 3:00:00 hours. I did three triathlons in one weekend, something I’ve never done in my life. I’m extremely proud of myself and that fact. All I can do is learn and aim higher. Next year I have my eyes sighted on competing in a half Iron Man. Time, life, and god willing.

It was great seeing so many friends, family and teammates from Team in Training along the way. My mom saw me finish the International race. Some of my marathon participants cheered me on. I raced along my triathlon coaches Brian and Bill. The marathon coaches body marked me and cheered me along the way. It was such a great experience. Plus since I had green hair with a purple mohawk a lot people said they loved the hair. On top of that everyone was able to see me coming a mile a away because of the hair.

The times don’t really matter either. The most important thing is that I raised over $1,200 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. That money is now being used to help find cures for cancers. Hopefully some day the children suffering from a blood cancer today can compete in a triathlon in the future.

Be on the look out for my You Tube Videos about my Triple Challenge Experience.

Here is a link on Facebook with all the pictures I took over the weekend. More will be added as friends send pictures to me.

Here is one about all the pre race stuff:

P.S. you can still make a donation and help me reach my fundraising goal of $2,000 but donating at http://pages.teamintraining.org/il/chitri09/rdobroski

GO TEAM!