I decided I would go to Chicago to do the Gay Games Triathlon. My friend Jeff and I had started “Team HRC” a while back and used the triathlon and ½ marathon as fundraising events. We had a decent number of athletes coming to the race from all over the place. It was going to be fun to meet some of these people and have an opportunity to hang out in Chicago.
I competed in the Gay Games back when it was in Sydney. At the time I wasn’t doing triathon and just went down to run the 10K and 5K. The experice was really good and the city put on an amazing event. It was pretty cool to run on the 2000 Olympic track and see all the new arenas they built for the Olympics. After all my “distance events” were over, I actually did a 4x100 on the Los Angeles B team. We came in second over all LOL…I couldn’t walk for a few days. That wasn’t the brightest thing to do because I probably could have hurt my hammy pretty bad. I spent the rest of the time recovering on a beach! We had a great few nights of going out and living it up in Sydney. The whole thing was a memorable experience.
Chicago was the other side of the Sydney coin. I think they did a pretty bad job with the whole event. I must give them some slack in that I know there was some controversy with the “Out Games”. They were both supposed to be in Canada and then something happened and the Gay Games got switched to Chicago. Do gay people really need two games? I’m not even sure they need one, but that is a whole other issue. So is the fact that there is inner conflict. But I won’t go into that now…..
So the triathlon was on the same course as the Chicago tri. You would think with that being the case that the Gay Games could pull of a triathlon with a lot less people. Really all they had to do was copy the other race….Lets just say that didn’t happen. The biggest issue was that there were no bathrooms until 10 min before the race.
I managed to find a way to take my mega pre race crap and still make the start. The swim was right in the harbor and fun because the whole time you can see people walking along the boardwalk watching. I was surprised how rough the swim was. The stereo type of gay people being “sissy’s” was no where to be found. I was getting punched and kicked the entire time.
When I finished the swim there is a a very long run to T2. For some reason I have very sensitive feet and don’t do too well with rough barefoot running. None the less I did what I could and made my way to the bikes. Once out on the bike I felt really flat. I was trying to get that feel I had when in Hawaii for Lavaman. I rode really strong there and was able to push really hard the entire time. Not the case today. But I also knew that I wasn’t riding “bad”. I came off the bike in 3rd about 4 min down from the leader.
After my extremely long T2 I was out running. Again, flat legs. Major bummer. I even had a feeling that made me not want to run at all. I think part of that was coming from “Oh man I don’t want to loose at the gay games.” But I kept on trucking. I got to see the leader when we hit an out and back section and he looked like he was running so much faster than I was. But then again, everyone always looks like they are running fast to me. When I hit the turn around I started to think I could catch him. I had passed the other guy around mile two. We had about a mile to go so I just sucked it up and ran as hard as I could. When I got him in clear sight I knew I would have to pass with authority and not let him know how crappy I feel. I made the pass and he couldn’t respond and I ended up winning by about 2 min. I really wanted to go sub 2 hours but didn’t do it. Oh well….
The rest of the week was pretty good. I was able to go watch Wadley swim and see a few of the track events. I won’t go into how bad I felt the track stuff was run. But lets put it this way, I was going to run the 5K on the track and decided not to.
I did run the open 5K road race mid week. I won that too which was surprising because the Frontrunners had some decent runners. They went out pretty fast and I stayed back. I used my IM fitness to work the second ½ and pulled to the front. I think I went 16:27??? I laughed at how quick it was over! When you train for an IM a 5K feels like a blink of the eye….pretty sad that I worked so hard to run so slow too! Ahhh the good ole’ days of running short fast races is O.V.E.R.! But I did use the race as a workout as I have a ½ Ironman this next weekend in Racine Wisconsin. I have been a bit nervous that I have not been able to get any biking in as Chicago is not the best for that. However, swimming the lake has been so great! David Bishop and I have had some good training swims. I did drive to a sports store to buy a trainer for the bike. I only got on it once fo 50 min LOL. The best part is that I can return it!
I think Racine will go well! I will post about that when it is said and done.
Cheers,
bdc
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