Team 2 1/2 . Jose, Christine and Tony
Today a few friends and myself took part in the 2013 Lincoln Park sprint triathlon. Held at the Lincoln Park community lake, a local sprint triathlon that features a short and calm “500yd” lake swim, followed by a fast and flat 10-mile loop bike course and a 5k run.
This year we would be doing the race as a mixed Relay team of three, our team “Two and a half men”. I would take the swim, followed by my brother Jose on the bike and Christine would anchor us on the run. The event was very well run, and we were lucky to have dry weather with a bit of overcast clouds, as expected it was muggy and humid. Our friend Steve was also taking part in his first triathlon event, and showed up excited and ready for action.
SWIM
Swim course… a bit shorter than 500yd
Being in the relay division we started with the last swim wave, wave 7. I decided to go with the Tyr swim skin and it was a good decision, although this was a wetsuit legal race, I wanted to give the swimskin its first try and I was surprised by how well it worked. The swim course this year was dramatically shorter, although its slated for a 500yd swim, it was clear from the onset based on the bouy position it was more like a 300-350yd swim. Knowing this I powered through the swim and surprisingly had very little contact even though I stared in the last wave. Once around the first bouy it was another short few minutes until the final turn buoy and then onto the shore. A large inflatable arch made sighting easy and a little bit of contact near the shore, but then I was done, up and out of the water. I looked at my watch and quickly knew I had not swum 500yd, but I high tailed it to T1 and passed off the timing chip to Jose
BIKE
Jose flying past mile 5
Jose took off and it was clear from seeing him at the half-way mark on the bike that he was flying. Jose would go on to average a nice 23.1mph ride and looked very strong on the bike leg, and more importantly erased the 20 second T1 exist deficit and gave Christine a 2+ minute lead heading out of T2. JOse commented he felt strong and thanks to his Cannondale Slice and some Aero gear , he was flying around the flat course
RUN
Christine about 500m from finish -pursued by Bob in purple top.. still in 1st relay at this point.
Christine, took off fast on the run clocking in a strong first, mile, I walked back to about the 2.5 mile mark to encourage her on . It was there I saw her heading back towards the finish , followed a small chasing pack of guys.
Christine finish the race
As she passed me she asked who was behind I told her a group of men and the one guy with the purple top was charging. She chagrined , as she knew
who the purple top was, it was our relay division competitor, Bob (from team The Flying Dutchmen) . Christines bright orange top made her an easy target to spot. With less than a quarter mile to go , Bob passed Christine decisively, but Christine held on to finish close second…
FINISH … 18 secs short!
2 1/2 men (2nd) and Flying Dutchmen (1st)
It was a fantastic relay race, it came down to the last 400m where it was decided, thats what makes triathlon such an fun sport , every second and event count! ….. we missed winning the relay division by 18 seconds, the team “the Flying Dutchmen” made a terrific come from behind victory thanks to a strong closing run.
| Team | Swim (~300/350yd) | T1 | Bike (10mi) | T2 | Run (3.1mi) | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flying Dutchmen | 05:17 | 01:41 | 28:45 | 00:37 | 22:03 | 0:58:26 |
| Two & half men | 05:58 | 01:20 | 25:59 | 00:37 | 24:48 | 0:58:44 |
Steve and Melissa at ace finish
Steve finished strong and was cheered on by the finish line crowd, great work and he was all smiles at the finish.
Post race was followed by great music from the DJ, food, awards and smiles all around. Thanks to all the organizers, police, ems, lifeguards and volunteers for a class A event..
Picasa 2013 Lincoln Park Race Photos
Photos are free! (hi res available on request) if you like them kindly leave a message on this blog….
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