Here is my race report if you have time to read it, it’s pretty long.

Chicago ITU Sprint Distance 6-29-2014
I started preliminary for this summer’s set of races in November. Carefully scripted but changeable training plans have been executed. I have raced the, Leaning Tower YMCA and LITH but these were B races without the competition that I will face in the coming weeks. Yes, the top competitors are split between Olympic and sprint but this time, there is a lot of competition from all over the country. In the sprint is my friend Scott from San Diego who was the age group national champion in the late 1990’s. Jim Sumara is one of the very top triathletes in my AG from Wisconsin, he was 7th in our age group at Nationals last year and won Elkhart Lake by a large margin. It turned out the other top guy from New Jersey, did not show up but then there is always the unknown out of state athletes that you don’t know who can take the race.
I feel ready but with the apprehension since I haven’t felt all that strong since in a race this year. I am concerned with the water temperature as it was as low as 56 degrees a week before 10 miles to the north and the possibility of rain and a wet bike course. Though I know who I am facing having researched their splits on Athlinks, the races they have done this year are probably B races like mine. I don’t really know what to expect, I almost feel like I am defending the state of Illinois as my two or three Illinois rivals had signed up for the Olympic Distance.
The day before I witness Gwen Jorgensen fall behind on the bike and pass Helen Jenkins from England in dramatic fashion to win the female pro race. The entire female event was shown on the big screen by Buckingham fountain. I am an avid fan of the ITU series and have watched the series on TV for years. Her win is a big deal to me even at emotional level as the top runners never used to dominate triathlons like they do now.
By the time I am up and traveling to the race site all the rain has stopped, the wind has even died down. Though it is in my city the course is completely different than any Chicago race has been before. I have little home field advantage in that respect. I have a late start at 11:55AM, by then it is quite warm. As I jump in the water it does not feel that cold more like nationals was in Milwaukee last year.
As we line up I position myself front and center, in the new age group I am in a better relative place in the swim seeding than I ever have been. I cannot find my friend Scott to position myself to draft off of him, then the gun goes off and I sprint to take the lead, it feels like everyone in the lake is grabbing at my feet including the biggest threat from Wisconsin. Just then one guy shoots by and then what seems like several others behind him. There is no one to draft off of and I drift to the right as my goggles fog up. The rest of the swim is uneventful but it did not go all that well, I exit the water in 6th place. Though I am behind I can usually run well after a swim. It is a long run to T1 , by the time I get there I am in 4th place.
Scott, the guy from San Diego is racked two spots away and he leaves his spot and passes me by but especially since I have my multisport shoes on shoes I pass him and get onto the bike course first. As I clip in, Scott does one of those flying leaps onto his bike and passes me but 20 feet later I accelerate by him probably because he is using a disc and I decided to use two Zipp 404’s. We are well into the first mile and I am ahead still ahead of him when I go to shift and my chain falls off. This has almost never happened in a race, I try to pedal it back on and Scott passes me. I am forced to stop to put it back on. As I do this Jim Sumara with his Team USA jersey goes by at near thirty miles per hour though it seemed like 60. I get the chain back on but race result analysis shows that this entire snafu has cost me almost a minute. I jump back on and pursue them both as I go onto Lower Wacker drive. It is bumpy down there but very fast as I consistently reach 25-27 mph on the straightaways. I see my friend Scott from San Diego at the turnaround sections, he is not getting any farther ahead. Jim Sumara is out of sight but race result analysis shows that he slowed during the bike and was not very far ahead of Scott. During the time I was not stopping and putting my chain back on it was a very fast bike for me, I think over 23mph. Without the chain incident I would have been right with the two or three leaders.
I am down over a minute to first place at the end of the bike but I probably make up some time as we run towards the transition area. When I get to the transition rack it is completely unrecognizable with just three bikes in the M60-64 area out of the 40 that started. I cannot find my transition spot at all; the numbers on the racks are not facing out and it takes me at least 40 seconds extra. In a panic I almost put my bike in a random location but finally find my spot next to where a Kestrel was lying on its side. I have now dug myself a serious hole.
The run starts well without the fatigue that I had in two previous 2014 events, don’t feel the heat that has been building all day. On the out and back sections I see Scott from San Diego, but I don’t see Jim Sumara until later and when I do he is way ahead. It’s hard to remember in the fog of 90 plus percent of your maximum heart rate but I think I passed Scott move into second place at 1.5 mile point.
Sumara is still quite a ways ahead but his jersey with his name on it now makes him easy to spot and a target. I am not sure if I can catch him but he is clearly closer each time I see him. Finally, 500 yards from what I thought was the finish I pull up behind him. People usually don’t hear me coming from behind so I am able to stay back 20-30 feet undetected for about 5-10 seconds to catch my breath. At that point the deciding moment of Gwen Jurgensen’s victory the day before plays back in my mind. I accelerate to about 5:30 pace to pass him by. Next thing I remember is thinking that I will need to hold a sub 6:00 pace for the last quarter mile or so but when I turn around and he is 100 feet behind.
Then the finish line is up ahead and the sign says something like course and finish. With all the out and backs that we had done I thought that I had completed the race but mishaps were not over with. When I turned around Sumara did not come in. I explained to the finish line guy that I went around the whole thing twice and he said “I was good” as did the second guy I asked. Then a USAT official came up and said that I had to go around and do another half lap. By then it was too late and I was DISQUALIFIED.
Later I found out that at least would be winners of the M65-69, F60-64, and F50-54 age groups were also disqualified for the same reason. I know it is my responsibility to know the course and in retrospect should have studied the small color coded course map better. This was the race I wanted probably as fast as I had gone in ten years minus the mishaps. While it is disappointing I know I could have won actually quite easily and that my training program is working. Next it is on the nationals after one more tune up race.