Tower Triathlon Race Report: HIM

08m 22s | 450 yards | 01m 52s /100 meters (time includes run out of pool and outside around building)

29m 49s | 11.10 miles | 22.32 Mi/hr

22m 25s | 3.10 miles | 07m 13s /Mi

8/35 M40-44
30/224 OA

The Schmitty race train departed the station May 19th...destination Tower Triathlon in Niles, Illinois.

A little info about Niles, Illinois - immediately northwest of Chicago...right along side the border. A notable landmark and point of pride among Niles' residents is the Leaning Tower of Niles, a smaller-scale replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. This landmark is seen in the opening credits of Wayne's World -- Shyeah, no way. Way!

This leaning tower of Chicago ingenuity is located next to the Niles YMCA (hence the moniker -- "Leaning Tower YMCA").

And now you know.

And before I go any further...JEN FINISHED 2ND IN HER AG!!!!! How freakin cool is that. The Triathlife salutes one of their own. GO TEAM SCHMITTY!!!!

Now back to the show...

The Tower Triathlon, now in its 26th year, is the little triathlon that could. It's a sprint distance race that features an indoor swim, an 18k bike and a 5k run. The indoor swim is unique in and of itself -- the Niles YMCA features side-by-side lap pools -- one 25 meter, one 25 yard. The women go off 8 at a time, 2 per lane in the meter pool and swim 400m. The men are set up similarly in the yard pool but swim 450y. Each wave of men and women start together. This could be chaos but after 26 years the race start and the timing is incredibly orderly and goes off, well, like clockwork.

The getting from indoors to outdoors has a lot to be desired. They add that run to the swim time....which is a across and down the entire pool deck which I can best describe as -- wet tiles+barefeet = like running on freshly Zambonied  ice. Then it's out and around the building, across the timing mat, through some landscaping and onto their north lawn where the bikes await our arrival. The bike is a time trial circuit. Five very flat laps...lots of turns, not the best roads....through an industrial park. Which is fine...the roads are closed...no worrying about other traffic. And if you pay attention and accelerate out of the turns you can really hammer. I was pretty happy with my ride. I didn't have my race set up on my bike and still managed to average over 22mph.

And then I ran as fast as I could. The end.

I have to say....racing M40-44 kinda blows. I PR'd this race by two and a half minutes and I finished lower in my AG than I ever have. Waaaaaaa......somebody call the wambulance.

Good little race that could. It's early in the season and the volunteers are friendly. It's easy to get to and it's well run.