A few of my Case undergrad friends had the bright idea of trying to finish the 2004 Accenture Triathlon eventhough a couple of us had never even contemplated a triathlon. I personally had never thought it possible since I really can't (and still can't) swim all that well. In the end, Evan, Dan, Joe and myself endeavored to train and finish the race on August 29, 2004 in the Windy City.
Dan, Joe, and I completed the sprint distance triathlon and Evan did the International/Olympic distance. Unfortunately, I only really have pictures of the sprint distance people since Evan only really showed his face to race, and we had doubts at that. Thanks Cara!
As any great athlete knows, a great performance starts with a great breakfast. Dan and his wife Gina flew in from Virginia a couple days before the race, and we took them to The Original Pancake House. No food for you!!! What? Not all here? No food for you!!!
Before the event we all had to head to the Chicago Hilton to pick up our race day packets. Here is Joe getting his bib numbers written on his arms and legs in permanent marker for the race.
After picking up the packets the gang posed for this picture in front of the hotel. From left to right: Erynn, Missy, Gina, Dan, Hugh and Pat. After this we split up, and some of us walked around the just completed Millenium Park.
Here is my dad in front of the Crown Fountain in Millenium Park. The concept for the fountain is actually pretty cool. Photos rotate on the face of the two blocks at each end of the fountain. The photos are of real Chicagoans and each series of photos of a person ends with them making a spitting face. The fountain then "spits" out a stream of water to the enjoyment of all the little kids.
One of the coolest things in the park is this sculpture by Anish Kapoor that looks like a giant bean or cloud. It's highly polished stainless steel, which reflects the park, skyline, and people on its surface. The picture on the left shows Erynn, myself, Dan and Gina in front of the bean. The picture on the right shows my mom and dad.
Here's just a neat photo of the bean with almost the entire skyline of Chicago reflected on its surface. I like the photo because you can see the buildings that run off the side of the photo on the right reflected on the bean. Half relfected, half not.
Part of the park is the Pritzker Pavilion, which was designed by Frank Gehry. Mr. Gehry is a favorite of Erynn and myself. We've photographed a couple of his buildings in Cleveland and Prague
Dan thought he'd get a leg up on Joe by tweaking his bike one last time in our living room.
The night before the race we thought we would carbo load a bit at Volare, which is a great Italian restaurant in Chicago. Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures at the restaurant. If any of you out there have pics from that night send them my way...
For some reason, I really got a kick out this photo of my parents. I call the work "Volare Gothic".
We were in the first flight of the day at 6:45am. Dan and I were used to the early morning from rowing all those years and Joe has been sleep deprived from years as a surgical resident. Therefore, we were in fighting shape. However, we were so relaxed that we got to the start about 3 minutes before we had to jump in the water.
Of course, behind every great man is a cadre of fine women (and my dad). Here are Missy, Gina, Erynn, Natalie, and my parents during the race waiting for us to run by.
All three of us finished the sprint race. It was one of the most incredible things I've ever done. Evan finished like three days later since he was in a different event so I unfortunately didn't get a picture of him.
As we were leaving the finish area a gentleman with a shiny new Vespa pulled up. Here is Joe and Joe Sr. posing with the Vespa in front of the Sears Tower. For the full scoop about Joe and the mighty Vespa click here.
| Name | Race | Bib # | Swim | Swim Rank | Trans 1 | Bike | Bike Rank | MPH | Trans 2 | Run | Run Rank | Pace | Final | RANK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dan | Sprint | 219 | 0:18:28 | 225 | 0:02:28 | 0:41:43 | 103 | 19.5 | 0:01:21 | 0:22:35 | 92 | 0:07:17 | 1:26:38 | 70 |
| Doug | Sprint | 208 | 0:25:13 | 1052 | 0:02:28 | 0:44:22 | 227 | 18.3 | 0:02:05 | 0:25:01 | 338 | 0:08:04 | 1:39:12 | 377 |
| Joe | Sprint | 228 | 0:20:51 | 462 | 0:03:18 | 0:48:05 | 525 | 16.9 | 0:02:24 | 0:29:41 | 907 | 0:09:34 | 1:44:21 | 556 |
| Evan | Intnl | 2410 | 0:25:40 | 84 | 0:02:33 | 1:15:33 | 929 | 19.6 | 0:02:09 | 0:50:22 | 1035 | 0:08:07 | 2:36:18 | 437 |
| Sprint Winner | Sprint | 431 | 0:11:35 | 1 | 0:01:11 | 0:35:38 | 3 | 22.6 | 0:01:36 | 0:16:31 | 1 | 0:05:19 | 1:06:53 | 1 |
| Clydesdale Winner | Intnl | 6651 | 0:24:59 | 64 | 0:02:07 | 1:00:38 | 15 | 24.5 | 0:01:23 | 0:38:49 | 50 | 0:06:15 | 2:07:58 | 17 |
| Intnl Winner | Intnl | 5237 | 0:22:11 | 9 | 0:01:21 | 0:55:28 | 5 | 26.8 | 0:01:16 | 0:36:29 | 16 | 0:05:53 | 1:56:48 | 1 |
There were 661 male finishers of the sprint distance race (.75k Swim - 22k Bike - 5k Run) and 2221 male finishers of the international distance race (1.5k Swim - 40k Bike - 10k Run).
Full Results Here.
© 2004 Doug Rathburn