The Chicago Triathlon’s swim portion was canceled Sunday morning due to dangerous waves,
It was the second time the race’s swim was canceled for weather since 2019, but many racers were OK with it.
“We couldn’t swim in that,” says racer Susan Galvin, 60, from Winnetka. “That would not have been safe.”
About 38% of this weekend’s racers are first-time triathletes, organizers said.
With that many inexperienced racers, it made sense to cancel the swim, said racer Robert Garren of Avondale.
Waves hitting the lakefront wall created a “washing machine effect,” said Garren, a Chicago police officer in the 18th District.
In an email to racers earlier Sunday, organizers said the swim part was canceled “due to unfavorable swim conditions and a beach hazard issued by the City of Chicago.”
Lake Michigan’s shore was under alert for “large waves and dangerous currents,” according to the National Weather Service. Waves of 3 to 6 feet were expected, forecasters said.
Instead of swimming, sprint and international races competed in a duathlon: biking and running. The races still began at the “swim start” on the lakefront at Lake Shore Drive and Balbo Drive. They ran three quarters of a mile north to the transition area to retrieve their bikes.
Sunday’s race kickoff was delayed 15 minutes, to 6:15 a.m.
The first racers began crossing the finish line a little less than two hours later on Columbus Drive near Balbo.
Racer Everett Pain, a 16-year-old junior from Hinsdale Central High School, is on the school’s cross country team.
Although he say he’s a “pretty good swimmer,” he feels he’s a better runner.
“I’m better suited for this,” he said.
Everett was grateful that weekend temperatures had cooled to the upper 60s — a much-needed break from the triple-digit heat index Chicagoland endured last week.
“If it was 100 degrees, it would suck.”
Before the swim was canceled, the international triathlon was set to be a 0.93-mile swim, 24.8-mile bike ride and 6.2-mile run.
About 6,000 people raced on Sunday, said Chicago Triathlon spokeswoman Allison Humbert Wilkinson.
Katie Pothier, 41, returned to Chicago on Sunday from Atlanta to complete her second triathlon — 20 years after her first time racing as a student at Illinois Institute of Technology.
She was competing in the “triple challenge,” a combination of three separate races: a “super sprint” on Saturday, the international race at 6 a.m. Sunday, then a sprint distance later that morning.
The triple challenge is 59 miles total: 1.63 miles swimming, 46.3 miles biking and 10.85 miles running. Racers who complete it win a sporty jacket.
Despite recovering from a broken ankle, Pothier was still keeping a pace better than when she was in college.
“I would’ve smoked everyone who raced with me 20 years ago,” she said.
