Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: Chicago, special events

After we crossed the Finish Line, got our medals, played at Buckingham Fountain & crossed Lake Shore Drive on our way back to the Transition Area to retrieve our bikes & gear… we came across another triathlon going on! For the first time, SUPERTRI was in Chicago… just one of the stops of the worldwide tour… Boston, Chicago, London, Toulouse in France & Neom in Saudi Arabia!!!

Okay, so it was very cool… but a little confusing. I wish there was a poster or something to explain it all to us. We got there in time for the women’s race. Which seems like they do their “triathlon” like three times?! And it’s a shorter “road race” style with one-mile loops. They swim out to the yellow “cube” buoys you can see in the pictures… then ride their bikes along the lakefront from Queen’s Landing (across from Buckingham Fountain) almost to the Shedd Aquarium and back… doing like three laps?! And then they get off and run the same one mile “road race” course for three laps. And then they do all of that for three full rotations, I think?

And, oh wait there’s more… they also have a “short chute” that somehow some “selected” racers get to use to shave a couple seconds off their team’s time??? And we also loved the red Elimination Flag! With every lap of the course, if any racer falls past 90-seconds of the leader, they’re eliminated from the race!!! It was cool… it was fast… and it was VERY HOT in the blazing sun.

We stayed to watch the end of the women’s race… but didn’t wait for the men’s race. We were hot, sweaty & sun-scorched already. I will say… the “lady in red” making the corner in the first photo was the eventual winner of the women’s race! Very exciting… albeit a little confusing… I hope it comes back next year so we can see it again!!! Even better… I’d love to see this added to the next Summer Olympics!!!

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