Another beautiful sunrise ride… although I’m thinking I might need to pull out the heavy Winter gloves soon?! It was pretty chilly this morning… colder than I expected. I love Fall, but I’m not a big fan of frozen fingers while riding so soon. Can’t we hang on to the warmer weather for a few more weeks… please, oh please, oh please?!

Remember a few days ago when I posted about the cool cement carvings along the lakefront?… well, apparently this is “a thing” here in Chicago…. who knew?! Thanks to Matthew for letting me know about this history of carved cement art along the lakefront in Chicago.

For more details… click here for the article & photos!

After too many mornings of rain, it was great to have finally see the sun… and a “dry” bike trial along the lakefront. Sure, the clouds were still shrouding the skyline, and it was a bit chillier than I expected… but the sun finally made an appearance & brightened my day!

Always a special day when the Chicago Marathon works its way through the neighborhoods for 26.2 miles of fun! The weather may not be ideal with some gusty wind & a little drizzles of rain, but all of the runners were off to a good start. So fun cheering them on close to the start as they crossed the Chicago River for the first time. Fun to see the Elite Runners, the parathletes, the “normal” runners… and even cheering on the last one! Give it your all… you got this!!!

And remind me again why I felt compelled to add long swim & an even longer bike ride BEFORE my full marathon last weekend?!

After a week of clouds & rain… a week of IRONMAN recovery… and a week of blisters healing… it felt GREAT to finally get back out on my bike this morning! Sure, it was cloudy & windy… but so much to be outside playing along the lakefront again!

Lots of clouds & lots of waves crashing in! Kind of a chilly & windy morning, but it still felt great to get back out for a morning ride…as the last few days have been a bit rainy & wet. Welcome to Fall in Chicago… pedal on!!!

Beautiful blue skies & puffy white clouds at Buckingham Fountain after the triathlon… and after the storm! One of the most beautiful landmarks in Chicago. It’s hard to take a bad picture of it… and even harder to choose which ones to post?!

Fun with friends along the lakefront… swimming, biking & running! We all ran our own race while dealing with the heat, humidity & freak rainstorm! It was the first time that Tracy & I got to run together as we signed up for the “Clydesdale & Athena” division for we “larger” normal-sized people!

Fun to have Chris, Nancy & Don racing with us. Seeing Nancy in our favorite “Rapid Reboots” after the race… and Chris winning second place in her age group!

Despite the challenging weather today, we all had a great time playing down along the lakefront for the 2021 CHICAGO TRIATHLON.

Today was sunny, hot & steamy… with a side of gusty winds & stormy clouds with a quick deluge of a raining downpour!!! Not quite ideal… but another fun day at the 2021 CHICAGO TRIATHLON!!! Sure my finish time might not have been my best, but we had a great time swimming, biking & running with friends!!! It felt so good to get back to a little slice of “normal” during these crazy times! Luckily, we were all outside with plenty of fresh… err, make that thick & humid air!!!

With this being the hottest weekend of the summer, I’m tagged & ready for another Chicago Triathlon tomorrow! It’s going to be a sweaty race… as I’m currently in the studio sweating & racing to finish a new batch of oval vases. We’ve had no air conditioning on the second floor of Lillstreet for over a week now!!! Not good during the heat wave hitting Chicago this week! Just trying to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate…