Fit-Pic: 2013 Life Time Tri Chicago

You know it's Chicago Triathlon weekend when the Lakefront Path is virtually blocked off from Randolph to almost Monroe to fence the grassy area across from Columbia Yacht Club. It's all to arrange the bike racks for the 47 waves of amateur athletes and the two waves of professionals. The crazy part is that even with all of those racks, the bikes are still crammed in there--in fact, it wouldn't be a triathlon if that wasn't the case.  See?

What makes the Life Time Tri Chicago (sorry still getting used to calling it that after I've known it as Mrs. T's, Accenture, and the plain old Chicago Triathlon for years) truly special is not only its size--it received the title of world's largest triathlon a few years ago--but its spectator friendly course. OK, so you can't watch much of the bike if you're also trying to watch the swim and run (trust me, I've tried). But at the intersection of Monroe and the Lakefront, spectators can watch runners on one path and swimmers sprinting out of the water and heading toward transition on the other. And that's all with a view of the Windy City's skyscrapers.

Were you out watching the triathlon earlier today? I was racing, but I'm saving that race report for another day. I'm still recovering from my 4am wake up call.