Big Shoulders, Ohio Street, September 11

My forecasts for Big Shoulders this year were 68 degrees and mostly flat conditions. Boy was I wrong. Instead of getting warmer with the east wind it somehow got colder. When the announcer gave the Chicago Park District temperature reading of 63 before the race I didn't find it creditable, so I waded in and measured the water myself. 63, I guess I better keep my day job and not go into weather forecasting. As expected it was rainy, not so much as we had feared with light drizzle to light rain throughout the morning. Fortunately no threat of thunder. But there was major wind and both waves, up to 2ft, and chop over the course. It was the hardest big shoulders swim ever and my time was about 12 minutes over the usual. Ken and Erin, Sue and Jody all were also disappointed. Stuart completed the 2.5K but with the large crowd I did not see him at the race.

No one liked my suggestion of a Lake swim tomorrow!

There is a page at Southern Lake Michigan Lake Temperatures issued by the Chicago office of the National Weather Service. This page usually gives an reading "Chicago Shore" which is an accurate approximation of what to expect at Ohio St. at 9AM.   But today they said 67 while my watch at 9AM, during my swim, said 63.8. Perhaps, being Saturday they just slept in and gave my prediction instead of a real measurement!

Postscript: There is a good writeup on Big Shoulders at the blog robaquatics.com. I can't resist posting this picture of the race from that site:


The caption is "Choppy, windy, rainy and cold...whats not to like?". I also can't resist a brag, your blogger came in first in his age group for the 5K, no wetsuit.