Tag: The Forge

The Forge Gravel Triathlon Race Report

When:  07/20/2024

Where:  The Forge – Lemont, Illinois

Distance:  Off-road Sprint – 14 miles total: ~ 540 yard SWIM, ~ 10 mile BIKE, ~ 3 mile RUN

Results:  1:20:34 –  Overall & A/G placement – Who Really Knows?

Results Link:  The Forge Gravel Triathlon Results

A lot can happen in three years. I certainly changed in that short period, taking time off from almost any type of race that involved going fast, and concentrating on going long and slow. But as I claw my way back into shorter and faster races, I find it difficult to get back to where I was. The Forge Gravel Triathlon has also changed since the last time I did it, adding a very technical (i.e. scary hard) section to the run course that involved a lot of walking and praying that I wouldn’t fall. I ended up with a time about 5.5 minutes slower than in 2021, which I can’t be too upset about. I’m actually somewhat impressed that I held it together through the last mile of the run. It wasn’t easy.

All set up and waiting for the start.

As I drove over a very potholed road into The Forge on Friday to pick up my race packet, I was reminded that this road is part of the course, and it was going to need my full attention on race day. I was up at 4 am on Saturday to get ready for the race. The drive to Lemont was an easy trip and I parked in my usual spot at Lemont HS and rode my bike into the park along the I & M Canal trail. Once there I racked my bike, set up my transition area, then started taking in the important Swim Out, Bike Out, and Run Out portions of transition. That led me to discover that the run-out now takes a narrow path, winding around and eventually dumping you on the trail. I decided a warm-up jog was in order, and headed down the trail to see what parts were changed and what to expect. I saw my friend Tony walking down the path and we exchanged pleasantries. He was there to volunteer as a lifeguard in a kayak, which is very much appreciated. He has a super-packed race schedule this year, so I was a little surprised that he finds time to volunteer for stuff like this.

Back to the warm-up jog, it led me to a very technical portion of the park that is used for mountain biking. It had steep drops and climbs, with many rocks and other gnarly stuff. I “jogged” through some of it until I finally decided I had seen enough and returned to prep for the race.

I saw another friend Leah, and I asked her husband Steve if he was wearing “the shirt”. “Oh yeah, I’m wearing it!” He wears this shirt that says “I DON’T DO MARATHONS, I DO A MARATHONER” to all her events and it gives me a chuckle every time. Leah and I chatted about our nervousness and then got ready.

Even though the water was 75 d. F. and wetsuit legal, I opted for my Roka swimskin, a sort of swim outfit that is supposed to reduce drag in the water. I love my wetsuit, but struggling to get it off after a swim can be a chore.

I was one of the first triathletes to head down to the swim start area and I found myself first in line in Wave 2. Looking at some of the athletes behind me had me thinking that I should probably move back, but I kept my spot and waited for the start. After the Elite Wave group of about 10-12 started, we all started to make our way to the dock and jump in, separated by about 5 seconds. It was a good swim for me – the water was a good temperature, I settled into my pace easily and had zero contact. I started to tire and felt a little out of breath on the last section heading back to the dock, but I got through it fine. SWIM TIME: 13:36

Into T1, I easily unzipped my swimskin and lowered it to my midsection, while sitting down, drying my feet, putting on socks/shoes, grabbing my helmet and bike, jogging to Bike Out, and then I realized I hadn’t fully taken off the swimskin! I stopped, leaned my bike against the fence, stripped it off, tossing it back to my transition area, and then off on my way to ride. T1 TIME: 2:32

I redlined the ride in true Gunner fashion. I was breathing heavily and my legs were screaming at me, but I soon found myself concentrating on my line on this twisty-turning trail and looking out for others as well. I passed a few and had a few pass me, but still felt like I was giving it my best effort. I knew that I wanted to press hard here and try to gain some time advantage because I knew I would be walking some of the run. BIKE TIME: 37:21

T2 was quick for me! It took me all of 44 seconds to rack my bike, take off my helmet and cycling shoes, put on my running shoes, grab my bib belt and visor while running to Run Out. I’m usually not that quick! T2 TIME: 0:44

A photo of the early part of the run course. The gnarlier stuff came later.

Once on the run I secured my bib belt, got my visor on, and carefully jogged through the opening path leading to the trail. It helped me settle down a little. As I got to the flat main trail, I started pushing pace and was doing quite well. Fortunately, a volunteer directed me over a bridge or I would have blown straight past her, cleaving off about 2/3s of a mile from the course. I was running pretty well on the flat trail and when I got to the technical part the walking began. There’s no way you could run up these little hills. On one of them, I was almost crawling up it. Fortunately, I didn’t have any mishaps and was about to finish that section when I heard a guy yelling about being confused about where to turn. I found that the run course was pretty clearly marked with arrows, but could understand how someone could get confused. He had been ahead of me, so I told him to follow me and got him going in the right direction again. I hit the gas for the last half mile back and finished pretty strongly. RUN TIME: 26:23

I was recovering a little past the finish line when I had a guy come up and ask me if my watch showed three miles. I informed him that it did and he said that he only had two miles recorded for the run. Five minutes later, a young lady also inquired about the run distance, saying she only had done two miles. Things were starting to get a little weird. It wasn’t long after the race that the race director grabbed a microphone and explained that somehow an arrow on the course had been moved, directing runners in the wrong direction. He advised that he couldn’t change the results, but if anyone in the crowd was aware that their run was short by a mile, to do the right thing and let him know. I didn’t see anyone approach him.

That somewhat explains the difference in my finish place compared to 2021. I finished 22nd overall in that race, and finished 60th in this one! And to add insult to injury, I placed 5th in my age group, but when I looked at the results, it was pretty clear that at least two of them had questionable run times. I should have been 3rd overall in the age group. I was robbed of an A/G spot!!! Oh well, it’s not that big of a deal. The bigger picture is that I raced well, felt good about my performance, and had a great time.

It was nice to get back to racing triathlon again.

Taking in the view waiting for the awards.

The Forge Off-road Triathlon Race Report

When:  07/17/2021

Where:  The Forge – Lemont, Illinois

Distance:  Off-road Sprint – 14 miles total: ~ 500 yard SWIM, ~ 10.5 mile BIKE, ~ 3 mile RUN

Results:  1:14:56 – 22/203 Overall, 17/108 Male, 11/56 Male +40, 3/16 Male 50-59

Results Link: https://www.athlinks.com/event/356249/results/Event/977670/Course/2091242/Results

First time racing a triathlon since Ironman Chattanooga in 2019! It seemed a little different, but all things considered it was just like I remembered it.

I was a little apprehensive about this race. Any first-ever race, especially one that is not governed by USA Triathlon, can raise a red flag for me. But as more information kept coming I realized that the race director wasn’t a first-timer, and in the end it was a really well run event.

The Forge is a small to medium sized adventure style park located next to the old Illinois and Michigan Canal and the Lemont Quarries, where stone was mined to help build and then rebuild Chicago after the Great Fire. Lots of old quarries located in the Lemont, Lockport and Joliet areas. The park has zip lines, climbing walls, pump tracks and paths for cycling, and utilizes one of the quarries for swimming and kayaking. Lemont is a nearby community and when a link to this race was shared on a page I follow, I decided to give it a go. Okay, on to the race!

Getting up at 4 am is never easy, but I got up, ate, and then I drove to Lemont and parked at the Lemont High School parking lot, as the participant guide indicated that parking was limited at the Forge and it was really easy to park at the school and ride my bike to the park. Once that I got there, I found the rack for my bike and got my transition all set up.

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After setting up I had some time to kill, so I walked to the swim start and exit, and walked back to transition to see where bike and run in/out were located.  I jogged down the bike trail a little while to burn off some anxious energy and then used the bathroom and headed back to get my swim stuff.

The Swim – 11:28  

I had swam on Friday and had a really good workout.  Felt really strong and had no issues.  I’m not sure why I couldn’t duplicate that here but I couldn’t.  I was slow, felt like I couldn’t get enough air, and seemingly couldn’t get it under control.  I was getting passed by a lot of other swimmers, but I finally settled in.  Fortunately, the swim wasn’t long and I was out of the water soon enough.

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Jump off the dock, head left and swim around the turn buoys. Seemed simple enough. 

I had planned for a non-wetsuit swim as the race director had said several times that the water temps had been high and that we should plan to swim without a wetsuit.  Turns out, Friday night and Saturday morning were cool and it was wetsuit legal.  I hadn’t even brought the thing.  I kind of wish I had, but nothing I could do about it.  There were only a handful of triathletes wearing them.  I would have thought that the quarry would have been really deep, but there were several places where I could easily see bottom, and there were times where my hand was actually touching the weedy stuff growing in the water.  I was in 76th place overall after that miserable swim.

T1 – 2:08 – Coming out of the water we had a thin, green outdoor carpet covering rocks, but I’m such a tenderfoot that it was a struggle for me.  Then we hit the crushed limestone and I didn’t really enjoy that either, but eventually we got into transition where there was more carpet covering grass.  I quickly grabbed my water bottle and rinsed off my feet and then made a decision that I later regretted – I decided to go sockless on the bike.  I never do that but I didn’t want to wrestle socks onto two wet feet.  22nd overall fastest through T1.

The Bike – 37:52 – I had biked on Thursday and I thought that I could probably push close to 20 mph average on race day.  Boy was that wrong.  I ended up averaging about 17 mph, but it wasn’t for lack of trying to go faster.  The course was new to me, and there were lots of slower riders ahead of me.  But the thing that really affected my overall speed was the numerous sharp turns, as well as a few hairpin turns thrown in for fun.  It was a difficult course, and even though there was a no passing mandate on a portion in which there was two-way riding on a six foot wide path, there was plenty of passing going on.  But from the moment when my butt hit the seat, I was gunning hard and passing lots of the faster swimmers.  I never got passed on the bike, and ended up with the 24th best bike split.

T2 – 1:25 – What I thought was a super fast transition from bike to run, it turns out I was pretty slow compared to the others.  This is also where I realized how dumb it is to go sockless.  My cycling shoe had worn the skin off a small spot on the top of my foot.  Needless to say, I put on my socks for the run and won’t be going sockless ever again.  The results had my T2 split at a questionable 164th place.  Really?  That surprises me because I thought I had done pretty well.  But I guess having to put on socks is what killed my time.

The Run – 22:04 – Grabbing my visor and bib belt, I bolted out of T2 without yet putting them on, and I was on the trail for what is my strong suit – the run.  I passed three very fit triathletes by 1/4 mile into it and was feeling great.  I just kept motoring along, passing numerous other runners.  I came up on one woman at the turn around who knew what was about to happen and stepped aside to let me go by.  I thanked her and started trying to catch the next runner.  Soon I saw another woman heading toward the turn around and I thought to myself that I bet she overtakes me soon.  

Somewhere after the 2 mile marker, the course veered off the I&M Canal trail and headed onto a park trail.  There was a hill and the volunteer standing there said “You’re welcome.”  I said “I’m walking this damn thing.”  And I walked up it.  It was steep, but what goes up quickly came down as we meandered through the portion of the Forge where they have climbing apparatus and zip lining stuff.  There were some pretty steep rocky stairs that I had to run down, but they weren’t too technical.  Back up a couple more hills and it was back the the trail and over to where we had to pass the finish line and do a quick 1/4 mile out and back to the finish.  The out portion was where the woman who I figured would pass me finally did.  We went around the cone together, but she hit the gas and I couldn’t match her pace.  I had the 16th fastest run split for the day and moved myself up to 22nd overall.  

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I cooled down, grabbed a banana and some water, put on a dry shirt, and kicked back by the quarry to wait for the rest of the triathletes to finish.  The scrolling results on the projected screen would only show overall place and not age group place, so I had to wait until the awards to find out if I had placed.  When the announcer announced my time first I started heading for the stage.  I was slightly surprised at 3rd place in my age group, but I was glad to take home the award, even if it was an odd carabiner clip thing attached to a chunk of wood.  I think I prefer medals.  The Old Guy age group seems to be the most competitive group out there.  16 of the top 25 were over 40 years old, and most of the rest were in their thirties.  Only two of the top 25 were under 30 years old, a 19 year old and a 29 year old.  

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Conclusion – The Forge Off-Road Triathlon was a fun event.  It was different to have to actually think about riding on a course like this, instead of just hammering along in aero on my tri bike.  I would do this one again, and would recommend it to anyone thinking about hitting the trails for the bike and run instead of what we normally race on.  

Thanks for reading!