casual ultimate » triathalon antics brought to you by our favorite viking

this just in from our c.u. correspondent, bjorn, who witnessed the triathalon this weekend live and in person.

“the r.w.i.p. triathalon started with a half-mile swim along the lakefront path between oak street and ohio street. casual ultimate obviously has a much larger readership than we all think, because about 200 boats anchored themselves in the harbor to watch the spectacle. or maybe they were there to party, and could care less about joe and cho. whatever. one of the many boats that costs way more than our collective net worth was bumping out some phat beats, giving the triathalon a soundtrack, which was nice. cho is the obvious favorite in this event, and he does not dissappoint, shrugging off an attempted mid-swim brawl from joe, finishing the swim with a 4 minute lead.

next up was the bike leg, 11 miles worth. the route was supposed to follow the lakefront path south to mccormick, then turn around and head north to irving park ave. the experts figured joe would have a clear advantage in this event, given that he actually owns a bike, and rides it frequently. it was speculated that joe would be much more aggressive about weaving through the mobs of lance-armstrong spandex-wearing wanna-bees, and clueless knobs walking four-wide across the path, allowing him to quickly close the 4 minute gap. at that point, the stratedgy from the cho camp would be to draft joe the rest of the way, letting him do the work of trailblazing.

well, cho chose to ignore his crew chief, and tried to detour around the congestion of the path on the bridge at navy pier. the details are hazy, but along this route cho found his way into a street festival, had to run the bike rather than ride it, and go up/down some stairs before he could make his way back onto the lake front path. by this time he had burnt up his lead, and then some, and had some work to do to catch up. cho caught up to joe around belmont, and adpoted the stratedgy of drafting for the remaining mile or so, which led to a dead even race going into the final leg - a 4.5 mile run back to the real world house.

the next 5 - 10 minutes would determine the outcome of the race. in the words of cho, “i knew i had to blow [joe] out in the first mile, otherwise [he’d] think [he] had a chance the whole way.” apparently, cho did just that. after stopping at a convenience store to get gatorade for the competitors, i caught up to joe at damen ave, he said cho was further up. about a mile further down the road, i finally caught up with cho.

the race had started at 1:36pm, and at 3:15pm, the victorious cho arrived at the finish line - the front gate of the real world house, but cho kept running. through the front door, up the stairs, and into the green skylight room. run cho, run. joe arrived not too long thereafter, at 3:23pm. joe may have lost the battle, but i think the war was a draw, as both guys ended up in the room they were favoring.

it was good show by both competitors, and it provided an afternoon of entertainment for me at least. then we went to some irish place a few blocks away. good food, cool bar with lots of outdoor seating, but the bartendress wouldn’t shut up about jeff tweedy and wilco coming into the bar.”

a big c.u. thanks to bjorn for his rundown of events. hes our first c.u. guest blogger! the ladies at c.u. will get you a beer at the next happy hour for sure.