On August 30, in 2 hours, 26 minutes and 28 seconds, Kyle Piercy finished in 95th place out of 1842 males in the 32nd annual Chicago Triathlon. Piercy, an avid triathlete, was only 14 seconds away from his personal record set in 2007.

“The Chicago Triathlon is Olympic-sized, which means that it is a 1500 meter swim,  24.9 mile bike, and 6.2 mile run,” Piercy said.  “Over 9000 people participate from all over the world, and it’s a great course because you get to swim in Lake Michigan, bike along the lake path, and run around Soldier Field.”

Piercy maintains a triathlete’s training schedule year-round. For the Chicago Triathlon, summer vacation was no excuse.  “I went to Turkey, Croatia, and Montenegro at the beginning of the summer with my family,” he said, “so I was actually training in these beautiful countries swimming in the Adriatic coast, which was 75 degrees.”

When race day came, Piercy felt strong and ready. At 3:30 am he got up and made his way to the race to set up his bike, and prepare to start the swim, which he completed in 27 minutes and 4 seconds.  “I hadn’t swam in that cold of water in a while, and the 62 degree water kind of freaked me out a bit,” Piercy said. “I almost went into a little bit of a panic, but I got my wits about me, and I started cruising, passing people the whole way. That’s the only time you use your arms, so I was going all out.”

After completing the bike portion of the race in one hour and six minutes, averaging 22.37 mph, Piercey reached the final stretch.  “I pushed it so hard on the bike, so I was pretty taxed,” Piercy said. “The run is six miles, and during the first two miles my chest was cramping.”

Forging through the pain until it faded, Piercy was determined.  “I was following this one guy who I had been following on my bike the whole time,” he said. “He was my pacer, and he passed me at the end of the bike, and I told myself I would catch him on the run, which I did.”

Piercy’s competitiveness was kicked into full gear, but his body didn’t make things easy.  “As I passed him at mile three, my legs started cramping up, but I played it cool so he wouldn’t see I was in total pain,” Piercy said. “But he caught me at mile five and we worked together that last mile, but he beat me by three seconds in the end on the straightaway to the finish line.”

In the end, Piercy was happy with his performance.  “It was the fastest swim and fastest bike that I’ve ever done,” he said, “and I did the run in 46 minutes and 47 seconds and a seven minute and 33 second pace, and secured 11th place in my age group out of 258 athletes as well as 95th overall out of all 1842 male athletes.”

This race was just one of many in Piercy’s long history of triathlons.  “I’ve done 16 triathlons since I started in 2005,” Piercy said. “My favorite triathlons so far have been Ironman Canada in 2010 and Escape from Alcatraz in San Francisco in 2014, which is epic because you actually swim in the San Francisco Bay. I just signed up to hopefully get into Escape from Alcatraz again in 2016, and I hope to do another Ironman in the next few years.”