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This weekend was supposed to be a celebration for the Johnson family.

On Sunday, Aug. 23, Chicago resident Marisa Johnson was supposed to compete in her first triathlon in three years after being hit by a car while on her bike and suffering a femoral stress fracture while marathon training.

On Saturday, she was supposed to do a shorter-distance race with her 89-year-old grandfather, Bob, who was slated to compete in his first triathlon.

However, Marisa aggravated something in the leg she broke earlier this year, and had to drop out of racing this weekend.

Her grandfather, Bob, a resident of Gary, Indiana, pulled something in his knee and was going to have an MRI done to see if he could still compete this weekend. The storms that ravaged Northwest Indiana last week made getting Bob’s knee checked out not possible and his entry into this weekend’s Supertri event in Chicago has been canceled, according to Marisa.

“It’s a real bummer,” Marisa said of scraping her grandfather’s race entry. “However, we are grateful that our house and family are safe after the tornadoes, since so many others are worse off.”

Bob had been training for the event since January.

The Gary resident had been sedentary after open-heart surgery a few years ago.

“He would sit on the couch and watch the news,” Marisa said of her grandfather. “He was not doing anything exciting. I was not going to let him wither away.”

Marisa, who has done triathlons, including Ironman distances, remembered how he would talk to her about her races.

“’Your races sound so amazing. I wish I could do one,’” she recalled him saying. “I said, ‘I don’t understand. You’re here. You’re where my drive for winning comes from.’”

The triathletes work out together. (Provided photo)

Marisa and her parents thought to get the sedentary senior into triathlons.

“It was not optional,” said Marisa, who has the nickname of Mojo with her triathlon teammates. “We got him a strength coach. We enrolled him in swim lessons. We bought him a bike.

“We had to get him to leave the house and challenge himself. He did and he came back to life again.”

Bob is fully deaf on one side, having a cochlear implant, and has a hearing aid on the other.

“It is a sport where you don’t need to hear,” Marisa said. “The lack of hearing doesn’t make you feel isolated.”

Marisa even took her grandfather to a camp with para-triathletes.

“He had the most amazing time. He was able to talk to other deaf athletes,” she said. “He was able to chat with people about the accommodations they use, the different ways they run.”

Marisa said her grandfather’s injury is just a setback, not a career-ender.

“I want him to believe in himself and his skills,” she said. “I am 100 percent confident that will do a triathlon. Whether it is a year from now or internationally in his native Peru, he will do it. He will get to be in charge of his body.

Bob Mendez gets in some road work. (Provided photo)

“He is 89 years old and stronger than every 89-year-old I’ve seen in my life. It is great to see someone prove something to himself. That it is possible to do race. The time is irrelevant. Now, he knows he can do it. I want him to do something new and scary.”

She noted that her grandfather became a nuclear engineer on a drinking bet and was the architect who  built the federal courthouses in Chicago and Springfield.

Marisa and Bob were to be two of 9,500 athletes competing in this year’s Supertri Chicago. This year’s event has drawn more than 1,000 participants than last year, cementing its place as North Amercia’s largest triathlon.

Marisa, who swam competitively from ages 8-18, thought she was done competing after high school.

“I worked out way too much in high school,” she said. “I said, ‘I am never going to swim again’ and threw away my swim cap and goggles.”

Going to USC, she had a good friend who was a runner and had a hyperactive dog. She started running with her friend, which led her to get into a marathon training club.

She then heard about a triathlon club at the Southern California university.

“My dad was a cyclist, so I had some cycling background,” Marisa said. “The triathlon club was the most welcoming environment. I got to see California and race.

“I got to swim near dolphins, bike in the mountains, and run around the Rose Bowl.”

She joked that she embraced triathlons “where you can be mediocre at three sports in a row.”

In 2022, she signed up for an Ironman (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run) her senior year at USC and finished third in her age group.

She competed in the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii the next year and finished despite battling COVID-19 and asthma.

“It was not the most fun experience,” Marisa laughed. “I was vaccinated and tested, but still wound up with COVID.”

Marisa said she moved to Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood to be near family.

She said she was not nervous about her planned return to competition in part because of support from her triathlon team.

“It is a lot of people who are an antidote to stress,” Marisa said. “Community helps me feel confident on a big scale.”

This weekend’s Supertri is expected to generate a major economic boost for Chicago after bringing $17.5 million into the city last year. This weekend will feature races for every skill level, including a Kids Triathlon.

“Chicago has become one of the defining triathlon experiences in the world because it combines elite competition with genuine accessibility,” said Michael D’Hulst, CEO of Supertri. “The response to this year’s event has been incredible, and we’re excited to welcome a record number of athletes to Chicago as we continue building toward our goal of making Supertri Chicago the biggest triathlon in the world.” 

For information on this weekend’s triathlon events, go to https://supertri.com/chicago/.

kbeese@chronicleillinois.com