Some friends of mine and I did the Tri 4 Fun in Pleasanton, CA today. This is a great first timer's race, and at least 1/3 of the 1000 participants were in that camp. Watching the first timers go is a blast - not that I am the most experienced triathlete in the world, but I have done enough to know the basic do's and don'ts, but not so many that I forgot what it was like my first time.
Hero #1 was a guy about 35 or so - maybe younger. He was so heavy and out of shape that it may have made him look older. He was a big boy, obviously a little self conscious about his weight because he kept his loose fitting cotton muscle shirt on the whole time - swim and all. I don't know when of if he finished, but he had the stones to start the thing, and you have to respect that.
My other hero of the day was a woman on her old Giant comfort bike. Now when experienced cyclists thing of fixing a flat tire, they think tubes and CO2. When she thought of flat tires, she thought about the trunk of her car - which is where she must have picked up the full-size can of Fix-A-Flat that she had duct taped to her seat tube! It was truly classic and absolutely made my day.
John
Hero #1 was a guy about 35 or so - maybe younger. He was so heavy and out of shape that it may have made him look older. He was a big boy, obviously a little self conscious about his weight because he kept his loose fitting cotton muscle shirt on the whole time - swim and all. I don't know when of if he finished, but he had the stones to start the thing, and you have to respect that.
My other hero of the day was a woman on her old Giant comfort bike. Now when experienced cyclists thing of fixing a flat tire, they think tubes and CO2. When she thought of flat tires, she thought about the trunk of her car - which is where she must have picked up the full-size can of Fix-A-Flat that she had duct taped to her seat tube! It was truly classic and absolutely made my day.
John