Here’s a link to about 360 pics, some swim start, mostly bike. Camera battery died too early and I forgot/left replacement in my car parked miles away so I did not get too many run pics.
Pre-race:
Rode the course Friday. Beautiful, much easier than IMWI which I’ve done twice, at least in my opinion. Unfortunately there were quite a few locals that made it clear that they did not appreciate us out riding, despite riding as far right as we could and single file. I was honked at, yelled at and flipped off more in one 56 mile ride then in all my rides added up the last 3 years. Swam 1 loop saturday, nice swim.
Race morning: Up at 5 am to help our friends that were doing the race get going. At the swim start and soaked by 7. Watched most of the swim start then walked out to the bike course. Picked a good spot at the base of the first little climb in town right after the downhill section out of T-1. Sat for an hour taking pictures and watching riders heading up the small hill. Got to witness first hand the spectacular bike handling of triathletes! Could not believe some of the stuff we saw, especially in the later groups. Lots of people riding slow, messing around (eating, putting on jackets etc…) while riding in the far left as they went up the hill. This caused riders that were absolutely sprinting up the hill to have to pass them on the right or go over the yellow line. Lots of people messing around with food/clothing weaving all over the roads too while being passed. Pretty entertaining and scary for a while.
Switched to the top of the hill coming into the ‘hot corner’ (90 degree turn right at the expo tents to go around transition) as riders came in from their first loop. Lots of scary stuff again. Could not figure out why a ton of people were trying to eat while coming through this section until later on when I realized special needs was right before that part of the course. Lots of crowd support for the riders coming through.
Took a break, got some lunch, then watched the run start at the top of the hill coming out of T-2. Both mens’ and womens’ leaders had huge leads. Lots of support again for the runners. Saw SneakySpeed coming in from his first lap coming up the hill, looked like he was in a world of hurt but still had enough energy to throw up some devil horns when I hollered go Sneaky!
Headed out to our aid station on the run course at the boathouse out and back. Worked it from 6-10pm. Lots of fun, but I also never want to see orange gatoraide again. The later it went into the night the more appreciative the runners were. Some people smiled and looked like they were having the time of their lives, others looked like walking death. Oh, I also did not know that they recycled the sponges. After seeing people stuff them in all kind of ‘unmentionalble’ places then toss them out to be re-soaked and then re-used, I don’t know if I can ever take a sponge again at an M-dot race.
Left our aid station at 10, walked down to the finish for an hour or so then headed back to our beds exhausted. Got up and headed to the volunteer registration line about 7am, sat in line for about 3+ hours until we finally got signed up for 2010. Began the 8 hour drive home then heard that our friends that stayed home and risked not getting in had no problem registering on line for 2010. Oh well!