The alarm(s) went off. I got up, put on my clothes, got a bagel and went downstairs to see if Starbucks was actually going to open at 5:00 am as their sign claimed. Nope. So back to the room to brew some coffee, eat some breakfast and get things together (and hopefully moving downstairs). After consuming 1 bottle of Gatorade grape (150 calories, 270mg sodium), 1 cup of coffee, and 3 Panera Cinnamon Crunch Bagels (3x 410 calories), taking care of business, Jill and I went downstairs to meet John and Mary. As I stood outside I marveled at the shocking beauty of the morning – the temperature was awesome. 58 degrees, August, Kentucky not possible. This was really lucky. Pretty soon an athlete came running up from the direction of the race carrying a Zipp 808 PT rear, that sucks (shortly he came back out of the hotel carrying a training wheel) Then I noticed that the normal hubub before the race had calmed down – we must be late. Yes I have time issues. And as soon as I start feeling late those issues become more pronounced. John was planning to pick us up at 5:40-5:45... it is always risky to “plan” on a specific time with JT especially in the morning. But he arrived promptly at 5:40 – awesome. We drove to the great lawn and I put on sunscreen (which Mary made fun of me for), got out and went to get things going. After getting the bikes ready I had the good luck to have another of life great moments (or maybe movements) – a prerace trip to the portapotty.
At about 6:15 we left the transition area and started the walk to the start of the swim. When we finally got there it was obvious that we were going to be at the back of the bus – but that was OK with me. I was convinced that the bike course would be substantially faster if there were more athletes to pass – and given how fast I swim that would be a bonus. As we walked toward the back of the line I asked periodically “what time did you line up?” The first answers I got was “a little before 5:00”. I probably asked the question a half-dozen times before I got an answer that was much after 5:00. When we got to the “crew house” - the place where JT and I had gotten in line last year – the line still snaked on and on as far as I could see. We kept walking until 6:40ish when we finally got to the end of the line at Sea Ray of Louisville on River Road which turned out to be 0.55 mile from the start. I put on some more sunscreen and my Kiwami swim skin, drank my bottle of prerace EFS/Apple/Salt/EFS Prerace [245 calories / 660mg sodium]. Then sat down and watched maybe a hundred more people get in line. Fifteen minutes later my friend Avery and his father arrived – they were working as volunteers at the swim start.
At somewhere near 7:00 the cannon went off which I assume meant that the pros were starting their race. Everyone stood up assuming that things would get moving … but no. Finally after 15 minutes and two trips to the conveniently installed outdoor multi-hole facilities at the race site, we started the drag to the race start. It wasn't very fast so Jill had time to take this picture of me with the sun rising and hot air balloons in the background. Truly a beautiful morning.
The line moved faster and faster as we got to the front and by the end people were jogging. I stopped to give Jill a kiss and then headed onto the boat ramp. As I got on the ramp I heard the announcer say “36 minutes and counting – move move move”. John and I ran down the ramp and jumped into the Ohio.
There had been some prerace blabbing on the Internet about a) how long it would take to get everyone in the water and b) the two lines being slightly unfair. As with most internet things neither of these things were any problem at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment