Weekend Recap

I'm feeling too lazy to post pictures, so if you want to see them you'll just have to friend me on facebook - there's an album up there.

So White Lake! Such a popular weekend (now two if you're up for it) here in NC for triathletes. Beautiful lake and crappy motels make it all the more fun :)

I drove down with Kari on Friday evening (with Marty in the car right behind us). We made it to our -1 star motel (just kidding, it wasn't that bad. just a few spiders that only needed some broom whacks). We were all up early the next morning to cheer everyone on in the half, particularly Marty and Alysia.

The morning was chilly, foggy and didn't seem to have much wind. Should be a fast day! But the fog hung around and a little before the 7am start they decided to delay to see if it would lift. By 7:30 it was still thick and you could only see the first buoy. I was thinking, so what, when you get to the first buoy, you'll be able to see the second buoy! But alas, it's a safety thing. The kayakers and lifeguards wouldn't be able to see the swimmers at all. The race management said they would wait until 8am. Since it was cool, I don't think anyone was too worried about starting the race a bit later.

Except at 7:45 they decided to call it. Insert competitive male mayhem. This was actually really funny to watch: all these guys raced into transition to grab their helmets and shoes (if they didn't have them clipped to their bike) and race back out to the timing mat so they could start with them on their head/feet. But wait! You can't do that! So they all raced back into transition to reset everything. Oh! Actually, you can wear your helmet and shoes! Another mad dash into transition. At this point it's 8:05 and the fog is completely gone. Huh...let's have the swim! Cheers go up through the crowd. Just kidding, water safety personnel already left. Back to a duathlon. Bummer.

Obviously this stunk, and especially for someone like Marty who is such a strong swimmer. It's not just the lead he would've gotten, but also the poorer swimmers would then have been much more tired on the bike. It totally changes the entire dynamic of the race.

Anyways, the rest of the day was spent spectating and cheering everyone on. Then a nice nap (spectating is tough!), then dinner out in the booming metropolis of Elizabethtown.

Side note: at dinner I asked the waitress if the potato salad was good, to which she replied (in a VERY southern accent), "Wellllll, I only like my momma's potato salad..."

The next morning was clear and cool, albeit quite humid. I had originally planned on doing this race but just wasn't feeling it so opted to sit out and cheer for everyone else. The sprint was exciting and we knew so many people it was a lot of fun.

Afterwards we made the trek home and I had a nice run at Umstead -- one horsefly followed me for about 5 min. I guess it's almost that time of year.