After a lovely coffee and gab sessions with C. and E., both of whom I haven't seen in ages, I took off for North Glenmore Park, to help with setting up the Finish line for tomorrow's Ironman 70.3. I am in awe of anyone who completes a triathlon, regardless of distance, as I am so very afraid of water past my knees, it is one event that I don't think I could ever do. Unless there is ever a triathlon that takes place in shallow water, but then again, that wouldn't be swimming, would it?!
Sadly, it was hard to get volunteers this year (guess because this fell on the long weekend, and the Death Race), so there were essentially 4 of us hauling tons of fencing around, setting it up, hanging the sponsor flags on it, arranging the gating from bike transition to the foot race, ensuring areas were secured, picking up after ourselves and on. I got to the park just before noon and left right before 5 pm. Only one "injury" of sorts, as a fencing piece was dropped when I wasn't expecting it and I caught it with my wrist. I can move it, and the thumb area is only a touch swollen. I think I'm going to have a lovely bruise though, which is fine. You can't tell war tales without some battle scars, right???
I'll be back in the am, between 8-9, and waiting for our first athlete to cross around 10am. The swim starts for them at 6am, out at Ghost Lake, then the long bike from Cochrane into Calgary, before a nice run around the park. It's amazing that someone will have swam, biked and ran 70.3 miles, all before 10 am. I'll be lucky if I can get a cup of coffee down by then!! I also had a giggle with I was reading Caitlin's blog about the wetsuit debate for her upcoming triathlon, since the water temperature may "only be about 70F". Considering Ghost Lake is frozen over for half the year, it's safe to say it'll be a tad chilly. I believe wetsuits are mandatory for this race! But I wouldn't volunteer as a "stripper", as the arthritis in my hand makes it kind of weak, and I couldn't handle the guilt of holding anyone up as they competed. Could you imagine??? "Okay, it'll just be a minute...I know you've been swimming for quite some time now, but if you could just help me a little here, we'll be sure to get this thing off you! Did you consider oiling yourself up before you put it on this morning?!" It would not be pretty!!! So I am safely at the finish line, either holding the ribbon for the runners to "break" through, handing out water, medals and finisher's shirts, "catching" (yes, it's a job) the runners as they cross, to see if they need medical or just a hand to a soft patch of grass and keeping the spectators out of the athlete areas. I also said I would stay and help tear down...all in all, I could be at the park for about 10 hours tomorrow. Long day. Needless to say, no LSD run for me tomorrow. I will attempt to go out Monday morning and see what I can get done.
It's after 10pm and it's still 21C outside. That means, even with two fans running, my apartment is about 31C! I am really tired though, and am finding the little bits where I missed with the sunscreen earlier (oh, yeah, it's also supposed to be sunny and +29C tomorrow...it's a good thing I'm not running), so I'm going to head for bed and try to get some sleep. After taking some ibuprofen for the wrist/sunburn and trying out my new after-sun stick from Rocky Mountain Soap Company. I'll let you know how/if it works.
Later,
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