So THIS was an interesting weekend!
I did indeed wake up at 4.35 am, and was out the door at 4.43 am. Aided by some incredible packing at 11pm the night before, and a trusty 4 point note:
1. Drinks in fridge
2. Drinks in freezer
3. Bags in car
4. KADEN!
For some reason, Jim laughed out loud when he found my note upon our return tonight. But The sleepy babe, ah, toddler DID come with me yesterday am... and never quite got back to the sleep. The upside is that the VBS music soothed him, AND I got to the event before they closed down the roads, so we only had to walk a half mile or so AND I brought the stroller.
Anywho, the TOP GUN Triathlon had over a thousand people in it, and wow it felt like it. It seemed less coordinated than the Mad Dog one, but I'm guessing that impression is due more to the amount of people than their actual work (which was pretty darn good). What else I found out, as I was searching for our team, is that Tri's are a pretty cool place to people watch. First of all, there's ALL kinds of people there-- honed athletes, posers with expensive equipment but no experience, first timers, kids, senior citizens, dogs... Second, every competitor has much of their body uncovered or tightly covered (not in a bad way) AND their age inked on their leg. So as they're walking toward me I guess, and then check their calf as they pass. Totally unfair, I know, but interesting.
It's an interesting subculture in general... with it's own abbreviations (T1 = first transition, from swim to bike, an actual marked off space) and catchphrases (see ya at the swim start as a general goodbye). It's an individual sport, but lots of times folks have their own cheer squad on race day, and lots of folks belong to a club to train with. Both these groups sometimes have custom shirts. My favorites this weekend: family "My mom is a Top Gun Triathlete" and club "If you think you're in control, you're not going fast enough". There were quite a few with a skull and crossbones, so I think that must be a local group, which makes sense with all the pirate/Gasparilla/Buccaneer vibes.
The guy on the PA would call out some folks names as they went through T1, and he gave a shout out to a local triathlete who had won last year, and said we could recognize him because he was covered in tats. He made it seem like he was the one to beat... but the guy who took first overall was actually Josh, the son of Jim's coach! Which was pretty cool. Jim's team of 3 was 4 out of the mixed relays (men/women) and 4th out of 31 relay teams overall. It's not really fair to compare to the individuals who did all 3 sections themselves... but Josh's time beat all the relays too! Jim was very happy when he got his time today (official times and placing are posted later in the day, broken down into each section and transition times too): he BEAT his personal goal and averaged 3min X seconds per mile, doing all 10 miles in less than 35 minutes. His goal had been to finish in 35-40 minutes. Yay, Jim!
One of the odd things about triathlons is that you often have a distance to cover between sections. For example, Jeanne swam 400 yards (against the current, in rough waves), then had to run/walk about a quarter mile up the beach and through a knee to waist deep tidepool to transition. Jim biked and then had to run/walk 150 yards to get to his relay guy. It doesn't seem like much until you're doing it (or watching people do it!!) during the race.
Another thing I learned this weekend is that the races are much more fun when there's more of a support/cheer team there. The courses are so spread out that it's hard for, ahem, an out of shape person to sprint to each area and get the photos of everyone. Susan's hubby Joe manages to do it, which is pretty amazing.
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Sunday we slipped into a totally different culture, the NFL fan. We had thought about getting to a Steelers camp, but the timing and prices didn't work out for us. So we visited One Buc Place to see the "home" team. (Yes, I still root for the Bucs, out of loyalty to my Dad and the orange losing days.) Despite the heat- close to 100, I believe- it was pretty neat. They were in full pads, and ran different drills, changing every 4-5 minutes. In the 2 hours, I only saw about 3 "breaks", though they did have a ton of water boys out there with gatorade, water and towels. It was also fairly cool to be "so close" to the action, as they moved around the field a bit. Right in front of us, we saw the QBS and RB/FB drills, and later some defensive ones. There was about 20 minutes of scrimmage, but no real tackling. Some *awesome* catches, though. Afterwards, we got a few autographs and I got a smile and wave from Earnest Graham from about 20 yards out :)
This was also an interesting place to people watch and eavesdrop. The tix were free, you just needed to get them in advance. Most folks wore *something* Bucs colored, and some were totally decked out. Just like at a game! Listening to guys who were obviously talking loudly to impress others... watching cute, innocent little kids asking the MASCOT for an autograph (what does he sign?)... watching older, more calculating kids jockey for autograph position... hearing ladies swoon over players... quite the fun day. We taught Kade how to yell GO BUCS, which he did at the most random times, to the amusement of our neighbors. Jim also had him yelling "Hi Mr Parker" or whoever he was trying to get an autograph from. Kaden was a bit disappointed that "the football guy" got to "color" and he didn't, and he was even more disappointed that no one gave him a "football helmet", but he seemed to have a good time overall. Drinking gatorade straight from the bottle, being able to dump water on himself, and eating a hot dog contributed to the fun, I think!
