Endurance Turtle A journey through this turtles triathlon adventures

George and I woke up early Saturday morning and drove over to Nicole’s place. We were there by 6AM and were carpooling with her down to Oceanside. We were on the rode within 10 minutes and got to Oceanside fairly quickly (7:30AM). We tried to follow the parking directions from the volunteer coordinator and it was a little vague. Once we found the lot, it was full and we had to find street parking. Fortunately, we found some not too far away from the lot and we walked over to the start. The race was already underway when we got there and as we were walking we were able to yell at David as he was going out on the bike! We were a little early, so we decided to check in at the VIP tent and get some grub and coffee. We were fortunate to get some VIP passes that allowed us entry into the tent which had a ton of food all day and a great view of the finish. This really made my day to have access to that tent, I think without it I would have really been suffering…but that is how I roll…VIP! Here is a picture of the 3 of us in the tent eating our breakfast…my self portrait skills failed me here:

We were only there for a bit, then Nicole and I left George to go check in at the volunteer booth. George got to hang out and stuff his face! He loved it! We had to wait a bit for our volunteer coordinator, meanwhile we were seeing everyone head out for the bike and cheering anyone we knew. The guy finally came and we got our shirts and we walked over to where we would be stationed. We were right in T2 and our job was to tell people to slow down when they were coming off the bike. The great thing about this is that we had a great point of view and we got some great photos:

We took those pictures with no zoom, they were really that close.

Also, because of where we were…we got to see all of them come out on the run too:

Those pros are insanely fast!

We also were able to catch some Pasadena Tri Club people as well. Then once we did that for a while it was time for lunch. So I went back to the VIP tent and grabbed some more food and also took the opportunity to take pictures of the pros finishing.

 

That’s Mirinda Carfrae, she placed 1st in this race and placed 2nd in Kona last year. She is killer fast and did the 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run in 4:20:29.

Here are the men, I missed them coming in but got some other shots of them. The guy on the left placed first and the guy on the right was 2nd. In the middle is this amazingly inspirational kid that is a double amputee and takes on life full steam ahead:

Here is that kid again, giving medals to the pros:

After that I headed back over to our station and started giving water to the finishers. There was a lot of walking back and forth with this one and I got tired after a while. I also didn’t wear any sunscreen and my arm ended up looking like this by the end of the day:

Sweet tan line!

We were done around 3PM and we made our way to one of the PTC’ers condo near the start to relax a bit before we headed home. We ended up going home with Gail and Neil and by the time I got home I was pooped! I ordered in Lasagna from Two Guys from Italy and then crashed. It was a very fun day and I am glad I got to be apart of it. Volunteering is a great way to expose yourself to a type of race you have never done before and ultimately makes you more prepared on race day.

Now, as for the big announcement….George and I are making it official! In July 2011 we are going to do Ironman Vineman 70.3!

It will be 2 months after we get married and will be like a second honeymoon. We will have to do some training while we are on our honeymoon, but I think that will probably be a good thing and keep us in check with all the food and alcohol we will be consuming!

My goal for this race will be to finish it and not kill myself. It takes a lot of effort to get through a 1 mile swim, 56 mile ride and 13.1 mile run, but I know we can do it!