Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Fleeting & Random Galena Impressions

Several teenagers serving as transition area security guards discussing the woman who changed clothes (all of 'em) in T2: Strange.

A pheasant running across the road in front of me during the bike: Scary but cool.

Seeing lots of fish...BIG fish...in the lake: Not cool. What the hell are THEY doing there?

T1 paved with gravel that really hurts: Not cool, and you're picking gravel out of your wetsuit for days afterward.

Golf carts driven by local residents to speed you from remote parking to T1: Very cool.

Heard on shuttle bus #1: Rolling Stones: Cool.

Heard on shuttle bus #2: country/western twangy twang: Not cool.

Galena's population: 3,460. Percent of population volunteering at triathlon: seemingly 100%. Very cool.

Stagecoach Trail for the bike route: Awesome.

Cows: Plentiful, placid and cool.

Speed traps in every little town around Galena: Not cool.

The family-run 'unofficial' water station at mile 1.5 on the run: Cool...and thanks!

The crowds lining the finishing chute: Noisy, positive and very cool.

The finish-line announcer who correctly pronounced ITP's name: Cool, and it's on film.

62 degree water: Not as bad as I thought it would be. Dare I say 'cool'?

The lone non-wetsuit-wearing racer: probably still thawing out. Hypothermia's a wonderful thing.

How about this: wetsuits for rent at the swim start. Unusually cool, er, warm, er, whatever.

2 comments:

Tracy said...

Last line is classic - and kind of weird that you could rent them there! I've never seen that.

AGHHH at the fish - OMG I'm totally going to go insane if there are fish at Steelhead.

Nancy Toby said...

I was considering wearing regular bike shorts at my half IM, and taking them off and wearing just lycra shorts for the run. But now I read about teenagers gossiping about poor old women just trying to get the right clothes on for their next triathlon segment ... uh oh!