Day 129 - Got up again at 4:30AM to get down to Hopkinton State Park to time the triathlon that I had started the evening before.
Weather was better this morning, but not much. The rains of yesterday were replaced by the gusting winds of today. The sun was out, but the wind kept temps at around 40 degrees all morning. The air was bone-chillingly cold, and to think that some people were going to jump into the lake for a swim!
The adrenaline of setting up a chip-timed sprint triathlon/duathlon kept my crew and I moving and warm. My brother was working with me this morning, so we made time to joke around and play pranks on each other.
This was my 3rd or 4th year timing this race so we had things down to a science, and all pre-race checks tested without issue. It was time to hurry up and wait, which is usually the case at most of these races.
The wind was still gusting (just like last year) by the time the first couple of tri waves entered the swim portion.
I scrambled around to the different transition areas to make sure everything was working properly in real-time. Swim Out. Bike Out. Bike In. Run Out. Run In. Finish Line. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check and check. Things were working flawlessly....
...until about 20 minutes into the race, when a large group of competitiors came running up from the beach in full swim gear, but not dripping wet? And then another tri wave came running up four minutes later. Something was wrong. No way could all of these swimmers finish and get out of the water this close together.
I later discovered that the race organizers had to cancel the swim portion for most of the triathletes when the rescue boat, patrolling the swim course, capsized due to the windy conditions!
My crew and I spent the next 3 hours timing the race without incident, and then it was hurry up and wait again as we waited for the awards to be given out for the abbreviated race.
I took this lull in the action to put in my run, and went out on the tri run course. It was the first time that I'd been out on the course, and what an interesting 5K it was. Road, trail, grass, beach, hills! Very cool run.
We were finally ready to depart the race site as I finished my run, so that was a huge morale booster for me after another long day of just race timing.
This meant that I could just go home, relax, and take my dear mother out for lunch.
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