The day started at 5am. He had to be downtown by 6pm to be written on the Oregon Calligraphy Society. It was a beautiful morning.
Half a mile of open water swimming in the always polluted Willamette River. It was a cool 70 degrees making it warmer than the air which helped. He drank enough of the Willamette River water that he is hoping that the tail he grows is long enough to add more variety in the bedroom. And in true Garbanzo fashion, he started the race asking his fellow heat-mates if now was the time he should mention he can’t swim. I’m glad he kept his sense of humor despite the nerves.
Garbanzo is sitting without a shirt on the edge of the dock next to the guy who looks like he’s freezing. I must express my love for my camera and lens once again. I was about a quarter of a mile away when I took this shot. At home, I zoomed in and found him sitting on the dock.
Not everyone was wearing wetsuits which made Garbanzo happy with his decision to skip one. But, a few guys were wearing Speedos….and for them, they were definitely Speed-NOs!
This is the start of Garbanzo’s heat.
The start of the bike segment of the tri was an uphill ride. In fact, about 2/3 of it was uphill. He actually got a good spot in the transition area, so made a very quick and smooth transition. This spot also got him a good head start on the run too.
The bike section of the race was interesting. You had some guys (and I’ll show you those later) who are pros….they had the $15,000 bikes. Then you had newbies on mountain bikes or on commuter bikes (hybrids). Also, the newbies were having issues with the downhill. Did you know you go fast on the downhill? I’ll let Garbanzo tell you how fast his downhills were because they were mighty impressive. Like the pros, Garbanzo was taking advantage of the downhills and not coasting but pedaling down them. He was also NOT using his brakes. The dad of one of the pro guys was yelling at the newbies, “Stop braking; it will only hurt you!!”
And, Garbanzo is demonstrating an ill-fit helmet, by the way. He didn’t even notice it was on he head wrong. Thank God he didn’t crash and need it, I guess.
He transitioned to the run – which I missed because he had mistakenly told me the night before that it was 3 laps – not only 2. But, I did catch him at the end of his 3.5 mile run.
You could tell he was struggling at this point. But it was also the last 1/4 of a mile. He finished strong. They even called his name as he crossed the line. Pretty cool.
I’m proud of him. He set this as a goal and did it. And he did it faster than Hubman’s estimations, by the way. Guess the motivation worked! 😉
Congratulations to Garbanzo! Great job and I bet that French Toast tasted good!
Quoting myself elsewhere “Kinda-sorta guessing, I think this should take him in the 1hr 45 min to 2 hr range to complete.”
And you tweeted early today that it took him 1:44:50.
So I was wrong by 10 seconds.
This is one of those cases where I’m happy to be wrong. Congratulations Garbonzo!!
What an undertaking!!!
Major congrats to Garbonzo!!
:):):):)
Congrats to Garbanzo! Give him a big hug from me.
Great pictures!