From a spectators point of view

May was gorgeous, hot and summery. June? Not so much. Especially this weekend when I was the best girlfriend and accompanied the boyfriend in the freezing cold and watch him compete in the Milton Triathlon over the weekend.

After reading the weather forecast the night before, I decided I didn’t want to go especially if I thought I was going to get chilled all day long standing around at the race. Needless to say, I was guilted into coming ;)

No matter how ready we are the night before, we always seem to loose time somewhere and end up being a little later than expected for our departures. It was cold, rainy and a bit windy. I dressed for the weather but realistically needed some rain boots. My sneakers got soaked!

While the boyfriend and I were in the car driving to the race site, he mentioned to me that this is always a big race for beginners, and will probably brave the cold/rainy weather because this is the first tri of the season basically, for those who have been training all winter long. It surly did not disappoint! I’m terribly bad at estimating how many people were there.  But between the triathlon, and the try-a-tri I would guesstimate about 700–800 participants! This is the transition area before the race started. My boyfriend is there with his orange cap on, and his black rain coat. Brrr. Looks chilly doesn’t it?

(As always, click to enlarge the photos!)

My boyfriend was setting up in his transition, and since I know his routine, I decided to watch the try-a-tri was going on (since it started an hour before the tri started). I knew Angela from Oh She Glows said she was doing the race so I looked out for her instead of just staring at my boyfriend setting up his stuff.

At first I thought I had missed her because I didn’t know her times. So I started randomly taking photos and waiting along the fence.

I spotted her on the last leg of events. She was coming off the bike (which I didn’t see) but I saw Angela and her husband race down the transition aisle and then I cheered her on!! I was so happy to see them both going strong. I’m not even sure if she knew who I was but I knew everyone loves to hear a bit of motivation, especially at a race. I completely forgot to take a picture because I was so excited to see her. I turned on my camera right away and snapped this picture of her.

Angela is in the white ball cap with the red jersey on. Her husband Eric is next to her on the left! I wanted to keep cheering for her. I honestly got goosebumps from seeing her compete in her very first triathlon. I was so proud and smiling so big for them both. What an accomplishment. Especially during the chilly weather.

While I was cheering and snapping pictures my boyfriend came over and we got him ready to put his wetsuit on (those things are so difficult to help put on, especially when the athlete is already soaked).Thankfully we had a few minutes to spare because his wetsuit kept sticking to his leg and we couldn’t get it up. Finally, I kissed him goodbye and wished him good luck. Then I went a bit camera happy. :)

All ready!

Stepping into the water.

Warming up for the swim. All the colored swim caps mean different wave + age groups. Scott was a blue cap meaning he was in the first wave group. Did you know: If you arrive late to a triathlon, you can always request to be bumped back to a later wave? Good to know, right?

KABOOM. The gun goes off. C’mon blue caps!!

Coming out of the water photos are always my favorite. They always look so professional, even if the cameraman (ie: me) isn’t the best. I LOVE these photos. I recently discovered the continious snap-shots on my camera. So these aren’t really the best. But I like them regardless.

POW! Rocked that swim.

He didn’t hear me. Probably because I was talking low and fascinated by the focusing on the camera takin multiple  pictures.

GO GO GO! Unzip that suit!

Chased him all the way up to the transition area to get camera happy once again with the multi photo mode. My boyfriend isn’t the half naked guy — he’s the one wearing the grey/white/black trisuit. So fancy.

Whoops! Missed ya there big time. This is my guy on the bike. These shots are hard to take. I like to be back far so I can get him in a nice aero position, but I couldn’t race down the road fast enough. His transitions are incredibly fast.

He estimated his bike time pretty accurately, so I knew I had tons of time to spare and walk around the race site. I ended up walking down to the bottom of the street where there were Fire trucks (Firemen aren’t normally at races so I had to take a couple of pictures).

Towards the right of the firetrucks were people from the early try-a-tri waiting to get out of the conservation park, as their race was already done. It’s appalling at some of racers (they had a bike in the back with no passengers. So I just assumed they themselves just raced the try-a-tri) were so impatient of the triathletes coming down the hill on their bike. This one man was yelling obscenities at the guy in the orange suit. Orange suit guy yelled back “Do you want to knock down and kill a biker? Just WAIT a minute!” Seriously — I couldn’t believe it because you’d think the racer guy would understand, being a racer himself. Patience. People will let cars out when it’s safe to do so. I just shook my head. Incredible.

About 10 minutes after my Boyfriend went out on his bike, I heard sirens whaling. It sounded like an ambulance, but I wasn’t quite sure. I stayed where I was and didn’t think anything of it until I heard that a biker had crashed super hard on the pavement. I heard gasps at first and “oh my god’s” shouting about. A race volunteer was walking with the man back to transition and needed immediate medical attention. He was still walking, but the man from afar looked like he had lost half of his face from the crash. If I was a bit queezy at all, I’m sure I would have been sick. It was really gorey, his nose and chin were covered in thick red blood, but as he got closer I noticed his nose and face were still in tact. He crashed HARD. I didn’t see him there after, and I didn’t see anyone get taken out by an ambulance. So I’m guessing the first aid staff looked after his nasty scrapes and cuts.

In no time, the first biker was back from his ride. I think this was David Sherrat, if I’m not mistaken.

Then I walked up the hill so I could spot my guy. Coming up the hill and taking his shoes off. Pow Pow Pow!

On the run he goes. This transition was faster than T1 and I was so out of breath from running from one end of the transition to the other, with the huge dirt hill. GO… SCOTT……..whewf. GO!!

OWN THAT HILL.

He once again surprised me coming up around the finish line and I saw him bookin’ it to beat some guy in  his age group. Not sure if he ended up doing so or not, but it was entertaining to watch! I screeeeeeeaaaamed at him when I saw him trying to beat the guy in front of him. It was really fun!

Al la finish. The race was over.

Just like that.

Being a spectator is definitely fun (the hours of waking up, is not however). It never really feels like I’ve been there for hoooours on end, because the announcer is so fun, the music is always playing, there’s always racers around and someone to yell out to to keep going.

When’s the next one? ;)