Thursday Sept 9th-Watch me LIVE!

I found out today that my race will be televised. Both online and on TV. It's listed as being on Universal Sports in the U.S. but I can't tell if it's really going to be televised or if just teh elite race will be. However to watch it online you can go here. California is 9 hours behind and Ohio is 6 hours behind. I start at 7:45am Saturday morning here. If you look at the above link and look at the results section at the bottom of the page, then select m40-44 for the category and hit the results button, you see us ranked by our qualifying times.
I'm ranked 24th. Which is fine by me because I was sick just before the qualifier and actually did not have a good race. I wasn't feeling good, the bike course was windy and the run course was hot and muddy. I'm way beyond that at this point.

Today was jam packed. Team Doctor at 8:30am, Team run at 10am, swam the course at 11:30am, race check-in at noon, team ride at 2pm, team meeting at 4pm, team photo at 5:40pm and opening ceremonies at 6pm.

The team ride was crazy. We did 9.34 miles in 1 hour and 6 minutes. I run faster than that. But we had a group of about 60 of mixed ages and abilities in downtown Budapest in traffic. Triathletes are NOT cyclists. I had one woman ask me why I kept pointing at the ground. I told here I was pointing out hazards on the road and she said "that's so sweet, everyone should do that". So I feel unfulfilled. I was on a bike but really didn't ride it. I watched other non-group people riding and enjoying the views and getting a decent workout in. It's kind of like not being able to eat your birthday cake. I would imagine. I've always made it a point to get lots of extra cake whenever cake is around. i'll need to get out tomorrow and do some quick sprints before I have to check the bike in.

The swim was great. It was overcast and probably about 65 degrees. The water temp was about 62. Just like home. Only things missing were Nick, Dave, James, and the other Friday night warf swimmers. Oh and the seal poop salt water. Here's what my swim start will look like but with 700 more people. And then a view of the course.


The opening ceremonies however were fantastic. They did sort of a parade of nations. They had a representative from each country carry a sign with the countries name and another carry the countries flag. Music from each country played as that countries flag went by. Our song was "Surfin USA" from the beach boys. Obviously I didn't get to pick. For me New Zealand was the highlight. They didn't have a song but some Kiwi's came out and did a quick dance. Here's a really bad clip.


It was packed and I was really far away so the video is lame but I always have a good time with the Japanese. My 3rd favorite people behind Canadians and grade school teachers. They wanted to trade one of their shirts for my team USA shirt. Great idea, but we Americans are a relatively a large bunch and I wasn't about to squeeze into Size XS. I did suggest that based on quantity of material used that a 2 for 1 deal might interest me, but they very politely declined.

Pastries are awesome here and normally I would refuse to post pics of my food. Maybe you've heard me make fun of friends for this (Cooper)? But I've decided that my post race meal will be a Budweiser and two Wafelini. One chocolate and one vanilla.

Not the American Budweiser, that stuff is garbage, but a tasty Czechoslovakian pilsner with which to wash down the tasty Wafelini bars. American innovation has provided the world with many great things, flight, triathlon, ATM's, silicon chips (and breasts), the iPad...... And some not so great. Bob Saget, Fast Food, private mortgage insurance, the list goes on. The Wafelini, courtesy of Kraft, is not widely available in the U.S. but here in Hungary, they're everywhere. I'll need to experience this engineered cake like marvel before officially amending either list.

But that's later, Yesterday(I know I'm confused as to which day it is also) I went down to watch the Aquathlon. They had to change the event from a run/swim/run to just a swim/run due to the fact that the water was so cold that the ITU made wetsuits mandatory. I actually helped out a guy from Brazil. He didn't have a wetsuit and had to buy one on the spot, 15 minutes before his wave. I let him cut in line and then ran his credit card and held his receipt for him until he was done. Funny he didn't trust the merchant but had no problem trusting a strange American. Brazilians love us. Maybe it's our toned and tanned American bodies. I should have asked.

Dan Wirls fellow old guy, Santa Cruz resident, and Santa Cruz Endurance team member took 2nd in his AG and was I believe 15th overall. Not bad at all. Here's an exciting video of his finish. I took more but that's just for me and Dan. And I don't have a way to edit out all of my embarrassing play-by-play babble until I get home. At which point I'll already have lost interest.

Another great day and it's off to bed soon. Real soon.