Volunteered this past Sunday for Mountaineer Tri in Morgantown. Big turn out this year. I bet they had at least 50 participants mor than last year, maybe more. Total would be close to 400. I did bike transition stuff. I started out writing numbers on contestants. Then when they finished the swim, I stood in the transition area directing them out to bike mounting area. The leaders don't need help, but it is pretty funny to watch normally intelligent people who surveyed this area before the race try to reason out what they need to do. It should be hilarious when I do it in a longer race. After everyone got out of the transition, I stood on the road letting the Half people know they had a second lap and the Olympic (International distance) where they needed to dismount to go back into the transition. I was there a total of 8 hours. Last hour I spent walking around talking to people, not that I didn't talk to others during the whole day. One girl was originally from Wisconsin, now living in London, England and came over to do the Tri with a friend. Had to borrow a bike from friends in the area.
I met the ultimate Clydesdale. A guy from Kentucky. He was at least 6' 5" (Shawn's Height). He did the half tri. He was trying to qualify for a half ironman championship thing in Missouri. I mentioned how tall he was and he wasn't the typical triathlete. He said he had been biking for an Olympic tri two years ago with a training partner who was going to do a half. After a training ride of 50 miles with his partner, the partner said what are you doing an Olympic for. You look better than I do after the 50 mile bike. So this guy started doing half ironmans. He told me he felt he needed to break 5 1/2 hours. He did 5 hours 19 minutes. He took first in the XL2 Division (200-225lbs). He was the second place Clydesdale overall. An XL1 (185 -200)beat him. Of course Shawn, he was skinner than me and I think I probably had him by 5 pounds.
The most impressive dude, and I mean dude was the winner of the Olympic race overall. Mainly just his bike. He is a 19 yr old college student form Virginia. He was clad in all University of Virginia clothing. He was noticeable because of this. I know he wasn't the first guy out of the water, but he was flying leaving on his bike. We started to debate when the first Olympic person was coming in off the bike. I told everyone, we got about 5 to 10 minutes. A minute later here he came. He had a 6 minute lead on 2nd place. He had done the 24.8 mils in a hour and 2 minutes. He was riding 24 MPH. No one else in the Olympic race was over 23 MPH. I ran into this kid after the race and I asked if he won. Man he was excited. I asked him details of how he ran and biked. "I don't know man, I just know I won by 7 minutes". He has only been doing tri's for a year, and biking seriously for 1 1/2 years. I think he said only his third Olympic Tri.
I ran into a girl who had a Mooseman 07 shirt on. Her and her husband had done the Mooseman the last two years. Love the race. She said they will be back to the Mooseman next year. She said the hills aren't too bad, she felt the one on Sunday was probably worse. She was from Lancaster, PA.
Fun to be around a race like this. I ran into my now buddies from Michigan. They have come all three years this event has existed. I have talked to them every year. I sat with them for half hour in the hospitality tent talking Tri's. The better of the two of them, Alan, was only going to do some Olympic tri's for the rest of the summer than go to Lake Placid Iron Man. This was Gary's only Half scheduled this year. He had some Olympics and a marathon scheduled.
Fun time.
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