The actual race took up most of Saturday morning, so, in the course of the weekend, there was time for other stuff, too! We picked Dylan and his cool bike up in SF on Friday afternoon and all drove down to Monterey together. We dropped him off at his hotel (all the Team in Training athletes stayed at the Hyatt Regency) to fill up on pasta with his team. I don't know how many participants were entered as members of the "Team in Training", but they filled a ballroom--I'm guessing perhaps 1/4 of the total triathlon entrants. All sorts of folks--of both genders, all ages, sizes, and levels of fitness. But all having raised a bunch of money for a good cause and ready to rock and roll next morning, often in memory of a lost loved one. Very inspiring. The team color: purple. Meanwhile, we went off to eat and get settled at Borg's Motel, which, because of its prime race location, was very tricky to get to, with all the prep going on.
We were out on the course around 7am, Saturday morning (encouraged by the loudspeakers) and made our way over to the bay side where we found Dylan's friend, Rich, who had driven down from SF to cheer him on. Besides Dylan, there were Matt, Hayley and Kelly (Matt and Kelly being new friends to us) at whom we could scream encouragement, as well. They all did great--personal bests, I think. In the few minutes before Dylan crossed the finish line, Emi, Dylan's girlfriend, and her sister, Erica, found us--having recognized us from pictures--and introduced themselves (that's Emmy with Dylan and I in first pic). So fun! They had driven down early that morning from SF. We didn't have too much time to get acquainted before Dylan appeared for the Big Finish.
After that, Rachel appeared, not having been able to get there any sooner. She missed the race, but came for the post-event fun--her specialty. We all cheered Kelly and Hayley on (they having started in a later wave--you can see them with Rachel at right), so there we were quite a few of us at the end, chattering away, some sweatier than others. We hung out until all the purples were in.
Most of the racers rode their bikes back to the hotel (several miles away--they'd had to ride them to the race, as well,early that morning), to decompress and rest awhile. The rest of us split up to other stuff. For Tom and I, it had been awhile since we'd been on the 17-mile drive, so we grabbed some lunch and paid our $9.25 and drove The 17+. Though I truly believe beauty is found everywhere and can't be ranked, that rocky coast with the Monterey Cypress trees in clumps along the edge just blows me away every time.
Back at the hotel, we found a bunch of our triathletes and their groupies sipping wine and nibbling on fancy pizza. We found out that Hayley (who lives in SF, now, but is Rachel's good friend from Boston) and Kelly (lives in Chicago, now, but knows Rachel through Hayley) grew up together and do marathons and triathlons regularly. Very impressive. Around 9, we peeled off, while the GenXers took off to do whatever it is they do at night.
Sunday morning, just the four of us had a lovely brunch at the hotel before Dylan and Rachel drove back to SF together, and we to GV went.
All the while, we were glad, once again, to be close enough to participate in such events.
