What an incredible coincidence - I'm only in Pucón for a few days, and I hit the one day with the half Ironman race .
When I first heard about it a few days ago, all I wanted was to participate... and then I got sad because I couldn't. But talking to the people in the hostel about it somehow lifted my mood, and finally I was happy that I got to watch at least.
I've never watched a triathlon competition live before - I've either watched on TV, or participated myself. So I only understood today that triathlon is somewhat difficult for spectators. Swimming is out on the water, and there is no way to distinguish one athlete from the other. When they get out of the water, there is already some distance between them. On the bike, they have a long way to go so there's no way to see the action on all those long kilometers. And when they get to running, the field is completely mixed up. Due to the wave start you can't tell anymore who is faster than who, or even what the finishing time is for any given athlete.
But in spite of all this: I love triathlon. Especially as a participant, of course. It is a unique and wonderful combination of concentration, fun, hard work, gratitude towards the supporters along the road and the volunteers who help to organize everything, and a huge sense of pride and achievement.
As I discovered today once again, competitions - even when only watching them - are the best medicine against a loss of motivation. So I finally took up some amount of training again. Not nearly enough to put me in shape for an Ironman race, of course, but I plan to improve on two of my weak points that require neither a huge training volume nor equipment. Time will tell whether I succeed :-)
Of course, I also took a couple of pictures. This is the first batch of male age groupers waiting for their start:
Street dogs are everywhere in South America - even in a triathlon. This one waited near the swim exit for a while, and at some point took off running towards the transition area behind an athlete :-)
Just before the transition area, a bunch of helpers were waiting to help triathletes out of their wet suits. This is the first time I've seen something like this; I've always had to get out of my wet suit on my own ;-)
Bike porn (I love looking at them... don't you?):
And finally, the first woman to cross the finish line:
When I first heard about it a few days ago, all I wanted was to participate... and then I got sad because I couldn't. But talking to the people in the hostel about it somehow lifted my mood, and finally I was happy that I got to watch at least.
I've never watched a triathlon competition live before - I've either watched on TV, or participated myself. So I only understood today that triathlon is somewhat difficult for spectators. Swimming is out on the water, and there is no way to distinguish one athlete from the other. When they get out of the water, there is already some distance between them. On the bike, they have a long way to go so there's no way to see the action on all those long kilometers. And when they get to running, the field is completely mixed up. Due to the wave start you can't tell anymore who is faster than who, or even what the finishing time is for any given athlete.
But in spite of all this: I love triathlon. Especially as a participant, of course. It is a unique and wonderful combination of concentration, fun, hard work, gratitude towards the supporters along the road and the volunteers who help to organize everything, and a huge sense of pride and achievement.
As I discovered today once again, competitions - even when only watching them - are the best medicine against a loss of motivation. So I finally took up some amount of training again. Not nearly enough to put me in shape for an Ironman race, of course, but I plan to improve on two of my weak points that require neither a huge training volume nor equipment. Time will tell whether I succeed :-)
Of course, I also took a couple of pictures. This is the first batch of male age groupers waiting for their start:
Street dogs are everywhere in South America - even in a triathlon. This one waited near the swim exit for a while, and at some point took off running towards the transition area behind an athlete :-)
Just before the transition area, a bunch of helpers were waiting to help triathletes out of their wet suits. This is the first time I've seen something like this; I've always had to get out of my wet suit on my own ;-)
Bike porn (I love looking at them... don't you?):
And finally, the first woman to cross the finish line:
