Very Keen People…
It was that time of the year again last weekend. Outside our place all last weekend long were nutters swimming, biking, and running around all day. London triathlon weekend 2009.
How anyone could bring themselves to swim in the dock, I’m not quite sure, but there were wave after wave of them lining up to jump in and risk whatever disease that’s listed on all the signs warning everyone not to swim in the water (along with the signs saying “Danger of Drowning”. Erm…. yes…. thanks. I guess.)
Then they were off on the cycle. Some of them must have had quite a picturesque little trip up to Westminster and/or Tower bridge on the Sunday, if they had time and energy to look around. It was quite a nice day for it on Sunday. Sunny, but not too hot, and no rain like on the Saturday. Though I suspect there might have been a small but annoying headwind most of the way in one direction.
And then the run. Only the 10k to finish up for those completing the Olympic course I believe. Again, not too bad along the docks and through the trees etc…
For those wanting top indulge in a bit of celeb spotting Jenson Button was competing. We’d seen that on the F1 show a week or two ago, and by some amazing piece of fluke we walked out of the house at the exact time he was running past. we couldn’t have timed it any better. Photo? No, no photo. We weren’t quite prepared enough for that, but then I’m sure by that stage of the race (about 2k left) he was probably pretty sick of people taking photos of him. However, quite what he thought about the man with the TV camera that was following him on a motorbike I’m hoping to find out when there’s finally another F1 race to spend Sunday afternoon watching. I’m sure they’ll have a section on how he found it all.
Anyway, I don’t know what it was like from a competitors point of view, but as a resident and spectator the organisation seemed fantastic. About 6,000 people per day out on course, and at least double watching with no hiccups or problems that we saw. And once again we were pretty impressed by how quickly the whole area was back to normal. By the time the sun was going down on Sunday, all the cups and water bottles were gone, almost all the cones and fences had been taken down and if not carted away at least stacked up neatly waiting to be picked up. The area was almost back to normal. And by the time we left for work in the morning, you really couldn’t tell there’s been anything on at all.
Maybe next year I’ll give it a go. Actually, maybe not…
Don’t do that! I had almost begun to believe you when you said you went cycling – but to open the blog onto that first photo!!!
Cool photo of dude on bike.
Not even any sneaky work on that one, just a bit of luck with the timing of twisting the zoom…