Monday, June 22, 2009

Dextro ITU Triathlon Weekend

One of the great things about living in the Washington DC area are thing the things that you get be part of that for most people are out of the ordinary.  As a kid travelling the 50 some thing miles to Atlanta to watch a Braves game was the height of adventure.  Now I just catch a cab or hop the Metro to Nationals Park to watch a game.  Friday night the Bride, some friends, and I headed over to watch them take on the Blue Jays—and they actually won. 

Saturday evening I had been invited to a VIP dinner and drinks function for the Dextro ITU Triathlon.  Now don’t get any wrong ideas here, I am no VIP.  However, I do know the VIPs and luckily I get invited to certain events.  The best part of this event was the free food and beer.  I met up with Running Buddy and some other friends for the festivities. 

Sunday the Bride and I rode our bikes in to watch the pro races.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with ITU races the men and the women typically race separately and their are no age groupers on the course. 

We started a little late and got the men’s race in the middle of the bike course.  Dextro-2In ITU racing you can actually draft and the race course is typically a smaller loop where spectators get to the see the participants many times.  The course here in DC was an 8 loop course and the pack of riders were typically flying by.  The cool part was the chance to see the people you only typically read about up close and personal.  I was able to see Hunter Kemper, Hunter-1Andy Potts, and Matt Reed.  In addition to these stellar American triathletes, Tim Donn from Great Britian is also a short course favorite. 

Hunter-and-Potts 

Tim-Donn-Bike

Reed-Bike-1

After the  men, we headed down to the Potomac and watched the start of the Women’s Race.  Have the chance to get this close to some many Olympians was a great experience.  It is not every Sunday you get to see Emma Snowsill, Sarah Haskins, or Laura  Bennett. 

Women's-start

Women's-Start-2

Moffet-and-HaskinsBennett

While we were awaiting the start I also got talk with DC Rainmaker for a few.  It is always good to catch up with your bloggy pals.  Then the Bride and I continued our ride back to the house in order to complete those mundane tasks that have to be accomplished prior to a new work week.

Another one of those interesting things that occur in the Great DC area is the President had ice cream with his kids in my neighborhood this weekend.  As the Bride pointed out, it is a great business model to have President Obama come to your establishment.  It has to greatly increase your business. 

4 comments:

Mel-2nd Chances said...

that would be a great event to see, you're lucky indeed!

Rainmaker said...

Good to see ya out there!

And very nice pics, I really like your swim start one. I think you managed to capture it a fraction of a second prior to me, and it really capture the dive quite a bit better than mine (currently on my header).

rocketpants said...

Very cool weekend! Nice pics!

Kelly said...

Looks like fun. How inspriring to see all those olympians compete right in front of you.
I'm totally jealous of all your DC-ers.