Evendays

After our morning worship and the monthly pancake lunch, I pumped up the bike tires and Wife and I headed down to the 2006 Triathlon World Championships in Lausanne.

The competition consisted of a 1500 meter in-the-lake swim (about 1 mile), a 40k bike “ride” through town (completing the same loop 7 times, with a 12% climb—and descent—in each loop), and a 10k (flat) run for the finish… All completed in well under 2 hours (the time it would take me to dog-paddle the mile swim).

We missed the morning’s women’s race but got there in time to see the men bike by. Two Swiss were in the first group of about 12 riders, but they couldn’t keep up with the Brit Tim Don who finished first.

We were not only impressed by the athletes, but also by the crowd. They were the fittest 60,000 people we’d ever been with. You could tell who the tri-athletes were: Often tall, always thin (gaunt?), they had black numbers stenciled on their biceps and thighs.

We’ll miss next year’s World Championships which take place in Hamburg. But if you want to come and just try this year’s Lausanne course, just give us a call. And I’ll pump up the tires for you… And stencil your biceps…