Freedom Rocks

Second time's a charm. Made it through the bike and run legs of the 2011 Nations Triathlon relatively unscathed. No rain, but patches of fog and some blinding sunlight, which turns even perfect focus to defused mush. But we navigated all 40K of the new and revised course, through Maryland and Virginia, around the Lincoln Memorial (see pre-dawn photo at left) and back. We pulled off a rare two camera shoot with the trusty Go-Pro HD mounted atop the Canon, facing backwards. I snuck a sneak peak of the MP4 files and they look crisp, even capturing a crash behind us that I normally would have missed. I can only review the taped media from the A cam on the viewfinder, so the RCV media will have to wait until Tuesday to download and grade. I think it will be OK. GPS captured in redundancy.

It was a long day, 0400 wake-up call, head still spinning from the 40-32 Husky victory over Hawaii just hours prior. The moon over the Potomac looked like a perfect circle of honey and orange as the 3K competitors began their day in time trial fashion, 8 at a time. Remember the swim was cancelled due to the water level, unsafe currents, flood debris and stretches of unsanitary conditions. I am being kind with the last of those four. A 40K ride and a 10K run was the day. It got hot hotter as the day wore on, competitors happy to finish and get some fine post-race grub, an ice-cold bottle of water and a massage.

The post race highlight was capturing a gentleman tri-geek proposing to his tri-geek gal friend at the finish line. Drew a huge round of applause from the crowd and even had the grizzled veteran video hack RCVman a touch moist around the eyes.

And yes, she accepted. It was a great way to wrap up the day. We would like to take this rare opportunity to wish bride and groom the happiest of lives together, and all finishers today the happiest of recoveries.

Pix: Bikes this way. The Lincoln Memorial, pre-dawn. Run course with WAMO behind. At the finish line at the Nations Triathlon, 9.11.2011. Ten Years Later, Freedom rocks.