Saturday – Had to do my run solo since I needed to start earlier than the rest of the group so that Esteban and I could head out to Deep Creek Lake for the Savageman tri. We got on the road around 11:30pm and had our temporary “grasshut” up and furnished by 3:00pm. Steve’s tri buddy Joe was kind enough to let us borrow some cots and sleeping pads – not exactly what most would call “roughing it” but I didn’t mind.
I spent the rest of the afternoon knitting a hat in the great outdoors while Steve and Joe picked up their race packets and checked in their bikes. After the pre-race pasta dinner we stopped for coffee (hot chocolate for me) to warm up since it was getting a tad nippy. Sat around the campfire for a bit while the boys mixed up their drinks for the race then hit the sack.
Sunday – Since the race didn’t start until 8:30am and since we were within walking distance to the start, we actually got to sleep in until about 6:00am. (Most of the other triathlons required us to get up around 4:00am.) Savageman has only been around for about 3 years but they certainly seemed to have their act together. They even had a shuttle to a section of the bike course called the Westernport “wall.”
“The wall” is this street in the town of Westernport that has an average grade of 25%, max of 31%. The last section of the street is in horrible condition – lots of ruts and potholes. Any triathlete who makes it up the street on their bike gets a brick with their name engraved placed in Westernport. Both Steve and Joe made it up, but I watched plenty of others topple over. (They only get once chance. Video from last year here. I didn't have the heart to video tape anyone who fell in front of me.) Here's a pic of a random guy; his face pretty much sums it up.
The hilly course took its toll on the guys so I watched them hobble around for a while after the race. (The silly things we do for fun.) After some much needed showers, we headed over to Uno’s for dinner then spent the rest of the evening around the campfire.Monday – I had originally planned to go for a run, but breakfast and coffee around the fire won me over. We packed up camp so that we could hit the road only to find out that the U.S.S. Grassi wouldn’t start. DOH! Joe and Steve went into town to pick up a new battery and we were finally homeward bound 3 hours later.
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