A whole weekend outside

It was a great weekend. Not only did I get in some decent training, but I volunteered at a triathlon for the first time.

Friday night I headed to my outdoor 25 meter pool after work and got in a great 3200 meters before dinner with my parents. Although I was slow, I still enjoyed laps in the beautiful night.

Not a shabby way to start the weekend.

Saturday I got in another outdoor ride on the road closed to traffic. Since I'm incapable of getting out the door at a decent hour I only had about 2 hours to ride, but I made it work. The wind was ridiculous and my headwind laps were depressingly slow, but the tailwind laps were enjoyable.

Who names these things?

Today I was up at 4:30 a.m. to volunteer at what was my first triathlon five years ago. I knew it was going to be a long day but I was excited for it. My first official duty was passing out timing chips. We had a few hiccups with people accidentally grabbing the wrong number, but everyone was reassigned and the missing chips eventually turned up.

I've done this race a total of three times, which was useful when newbies asked me questions: Body marking is at the water. You don't have to wear your number on the bike. Yes I have extra safety pins. I loved talking to the people who were about to do their first tri -- there was a bit of nervousness but a lot of excitement.

After the race actually started, my next duty was to direct bike traffic. I got very good at yelling at the top of my lungs, "LAP TO THE RIGHT, FINISH TO THE LEFT." Bikers were out on the course for several hours overall, so my throat was pretty sore by the end. But it was awesome to see everyone working hard -- from the cyclists at the pointy end to the last woman who slugged it out.

By the time the bike course wrapped up it was time to start breaking down. I spent the next few hours taking down bike racks and run-in arches, and helping load up the trailer. I hung around until 2 p.m. and called it a day. I had been on my feet for 8.5 hours and while it was a great time, I was beat. My only bummer was that it was too late and I was too tired to do my own swim and run. Actually, two bummers: I got sunburned in a couple of odd places, like the tops of my feet.

Ah, the weekends are always too short, but at least I stayed busy and had a good time.