Despite air canada's reputation, it was a not awful flight. The primary letdown being that my breakfast of a hot greasy omelet was fantasy, and it turned out to be a cold slab of lemon loaf. To help pass the time, a melatonin and beer cocktail ensured I got a nice nap, despite my economy/steerage class comfort.
Our pickup at the airport turned out to be a group of teenage girls in orange T shirts. They spoke at length about how terrible their lot in life was, but it was in charming and hard to understand Briter-ish so listening to them was kind of fun. Eventually we were prodded onto charter buses and were given some vague assurance our bikes would show up later at our hotel.
London hasn't disappointed my stereotype: it's been rainy and cold!
Despite that, the city has beautiful old european architecture, brick buildings everywhere, old antique-y street lamps, awesome huge trees and parks all over the city...
Food isn't bad either, we've been eating mostly french (croissants and coffee for breakfast) and Italian (pasta and pizza) for dinner. Chris (my roommate and training buddy) bumped into a Whole Foods yesterday while we were out exploring so I had my usual chicken burrito for a taste of home.
Last night was the opening ceremony in trafalgar square (renamed as triathlon square for the remainder of the event) with some Beatle impersonators and lots of windy speeches. It rained the whole time, so it became another endurance event itself.
The racecourse in Hyde park seems pretty good. We had a swim in 'the Serpentine' (a really really big duck pond) yesterday morning, holy cow is it muddy. I thought it ominous how many feathers were floating about as I jumped in, a concern that proved valid. I gulped down the odd mouthful while practicing some fast 100s and had a ~funny~ stomach for the remainder of the day.
In the afternoon, Chris and I hit the bike course. Flat and fast, and not nearly big enough given that about 5000 athletes will be racing on it. Will be tight tomorrow...
Ok, bike dropped off and ready for bed... less than 12hrs till the race..
Race coverage here:
www.triathlon.org/tv
Despite that, the city has beautiful old european architecture, brick buildings everywhere, old antique-y street lamps, awesome huge trees and parks all over the city...
Food isn't bad either, we've been eating mostly french (croissants and coffee for breakfast) and Italian (pasta and pizza) for dinner. Chris (my roommate and training buddy) bumped into a Whole Foods yesterday while we were out exploring so I had my usual chicken burrito for a taste of home.
Last night was the opening ceremony in trafalgar square (renamed as triathlon square for the remainder of the event) with some Beatle impersonators and lots of windy speeches. It rained the whole time, so it became another endurance event itself.
The racecourse in Hyde park seems pretty good. We had a swim in 'the Serpentine' (a really really big duck pond) yesterday morning, holy cow is it muddy. I thought it ominous how many feathers were floating about as I jumped in, a concern that proved valid. I gulped down the odd mouthful while practicing some fast 100s and had a ~funny~ stomach for the remainder of the day.
In the afternoon, Chris and I hit the bike course. Flat and fast, and not nearly big enough given that about 5000 athletes will be racing on it. Will be tight tomorrow...
Ok, bike dropped off and ready for bed... less than 12hrs till the race..
Race coverage here:
www.triathlon.org/tv
Sherwood forest (?) in front of our dorm
Our race pond in Hyde park:
Team get together at Canuck embassy, I got the presidents award for being one of the National champs for age group sprint Tri !
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