Some people were seriously underdressed.
LotStreetWiz signed up for Victoria’s Duathlon on observed Victoria Day. The duathlon takes place at the north edge of Waterloo. It comprises a 4-km run, a 24-km bike ride, and another 4-km run over hilly ground. It’s the start of the summer racing season in Ontario.
We got on our way at 7:45. The drive was just over an hour and a half in duration, but we were still early for registration. We got a good place to park, close to the building, whence where we could see the starting line of the race. The headquarters of the race was at a church beside a small river, with a pond out front. The pond was graced with floating, artificial alligator heads. I don’t know if they were supposed to keep birds away or small children out of the pond.
The weather was harsh: I spent a fair amount of time cheering the departing runners, the fast runners coming in, the bike racers taking off. There was a strong, cold, damp wind blowing the whole time, with spatters of rain. Then I wandered off and bought a hotdog from the one hardy vendor on site. Then I cheered in the slow bikers coming in, the slow runners going out, and the slow runners coming in. Meanwhile, the racers were running and biking into the wind and at times almost being blown off the course. We spectators even saw showers of small ice pellets a couple of times. I think that a lot of slower, recreational runners decided not to start. One tall runner came determined to have fun and ran dressed in a business suit, shirt, tie, dark glasses, and fedora to liven thing up.
LotStretWiz made a valiant effort to go out hard and keep going hard. He made up 30 places over the course of the race, all of them in younger age-groups.
After the race, we didn’t wait for the prizes and draws. We got into the car, he had his pre-packed lunch and warmed up. Then what he wanted most of all was coffee, so we drove off to the nearest coffeee shop.
When we were warm, fed, and caffeinated, we drove to Hamilton and delivered a couple of small birthday presents. I tried my best to ignore the GPS navigation system, which told us to go onto Highway 401 and down Highway 6 to Burlington, then take a long, elevated bridge back to Hamilton. That would take us along two legs of a triangle, when we were ready to zoom down Highway 8, the hypoteneuse of the triangle, which took us straight to our destination.
