Xterra Black Diamond

This morning I got up early and went out to volunteer at the Xterra Black Diamond Triathlon on Lake Sawyer. My friend Toby is the race director and my triathlon team, Raise the Bar, had a lot of volunteers out there. I was on the bike course and my job was the most dangerous of all. This was a mountain bike course and the participants had to do two loops. At the end of the first loop, they had to dismount their bikes and walk over the timing mats so their timing chips could clock them in. While doing this me and another girl had to take a marker and mark their race number on their handlebars so the sorter could direct them on to the correct course when they came around the second time. Now this doesn't sound too bad but when they are speeding at you it is a little freaky and they are in a hurry so you are lucky to get a tiny mark on their number and keep your arm in the process. Our third biker wasn't following the instructions of the sorter who was placed about 15 yards before the mats and he slammed on his breaks right in front of us and went head first over his handlebars. He wasn't hurt and the funny thing is that he apologized to us!

The triathletes were great! The majority of them thanked us volunteers while they passed us on their bikes. The bike course must have been rough because there were a lot of people bleeding when they went by us. This makes me very excited to do my first tri! Don't think I'll ever do a mountain bike tri but thinking of putting a team together next year so I don't have to do the bike.