Marshaling the Cambridge Triathlon

The Cambridge Triathlon took place this morning. I had a late night and still had not had a chance to shower since my race yesterday before I showed up at 7.30 to marshal our own triathlon. I'm always impressed with those from our club that are instrumental in putting on these events. I just showed up and did my job. It was lucky that I had come straight from a race though since a competitor had forgotten his wetsuit. I pulled my soggy out of its bag and offered it to him. He seemed reluctant but I said, "what are your choices? If you don't borrow it you can't race." He seemed happier at the end of the race when he handed it back (along with the Frys cooking oil I loaned him!).

My job was to marshal a tricky section of the bike course with Ian. It's a spot where there are double mini-roundabouts and spurts of traffic. We were relieved to see all the cyclists through there though I felt for some of them. The leading female in the race got held up behind a tractor and a couple of others got held up too. I guess this is all part of racing but it's very frustrating to lose time when you've worked so hard.

I was particularly impressed with the competitors' politeness. The majority said thanks as we gave them directions and encouragement, notably even those who were leading the race. I previously had the impression that those at the front are too focused and pushing too hard to have any facilty for speech but was very pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case at all.

An excellent event!