Turkey Tri 2008

After a few weeks off Bryan and I went back to work covering triathlons. This weekend’s event was the Turkey Tri/Trot at Bonelli Park in San Dimas. This is the third event we covered at Bonelli in the past few months. The first event was the Renegade Adventure Race, and as with that race, this event was put on by the Renegade Race Series. It was a beautiful clear day in Bonelli park, and although it was slightly chilly in the morning it turned out to be a nice day. Bryan and I discussed which part of the race we would cover. We decided that I would do the swim start and finish line and he would do the bike. On my way over to the shore at Puddingstone Lake I ran into my cousin Jonathan and his new puppy Chuck. I found

 After finishing photographing some of the swimmers I walked over to part of the run course and waited there for a long time. I had to wait for the participants to bike 14 miles before they got to me. As I looked over at the area where Bryan was photographing I noticed that the cyclists biked out of the same narrow road that they biked in on. I thought that was pretty odd to set up a course that way. Most of the areas on the course were marked well, which was good because Bryan and I failed to look up the course map before we got to Bonelli. I actually had to sneak into the transition area to get a picture of the map to review. Even though most of the course was marked well some athletes complained that they got confused on the course, one in particular ran the wrong way for awhile. It is very important to have a well marked course as even a little bit of confusion can alter the outcome of the race. Another thing that can alter an outcome of the race are the spectators/pedestrians. I saw numerous times during the race people leisurely walking along the course, almost oblivious that a triathlon was taking place at that very moment. One lady blindly walked her stroller across that path of an athlete running her way…not cool. To all those who spectate or are in the general vicinity of a triathlon, please watch where you are going and stay out of the way, you can actually get hurt but more likely you will negatively affect someones race time.

 

So anyway after I photographed some of the participants at the beginning of the run I walked over to the finish line. I initially walked to the end of the finish line and was quickly told by the volunteer race crew that I was not allowed in that area and would have to go around to where the other spectators were. Well as most of you know I don’t take no for an answer. I complied and walked around but made my way in the taped area just past the finish line. To be clear I was on the other side of the tape, not the side where the athletes run in, so I was not in their way when they ran in. I ended up getting some great shots in that spot. Meanwhile Bryan had positioned himself in a great spot on the hill above the finish line. Unfortunately his battery in his camera died after taking only a few shots from that spot. This is another very important, very obvious rule of covering events, always come prepared. Even though we had a backup battery we failed to charge it beforehand so Bryan was stuck in a great photo spot with no usable camera. We still ended up with a lot of pictures despite his camera dying.

 

Since it is now off season as far as triathlons go this will be our last endurance event for this year. It was a nice way to end the season for us and we can’t wait until next season starts up again. For more race coverage check out Bryan’s race report at Amateur Endurance and also we have posted many photos of the event in our GALLERY.