So, my friend Alison from Oxy, came through Madrid again
during her 2+ weeks in Spain. Since we
had a such a fortuitous day last time she was here, I was beyond stoked to hang
out with her again! Reflection time: I
can’t decide if last time was more fortuitous than the other…because both days
were AWESOME. This had to have been one
of my luckier and more “what the hell?!” days of my life. Well, Alison and I decided to go on a
treck/explore Casa de Campo, the big park that we rode the teleférico to last
time. We donned our hiking shoes,
spandex, and adventureous attitude and walked to the park. There was some commotion going on my the lake
(a concert? Exposisition? Magic show?) So we decided to check it out.
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| Exploration ready! |
It took us a while to figure out exactly what
was going on, but for the sake of finger soreness, I’ll just tell it
straight. WE WALKED RIGHT INTO THE ELITE
MENS TRIATHLON OLYMPIC TRIALS. Wait, what?
Yeah, you read that correctly. We
accidentally went to the park at the exact perfect moment to catch the last 3
laps of the elite mens triathlon trials for the 2012 summer Olympics in
London. COOL!
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| View from the top |
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| Russia |
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| España |
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| Winner from England |
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| Morocco |
Exploring quickly turned into ogling (lots of attractive men
in triathlon gear and cute spectators), walking around (there were lots of
booth selling bathing suits, running, shoes, protein supplements, etc… and just
absorbing the entire scene. It was so
great. Alison and I were both mind
boggled and excited with the general atmosphere of being with the spectators
and watching Olympians complete a sub 2 hour triathlon. The coolest was watching number 10 (from
Columbia) and 11 (from France) finish the race because they were so close and
only the top 10 go to the Olympics, and the Colombian guy almost lost it, but
in the end held on and made it through!! SO EXCITING!
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| spectator #1 |
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| Morocco from behind with the crazy kid that literally got EVERYONE's autograph |
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| Champagne for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place |
After the race we quickly turned on groupie mode, and waited
outside athletes village to snap some pics with the cute Olympians (or almost
Olympians).
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Alison asked the Italian (who placed 5th) to take
a picture in Italian.
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Alison asked the swiss guy in French for a picture. (She is so multilingual!)
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| Finally got my picture with my Moroccan dream. Too bad he put his shirt back on... |
After the elite men’s, there was a Paralympic triathlon,
which was even cooler to watch, people missing arms, legs, with muscle movement
problems, and a whole variety of handicaps complete the swimming, biking, and
running course was truly amazing. We
watched the swimming, and saw each athlete as they transitioned from swimming
to biking, and even got to see a little of the biking too.
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| man with prosthetic leg |
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| final swimmer transitioning to bike |
Before leaving the park, Alison and I both decided to start
training for a triathlon! We’re hooked.
(And the boys are really cute….)
Then we met up with Alison’s friend Anna, who she is
traveling with, and Jenna and got a Sangria tower…5 liters worth of
Sangria. It was a lot, but not too much
for the 4 of us (thirsty) girls to handle.
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| Sangria tower! |
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| FIVE full liters!!! |
A refreshing end to a most unexpected day!
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