Friday, November 09, 2007

Bad Weekend for a Triathlon


mn_spill_impact.jpgba_oil_spill_0271_kr.jpg
Diagram of the oil spill. A view from the Marin side of the Golden Gate Bridge.


So I spent my birthday Wednesday evening at a volunteer's meeting for the upcoming Treasure Island Tri. There was pizza and sodas afterwards and lots of friends in attendance so really it was like a regular b-day party. If I was 8 it would have been perfect:) Turns out that it was also Meredith's b-day. She's one of the Tri-California people, the organization who puts on the race. I've volunteered for enough Tri-California events that these guys have become friends.

We went into the meeting knowing about the accident that caused the oil spill but as far as we knew the race was still on. Initial reports stated that only 140 gallons of oil leaked into the bay but we found out after the meeting, during the evening news, that it was more like 58,000 gallons. Quite a big jump from the initial estimate. A container ship had hit one of the supporting towers of the Oakland Bay Bridge, rupturing one of it's fuel tanks. The oil traveled North and West, then out the Golden Gate Bridge, soiling beaches along the way. Once outside the Golden Gate it continued North soiling more of Marin's coast.

For the report at SFGate, click here.

So the swim has been canceled for the triathlon but the race will still go on. It's now a duathlon, a bike and run. I'll be there all weekend. Saturday AM is the Olympic distance race and the Pro race at noon - folks will get a good look at the really fast guys. Sunday is the Sprint distance event. This time I'm working at the finish line food tent. We are serving pasta, salad, water and who knows what else. I always try to do different jobs at these races. I hope it's a good day despite the race being shortened. At least in our club no one's been bitchin or complainin. People have been cognizant of the fact that there is more at stake here.

Shout out to my friends doing PCTR's Stinson Beach 50k. I wanted to do that race but I found out it was the same weekend as this triathlon.

9 comments:

  1. Wow!! That spill looks nasty!! That's pretty sweet that they're still doing it though :-)

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  2. Geesh I didn't even here about this, what a shame...

    Have a great race and knock it out Rick!! U da Man!!

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  3. Sounds like a good decision by the race directors. Have fun!

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  4. wow, the spill is a lot bigger than I thought! How sad :(

    Have fun volunteering! Sounds like it'll be a great race, even at 2/3s of its full self :)

    On an unrelated note, I've been having fun going back and reading your achieves (not that I have the free time that I should really be spending on this, but whatever :D). Hopefully that doesn't seem weird or anything...:) Anyways, I'm really enjoying it! Up to June of 2006 so far

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  5. Anonymous12:05 PM

    Aww that bites.
    Lame.

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  6. Wow, that is awful!! :<(

    I hope the du goes well! The food tent, huh?

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  7. So sad for the Bay. : ( Glad your race can still go on as a du. I just read that the permit for the PCTR Stinson Beach run was canceled. But some still ran it as a fat a$$.

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  8. I was thinking about you out there in the Bay Area when I heard about this in the news. How awful! I sure hope they can get all that cleaned up. That really sucks.

    Sounds like you had a nice birthday, though!

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  9. I didn't realize how bad the spill was until I saw the photo you posted, and I live here. SO SAD.

    I hope Treasure Island was fun, even without the swim.

    Good luck tomorrow!

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