Awards Banquet

After breakfast with my friends I went back to the expo area to pick up my finisher's certificate, official race results, and pictures. I wound up buying all my race photos and a horribly overpriced photo mat, falling victim to the need for more souvenirs. ;)

The race photos look OK - unfortunately the photographer caught me at the finish line with my eyes closed. I think when I crossed I heaved a sigh a relief and thus closed my eyes for a moment. I do have my eyes open for my other finisher's photo, and am wearing a toothy grin as well. The swim and bike photos came out pretty well. I was lucky my race number was visible for the swim, because there were stacks of hundreds of unidentified wetsuit pictures - arranged into sleeved and sleeveless piles with further categories by wetsuit brand name. A small crowd gathered to flip through the stacks, which is what I had to do for my run photo. I eventually found it and saw why it was in the unidentified section - my race number isn't visible. The run photo is a close up of me shortly after leaving transition, with white steaks of sunscreen visible, grimacing as though I were in pain. It isn't very flattering, and I must not have seen the photographer otherwise I could have at least tried to smile, because I didn't feel as bad as the picture looks!

I attended a portion of the awards banquet, which was interesting. I probably wouldn't have gone except the printed results and finisher's certificates were in the same tent, off to the side. The race officials brought up the top five finishers in each age group for both men and women, and awarded plaques. The crowd cheered and when it was over, I grabbed my DVD and left.

My friend Kandi found something cool - she told me there was a picture of me on the bike, on the official website. I searched around with the photo album viewer, until I found it.

Other than that I took it easy. I visited the hotel pool to soak, aqua jog a bit, dip into the hot tub, and finish up soaking in the pool. Yesterday's cold water bath helped out and I may repeat that again tonight.