Luray Triathlons and General Lees

This weekend was a fun one - we traveled west to one of my favorite race destinations in this area - Luray, VA, to officiate the International and Sprint distance triathlons.  There is just something special about the Luray race weekend that stands out among other races.  After talking to Rebecca about it, we both agreed that it is the town and volunteers (most of whom are local) that truly make it a special experience.  For a relatively smaller race (1200 people between both races), there are tons of volunteers who are all happy to be there and are extremely well organized.  For anyone in the area, I'd highly encourage you to make it part of your race schedule every year.

This year, we lucked out with the weather for the most part.  Saturday was a perfect day for racing with temperatures in the 70s for most of the race.  Late day rain on Saturday that never seemed to let up until 6 am the next day started to pose a threat for Sunday's race, but it stopped just as everyone was arriving at transition.  What it did do, was cool the water down just enough to make it wetsuit legal (77.4F), which many people were happy about.  Oh and I did get to chat for a bit with Audrey before she raced the Sprint.  She may not have seen me during the race because she was in racing hard, but I happened to spot her on the swim (entering the water), out on the bike course, and on the run.  Great job on your race!

Now, this year's race experience was a little different than previous year's in that I wasn't the only one involved in the race.  Rebecca made the trip down with me, but she had a job of her own.  Let's see if you can figure it out from the picture below:

Have you figured it out yet?  If not, click the image to zoom in....anything???  Ok, well, maybe this version will help:

See that person WITHIN the red fencing?  Yep - Rebecca was working as a race photographer!  It was so much fun to be able to work at a race and see her doing something I know she loves to do - document activity.  And while we're talking about documenting things, I know she had her fair share of interesting finish line antics, but I happened to capture one as I was watching some people finish:

Oh yes - a group of 3 guys (only 2 made it down the finishing chute) were dressed as cowboys - 2 plastic guns ablazing and the other was "riding" a horse.

And lastly, some people attending the races this past weekend may have noticed that it was particularly crowded in town.  And more specifically, every hotel seemed to be booked.  Well the races had something to do with it, but not everything.  The "other" event nearby was Dukesfest, held in nearby Sperryville, VA.  Now, when I first heard about this event, I was thinking that I'd see the town covered in General Lees driving all over the place. 

 

Sadly, we only saw a few...there's always next year...