Ah, Brazil

I love it here! Great food, excellent beer, the beach, wonderful people, very handsome men. What's not to love!

Arrived Tuesday afternoon after a good flight from DC. Got to chat with some folks on the layover in Sao Paulo, and got to meet a guy I knew from online. Tuesday night Fernando and his brother came over and met us for dinner. I did get a little jog in prior to dinner. We are about a block from the beach.

Wednesday was a sleep in and the mechanic brought the bike here around 9:45. We then rushed to get breakfast before 10:00 AM, then decided to walk to the swim start to swim. Well, I didn't know that the tranistion/expo/start is more than a mile from the hotel! We got down the road to the host hotel and ran into AussieDrew and two friends of his and he said to come with them in the Ken Glah van, so we did. We all got to the beach and then I was the only one who swam! Water is pretty nice--about 68-69F, bit of a current one way. After I swam, we walked around the expo a bit, then caught the van back.

I got out to ride about 1:00 PM and did the 90 minutes that was on the schedule, out and back on the course some. It was a bit windy heading down, but that became mostly a tailwind coming back. Lots of speed bumps though! Felt pretty good on the ride.

Also got out to run and did 25:00, including over to the big hill on the run course. Not bad. I was expecting a lot worse. Felt pretty good running.

Dinner out with Fernando again and our clubmate Geoff arrived Wednesday afternoon so he came with us.

Thursday: I am officially registered. #615

Got up today and had breakfast with KP. Then, I ran about 26 minutes and again felt really good. Went again up the hill and found the OTHER hill (the walking one--short, but steep). Glad I went and checked it out.

After I ran, I got on the bike and headed out. This time I went further down the course towards the Centre, on the freeway a ways even. These two other guys did, and then it was too late to turn around until a break in the barrier. Not too windy this morning (11:00 AM), so at times I was flying pretty good. Got back to town and found KP and rode the last 30 minutes with him. I was able to stick on his wheel, but a little over IM pace for me. I did my 90 minutes.

Got back to the room and Shea and I walked over to the beach right here and I got in and swam out, back, into the current, and with the current, about 15-20:00 total. Went directly to lunch since yesterday we missed lunch due to me riding and the restaurants closing! Had to got to the grocery store and buy stuff to make a sandwich.

Our hotel:

At 4:00 PM was the briefing, so Andy, Geoff, Fernando and I went to that. After the briefing, we picked up Shea and we drove to the Centre to have dinner at a churssixxxx? The grilled meat place where they bring it around like dim sum? Good stuff and lots of laughing.