Short course; assisted; women; 35-49
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
May 27th, Sunday
You know that fear of sleeping through your alarm, or setting it wrong? Does that really even happen outside the movies? Isn’t it an illogical fear? No. No, it doesn’t just happen in the movies, and it’s not an illogical fear. I set two alarms so I would be up and prepped for the beach-to-beach swim. I either incorrectly set one (or both) or slept through them. I woke up 10 minutes before I needed to go and I was not showered, shaved or packed. Luckily it’s the beach so each of the three was done not quite up to par. I managed to get into the car only 8 minutes late, and by the end of the day all I noticed I’d missed in the frenzy was my rashguard.
We parked in a beach lot to wait for the shuttle, but opted to take a ride offered by some locals instead. I was dropped off at Cinnamon Beach, and Tammie continued to Maho where the race would start. I’d never been to Cinnamon before. It has a camp, cabins, archaeology dig, offices, snack bar, and restaurant hidden away. I only saw half of that stuff.
I made my way to the group of volunteers, mostly all locals. Sid runs Connections; Fraser is chairman of the board for Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park (the organization the ra
ce benefits); Jason runs his own computer business (mainly wireless stuff); Jason’s girlfriend, whose name starts with an “m” and is very similar to Miranda (but not Miranda) works for a Jeweler. There were also Jonas & Laura. They were two interns from the University of Copenhagen. There were also volunteers from Puerto Rico (they came with the sponsor, Hawaiian Tropic), and at least one other woman whose name I missed. We set up the finish line, relay area, water coolers, snacks, and medals. I was officially listed as the one who would hand out medals. Yeah! How awesome a job to have! I got to congratulate each and every person who crossed the short course finish-line. I had a blast. The other volunteers were awesome, and the race atmosphere was really cool.Tammie swam the short course, and crossed the finish line at Cinnamon. I thought she’d planned to snorkel and take her time so I barely got my camera out in time to snap her picture. I also got to medal the youngest finisher, a 7-year old boy. I don’t recall his name. Once all the short course finishers had crossed, we cleaned up and moved on to the long course finish at Hawksnest. By now it’s getting hot (~11am) so it was time for me to get in the water. I spent the rest of the race wading, and watching swimmers finish the 3.5 miles. Amazing. Sadly, the shuttles started taking people to the party before the last person finished. I felt bad, but not bad enough to stick around and have to walk to the party. I’ve done that walk before – not fun.
The afterparty was at the Oppenheimer Beach House (now a community center). It was a typical BBQ, and after everyone had time to eat, the awards were announced. Turns out Tammie won 1st place . . . . not first place overall. That went to a 16 year old girl; she won last year too. Tammie won first place for “Women’s Assisted Short Course.” She wore flippers and her snorkel – that’s what makes it assisted. She got a cool tote bag with goodies inside. Yeah!
We spent most the party with Laura (history intern from Copenhagen) and some of the archaeology people she worked for. The whole even was fun. It was really nice to meet so many locals, hear their stories, find out what they do on-island. It was great. Ken (archaeology), Laura, Tammie, and I walked back to the beach we all parked at. We gave Laura a lift back to Cinnamon and decided to stay there the rest of the afternoon. Tammie had a little sunshade, tent-like thing and it was perfect for Cinnamon. We hung out, chatted, and floated in the super soft sand. We also accomplished a goal; we ended an obsession. Though I was extremely nervous, we snorkeled first from Cinnamon to Little Cinnamon beach, then from Little Cinnamon to the ultra-private Peter Bay Beach. This beach has enormous beach-front mansions and is home to the rich and famous, including (until that week) Kenny Chesney. He sold his house, but still owns land in Peter Bay.
I don’t know what the big deal is. The beach was crap. It’s rocky and sm
all. I was not impressed. And the freakin’ blue chair was gone. GONE! I had Tammie take a picture of lame blue folding chair – just in case. No, that wasn’t THE blue chair. Not that I really care that much. It wasn’t until the party a few hours earlier that I even knew an old blue chair used to sit down by the beach, or that Kenny Chesney wrote a song about that chair. I don’t even listen to Kenny Chesney. We snorkeled back without stopping at Little Cinnamon (yeah for Shannon!). Then we hung out for another hour or so. I just didn’t want to leave the water. I could have floated there all evening.
I think this was the night we went out to dinner also. If you’re reading, Tammie maybe you can confirm that or correct me. But one night we did go out to the Beach Panini Trattoria. It was good. We both just got salad & appetizer. I was slightly annoyed because I asked for no onions but alas, onions abounded on my pesto pizza. At least they were easy to pick-off, unlike the gobs of diced garlic on Tammie’s pizza. And that was that – we may have gotten more Ting. We had to have a supply at all times. But for the most part, that was the end of day 4.
[The second photo is taken on Cinnamon beach. You can see a little stretch of sand just above the large wave - that's Little Cinnamon beach. Peter Bay Beach is to the left of those mega-homes, of which Kenny Chesney used to own the third from the left. I don't think his and Renee Z's wedding was on this beach. The beach was just not pretty at all.]
posted by Shannon @ 5.6.07,
1 Comments:
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At June 06, 2007,
Tammie said...
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Of course I'm reading :) but no, I don't remember which day we went to Panini Beach Trattoria (does that surprise you?)
