Goosepond 70.3 Race Report - Part 1

   About a week ago, Dudley and I headed down to lovely Scottsboro, Alabama for the Goosepond 70.3 triathlon. For those of you who haven't been to Scottsboro, there really isn't a whole lot to do there. In fact, there is pretty much only one thing TO do...the Unclaimed Baggage Center. This is where all of the luggage that was left on airplanes goes when it doesn't get claimed after a certain point in time. Once it's at the center, it's put up for sale to the public.

Where leftover baggage does to die.

 
  Need some random crap? Go here. This place has everything. Clothing, sunglasses, shoes, bicycles, golf clubs, iPads, cameras, a xylophone from Neil Diamond's tour - EVERYTHING.

Words can't describe how badly I wanted these.

This made me sad. A Boston 2013 jacket. Only $5.

  I ended up buying a pair of Gucci sunglasses for $15. I have no idea if they are real or not, but for $15, who really cares?
   After our little shopping spree, we headed over to the expo. It was held at the Scottsboro Civic Center, which was about 1/2 mile from the Start/Finish line. One of the reasons I wanted to do this race was to compare it to the only other half-ironman I've ever done - Ironman Augusta 70.3. While Augusta was this huge "thing," Scottsboro was MUCH more low key. Only about 400 participants as compared to 3,500 in Augusta. The expo only had about 6-7 vendors, which is pretty much the same as what Ironman had except their inventory was bigger. But the main difference was that the Ironman had a huge room full of overpriced Ironman-logoed stuff. Cowbells, water bottles… it was kind of like the Unclaimed Baggage Center but with Ironman. Now, don't get me wrong, I love me some overpriced Ironman swag. But it takes about an hour to go through everything and you walk out from an Ironman expo about $200 poorer.  It was kind of nice to just walk in, pick up my race pack and go. Plus, along with the standard race shirt, we got calf compression sleeves. Pretty cool, huh? You'd pay $50-$100 for Ironman compression sleeves.

So much swag!

   We had signed up for the official pre-race pasta dinner, which was being held at the same place at the expo. We had about an hour to kill before dinner so we went out to drive the run course. I was worried because I had heard it was really hilly. So we got the map and went out for a little drive. You know what's frustrating? Maps that are wrong. And streets that don't have street signs. We were able to figure the route out for the most part, but when we were finished with the drive, I was really hoping the route was clearly marked on race day. If not, it was going to be a cluster.

   Part 2 coming up soon!