Tri Hard
LYNCHPIXThis week with Olympics fever about to grip the capital, I found myself at the Olympic venue of Hyde Park at stupid o’clock in the morning- TWICE! This was the first of those assignments as my journo Warren Pole took on a DIY Triathlon loosely based on the official Olympic route. We kicked off at the stunning Serpentine for the swimming element of the challenge.
 The Serpentine, like Hampstead ponds has a hardy bunch of loyal swimmers that can be found here all year round. Come rain, sleet, snow, or even that rarer element in the UK; Sunshine, they’ll be there bright & breezy knocking out a few early morning lengths.
 On this particular morning, it was the latter with plenty of the orange stuff blazing down upon the water. Our man, a seasoned triathlon competitor arrived wearing a full wetsuit, as is customary for pro athletes at this sport, although a bit of a rarity amongst the regulars here & a somewhat frowned upon get-up. Our man got some very unusual looks from the locals…
  After a couple of minutes for pictures, our man cracked on jumping straight into the water & getting his lengths in the bag.
 Then it was out & straight around to the car park & the nearest ‘Boris Bike’ station for the cycling part of the triathlon.
  The ‘Boris Bikes’ are certainly not made for this kind of thing with their clunky gearings, but it looked like he was getting a good workout nonetheless.
 Finally, it was a brisk run around the outer circle of London’s premier greenspace.
  We completed our journey at the official start/finish line of the Olympic race, that most symbolic of thoroughfares; The Mall.
 They were prepping the road as we arrived erecting crash barriers & closing the side streets for the actual race, but we still managed to get a great vista with the rising sun on our faces & regal Buckingham Palace as our backdrop. By the end of our journey, I was bloody exhausted, but Warren had barely broken a sweat!
We finished up at 8:30am, the time most nine-to-fivers are just starting their day & as we parted ways, breakfast was the only thing on our minds. For Warren, no doubt, it was a healthy grapefruit or something similarly healthy. For me, it was straight to the nearest greasy spoon for a traditional greasy, stodgy English fry-up!
ENJOY!
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- Published:
- July 30, 2012 / 1:23 am
- Category:
- #IOTW, Media, Olympics, Photography, Press, Uncategorized
- Tags:
- #IOTW, bike station, Blog, Blogging, Culture, General, Hyde Park, Life, Media, olympic venue, Olympics, Photography, Press, travel, Triathlon, triathlon competitor, vacation
lynchpix 
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