Filing through the crowd at 5:30 AM to get to our saved seats on the sea wall. ZOMBIE ALERT! They are frequently seen among the triathlon crowds.
Triathlons aren’t for late-sleepers. Kona starts the pros at 6:30 AM, the age-groupers at 7 AM, which means racers have until midnight (17 hours) before the lights go out and they get a DNF behind their name.
The finish line @ 5:30 AM, 100 yds. from the swim start.
The Dynamo racers all rose by 3:30 AM to eat, check gear one more time and get to the race start by 4:45 AM. We spectators got to sleep in until 4:45 AM–unless you were Betty, Ernie, Kyle and Shanks, who got to the swim start by 4:30 AM to save preferred seating along the sea wall for the rest of us. They defended the wall rampart brilliantly (and often) so that when we arrived at 5:30 AM, we could climb atop the wall and dangle our feet out above the water 8 feet below while looking over the bay.
View from the sea wall to the pier and swim start. The transition area and bike corral is on the pier, behind the lights.
The pros start into the water at 6 AM to warm up for their 6:30 AM swim start.
6:30 AM, waiting on the sea wall for the start. Dynamo supporters in their green T-shirts were easy to find.
A flotilla of boats and paddle boards monitor swimmers. The swim starts at a float line, enforced by a rotating line of paddle-boarders, about 150 yards from shore.
Age groupers enter the bay for warm-up, beginning at 6:35 AM.
- A certain group of celebrity spectators, seated on the sea wall.
Swimmers warming up. The buoy start line is in the distance near the top of the photo.
The sun coming over the horizon as the flotilla hovers…