Olympics Update - Triathlon in Hyde Park!!!, on Dispatch from the Razor's Edge

(skip straight to the bleedin' video!)

Amazing day today watching the Triathlon blast through Hyde Park! Total luck on my part – I was sitting at my machine in the morning, about to go running, when Barney (aka St. Barnabas) rang and asked if I wanted to meet to watch the event. I actually thought this had already happened – was totally oblivous, really. Speed-stretched and -dressed out, then tore off toward the park, Union flag flapping behind me. Basically did my regular running route until into Kensington Gardens – then just followed the helicopters! Ended up on West Carriage Drive, just north of the Serpentine Gallery. Here's the map of the course if you're curious.

Also ended up camped out next to some people who brought a large A-frame ladder. (One might have resented this – but A) they were in the back; B) they were cheering their heads off and waving flags; and C) they told the rest of us when the field was approaching!) As Barney sagely noted, when we hooked up at last, people smart enough to bring a ladder are smart enough to know where to put it! So, we were in an awesome spot – missed the swimming, but saw the cycles loop by, um, four times? And then the runners go back and forth four times each direction! Awesome.

Best of all, Team GB had two awesome athletes in contention: Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee – brothers! (And Yorkshiremen.) They also both look like they're 12 and are just sweet as can be, not to mention utterly hard-core (it's the Olympic triathlon!). Anyway, for much of the race, we were lucky enough to be able to follow what was happening – e.g. "The Brownlees are in first and third!"

When we couldn't tell what was going on, Barney busted out with this crazy, 80s-era, Fisher-Price, bath-time/play-time AM radio – and we were the only ones able to follow along via the BBC coverage! Of course all the telecoms towers around an Olympic event are totally jammed, so all the smart phones and streaming in the world availed everyone nothing! AM radio! It's the way forward!

Jonathan actually incurred a 15-second penalty (getting on his bike early, I think) – but deferred taking it until nearly the end, to continue to help his brother. When he finally went into the penalty box, we all leaned in to the magic radio from the past and counted down the seconds with terrible tension and dread. But he was more than 15 seconds ahead of the guy behind him, and left the box like a sprinter!

In the thrilling end, the Brownlees won gold and bronze – awesome! The Spaniard won silver, which was nice as we were by a lot of nice, singing, chanting Spaniards. And we met some really nice people there in the throng with us. Here's the inevitable (music) video. (Sorry I hadn't more time for video editing… More pictures at video's end. Oh, and apologies for the camera phone!)

london 2012

Dispatch from the Razor's Edge is owned and operated by novelist, technologist, vegan, exercise junkie, classical liberal, rambler, and Londoner Michael Stephen Fuchs.

Fuchs is the author of the novels The Manuscript and Pandora's Sisters, both published worldwide by Macmillan in hardback, paperback and all e-book formats (and in translation); the D-Boys series of high-tech, high-concept, spec-ops military adventure novels – D-Boys, Counter-Assault, and Close Quarters Battle (coming in 2016); and is co-author, with Glynn James, of the bestselling Arisen series of special-operations military ZA novels. The second nicest thing anyone has ever said about his work was: "Fuchs seems to operate on the narrative principle of 'when in doubt put in a firefight'." (Kirkus Reviews, more here.)

Fuchs was born in New York; schooled in Virginia (UVa); and later emigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lived through the dot-com boom. Subsequently he decamped for an extended period of tramping before finally rocking up in London, where he now makes his home. He does a lot of travel blogging, most recently of some very long walks around the British Isles. He's been writing and developing for the web since 1994 and shows no particularly hopeful signs of stopping.

You can reach him on .

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Dispatch from the Razor's Edge is owned and operated by novelist, technologist, vegan, exercise junkie, classical liberal, rambler, and Londoner Michael Stephen Fuchs.


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