Author Archives: Ben

Ok, so I’m guilty of sidelining the point of my travel. I have written pretty much nothing about how I’m actually feeling as I get ready for this race. Sorry. I’ve actually been pretty nervous. Not about the race, but nervouse about getting nervous. For instance, before I raced at Hy-Vee in June I was […]

Alright, I’m going to shorten this post and save you the trouble of reading about how we moved from an expensive “budget” hotel, where we were getting two identical rooms, one a “single” and one a “double”, but both with two beds, and where we had a great breakfast, and where wireless internet was free, […]

Wednesday was the USA Triathlon scheduled packet pickup time. It was shown to be from 2:30 to 5, but I never heard a peep about it from USAT. I figured somebody would be down there, and I was excited to finally see another American. I was hanging out at the hotel watching Red vs Blue […]

Yesterday (Tuesday) I followed the posted directions for a bike route. According to the race website there were supposed to be two different routes posted, which were to start from the swimming hall (the 50m pool I’ve been swimming at). I showed up at 8am with my bike, ready for a good ride, and was […]

Monday we (meaning my parents) decided to drive north to see the German coast where Germans take vacations (this explains a lot about their culture). I used my forerunner to plot out the trip, so I could just show you rather than trying to explain exactly where we went. (click on the image below) View […]

I went for a swim yesterday at a 50m pool near the race sight. I got lost on the way there (it seems strange to call it lost when I didn’t know where I was to begin with), and after finally finding it, I paid 5,60 in Euros, received a black coin and was let […]

This buffet is legendary. I took pictures this morning (though somehow I neglected to photograph the fruit dish. It wouldn’t have been that impressive though, because I put a real hurt on it.). There’s the Yogurt bar, the granola bar, and the meat bar. There’s also a basket of hard boiled eggs, bacon and eggs, […]

It’s 6am. I’m sitting waiting for the breakfast buffet at the Hotel Helgoland, which is were I’m staying, but not where I made reservations. I just slept for `10 hours after what may have been the crankiest day I’ve ever seen my parents have. I’ll leave out tales of bickering and short tempers because I’d […]