The Third Coast Bicycle Festival felt the presence of a few crazy people on Saturday, August 28. You probably guessed that the crazy people were Ali, Glen, Andrea, me, and friends. Aw, yeah.

Glen is the Racing Greyhound on the left.

They probably didn’t really feel our presence. I’m not even sure we were even that noticeable, although there were moments when I was lying on my belly in an attempt to get some super sweet photos. Yeah, yeah, I know that’s what some of you are eagerly waiting for.

The Saturday races were road criteriums, or crits. Crits are VERY fun. I raced in the crit in Marquette at the Superior Bike Festival two years in a row. Unfortunately, finances and other things kept me from entering the Third Coast crit, but that’s okay. I got lots of great photos.

Glen is the second from the left.

The original plan was to watch Glen race, and then head out to the Vasa to ride. Well, Ali, Andrea, and I were quite hungry, so we ordered food as soon as Glen’s race started. It ended up turning into an all-day affair as we sat at the same restaurant while Glen and his friends ordered a second round of meals for themselves. We were probably there for several hours.

In between bites of food, I walked around the crit course to get photos. Remember, I wasn’t prepared for an all-day event. I was dressed in sloppy, summer clothes and flip-flops. Yup, flip-flops. My feet were so sore by the end of the day. I had a blister between my big and second toes on my left foot, and my feet were sore from the lack of support from my shoes.

I think my feet were already hurting pretty badly by the time I snapped this picture of Glen racing across the finishline.

The next day, I couldn’t really put on my nicer sandals. It turned out that my feet and ankles were swollen, and thus too fat to fit into the shoes. They were pretty icky. I found it so intriguing that I snapped a photo and posted it on Facebook.

The swelling persisted until Thursday. I dressed up and wore heels on Tuesday and Wednesday, and my feet did not like that. In fact, simply standing promoted the swelling. Whenever I had a break, I would elevate my feet. Wednesday, I iced both ankles and feet for about two hours. Maybe that’s why they were better on Thursday.

Di’s swollen feet and ankles.

Lesson learned: don’t wear flip-flops at bicycle festivals, even if you plan to leave after one crit race to go mountain biking. Chances are, nothing will go as planned.