SBR 140.6

Swim Bike Run 140.6 miles

The day was increditable,
and so much fun,
2200 athletes,
doing swim, bike, n run.
Made signup for I 2007!

Ironman Florida 2006
With a week of vacation tagged as “use it or loose it”, I laid out a week long road trip to Florida, incorporating friends, family, and bike riding. The start of my trip was to Panama Beach to meet up with Dee Davis others from Nashville I met on the MS150: Jack-n-Back ride. 30 members from gNAC athletic club were going to participate in the 8th Florida Ironman. I was going to witness and cheer.

Arriving Friday evening, the night before the race, the beachfront had an eerie feeling of high intensity but amazing calm. Days earlier, athletes and spectators had begun to arrive to check in their bikes and cloths, and check out the course. With over 2200 athletes participating, the logistics of the transitions from swim to bike and bike to run are not trivial. With that done, Friday night was early bedtime for the participant.

This left the night for Crazy Ashley, Richard, Peter, and other non-participants to made our way to a local Oyster Bar where we pounded down oysters and beers for the evening.

The morning of the race started early, many getting up at 4:00am to begin getting ready. I caught up with the gNAC group on the 17 floor of the Boardwalk Towers. The room was full of muscle busting, adrenalin filled wet suits prepared for the long grueling day.

Having never seen a mass start on the swim, I was awed with how the water churned. The swim course was two laps with a dash onto the beach across the timer matte to provide all the Blackberry geeks with realtime splits of every athletes. At the farthest point, the swimmers look like nothing more than a bunch of seagulls on the water.

Finding a spot along the path from the beach we provided raging cheers to the athletes they ran past to the change tents. Dee had an excellent time of 1:12.

With the cyclists on their 112 mile trek, we headed out to meet them at the 80 mile mark where it is said the real race begins. There out on a lonely stretch of the road, we setup posters, chalked the road, and cheered each rider as they passed. The expression and reaction to the cheers were heart felt gratification.

Back at the Ironman Village, the runners were completing the final leg of the 26.4 mile marathon. The gNAC support team was again pumped spirit into the runners. But as night fell, the runners had to navigate the course in the dark.

At about 10:00pm, Ashley and I ventured out onto the course on our bikes looking for Dee. I found her with about 7 miles to go. Still slugging her way though the dark, the spirit kept driving that which the body could not do. As we passed the aid stations, we got the volunteers to sing her Happy Birthday. This charged her spirits and to travel on.

As we approached the Village, the lights and cheers began to pump her up again and with reserve energy that not even Dee knew she possessed. At 16 hrs 20 minutes, she charged up the final hill to the Village and ran across the finish line to claiming her success on her 40th birthday.

Surrounded by her friends, Dee successed.

With a day of my own spiritual high and adrenalin…..I was inline first thing Sunday morning to mark my place for next year’s challenge. The 2200 opening filled within an hour.