My Favorite Sprint of The Year - Mad Dog

Before I start my report I wanted to share this honorable mention of Bigun on New Pro Triathlete Richard Armstrong's blog. I hope you check it out. Hope to see a really good season for him
Now, for the report....
It's time again...race report time. 4am always seems to arrive far too early for me. My sleep on race night is about the same as Non Existent. I am not sure why this happens. I know the alarm is set but it still seems like my brain is afraid to sleep because we might miss the early morning wake up call. So, instead of relishing a nice cozy, inviting night of sleep, I toss, turn, mull over events of the prior day or week and suffer through a night of insomnia. Bugger. I mean Buzzer. It sounded promptly at 4 am.
This race is my favorite Sprint of the season.

#1. It's a short race

#2. a nice expo tent set up

#3. a band

#4. beer

#5. pizza ( no shortage of pizza either), fruit, beans and rice and more.
(I actually only had 1/2 a banana and one slice)

#6. Daiquiri Deck across the street.

Parking is pretty easy and quick. Which was great because we were late getting to the race. The boys - Bigun and Lil' Clyde needed to get into transition, set up, get their chips and go to the library. Not the library where we parked, but the proverbial "Lose a Load" Library. Good thing they weighed Lil' Clyde in the day before because if he had been weighed in after his stop at the porta potty, he may no longer have been qualified to race as a Clydesdale. He weighed in at 201 on Saturday. Can you believe it? While the boys set up I set to looking for my fellow Tri Sherpas. Carrie, LC's wife was with me. We now needed to find Perez and Boo & Green Eyed Lady. I knew they were there because I saw Luke right away and Excel Man was in line at the Port=O-Let. Rob usually races on his own with no attending Sherpa.

Sherpas all grouped and ready with transition closing and our guys heading to the swim start. We set up base at the swim finish to be able to catch them on the way out of the water. This was a really exciting race for myself and Carrie because it was Lil' Clydes first Tri. Cowbells ringing and voices woohooing we set to cheering for the athletes as they emerged from the water. As we were ringing and shouting a fellow comes up from behind and taps us and asks if either of us are Bigun's wife. Crazy huh? Carrie was bell ringing as I was poised with my finger on the shutter button to catch our boys as they exit. When I turned to see who it was this young man introduces himself as Tyler. Oh! Jetpack! Nice to meet you. We start laughing because it was the cowbells that gave us away!!! He is such a nice guy!! Like me, he was armed with his camera and ready to catch his friends as they exited the water.

Cheering our guys as they came out of the water (Luke, Bigun, Lil' Clyde) Green Eyed Lady and I start to feel a little bit of a sick feeling - no Excel Man. Nada. Nowhere. We decide that we must have missed him. There was no commotion in the water with having to pull anyone out, he's simply as fast as I said and because he hovers 3 inches over the water- we never saw him. He must have blurred right past us. We start walking to catch our guys on the bikes...GEL is expressing concern. Rightly so, I was thinking it but didn't want to say it out loud and worry her more. Perez then lets us know, she saw him come out of the water and run by. PHEW!! Perez confirmed for us that he was such a blur she too almost missed him. Thank goodness.

4 Sherpas and Sherpa in training, Boo made our way to the bike route just shy of the bike finish line. We got to see Tyler again! Armed and ready to get some photos of his friends. Thank goodness! I was able to photo everyone on the bike except Bigun. I have about 5 shots of him dismounting while still flying past us and in each one, there are people standing in front of him. Rob and Excel Man are mere blurs, Lil' Clyde and Luke - Excellent bike shots of both of them. Everyone is doing great on their times and everyone is still looking strong. Including Lil' Clyde.

Cut to the run. Sherpas head over to finish line. Here I managed some really fun shots of everyone about to cross the finish line. Everyone but Rob. Rob came across as I was turned to congratulate Bigun on his race. I was bummed!

After everyone crossed the finish we took a few group shots, packed up and headed over to the Tent. We hung around while the guys waited to check their stats, changed and ate a little. Boo, myself and Green Eyed Lady went up to the front to enjoy the band. Boo was having a great time dancing to the tunes. After about an hour or hour and half we decided to head over to the Daiquiri Deck. It was about 10:45. They didn't open until noon. Bugger. New game plan...we find a restaurant over at St. John's pass that is open at 11. Scully's so off we go, to Scully's. 10 of us. Myself, Bigun, Excel Man, Green eyed Lady, Luke, Perez, Boo, Lil' Clyde, Carrie and Tyler. We missed Rob at lunch, he had a baseball game he had to get to for his kids. Scully's was a nice way to finish up the morning. The food was delicious, the Bloody Mary's divine and the company delightful. It was a good day at the Mad Dog.
On the way home Carrie and I conked out. Snoozed pretty much the whole ride home. Bigun and I hung out with Carrie and Lil'Clyde for a few minutes (they stayed over at our other friend Kojo's house). Said our goodbyes and came home. After arriving home, we pretty much did all of nothing for the remainder of the afternoon. It was nice.

I'm including some extra photos for your viewing pleasure....

Sunset at Clearwater Beach the night before The Mad Dog Tri












Perez and Boo running down the beach at 6am the morning of the race. It is still undecided if Boo is a Sherpa in training or a Triathlete in training.

Luke crossing the finish line with Boo

The band under the Expo/beer/Food tent

Boo dancing to the music...

Jetpack cruising the Expo