The Great Floridian - A Sherpa's Recap

Last Saturday was The Great Flordian Tri. It takes place in Clermont, FL. Clermont boasts that they are THE Tri Mecca. We saw some familiar faces and some new faces too. We started our weekend on a pretty sour note. Bigun, or should I say my Tri Dummy...wait, that moniker has already been taken.

Okay, Big Dumb Husband (wink wink Honey) took his School Bus into the LBS for some work. 2 days before the race. Count 'em, 2 days. HELLO!!!!! Cut to the Day before the race... Normally the bike shop opens at 9 am. I left the house that morning around 7:30 am because I had an early morning appointment with a client. We were supposed to be leaving at 10:30 to head up to the cabin. I finished and was back home at about 10 am. There's Bigun, at home, no School Bus. Hmmmm. Bike shop isn't open. Well bike shop has possession of the Bus. Uh huh. Oh yeah. You see where this is going already don't you?

Remember, we were supposed to leave at 10:30 am and head to the cabin. Green Eyed Lady and ExcelMan had reserved a cabin in Clermont for the weekend. We were their invited guests and the plan was to meet up with them at 10:30 to head out. So, I call GEL and explained the situation. Bigun's bike is still at LBS and no one has arrived to open up -it's 10:30. Bigun drives back to LBS (3rd time now) to see if anyone is there yet.

My phone rings that cute ring tone that I have reserved especially for my Honey. He tells me that the LBS is open now but his bike is in pieces. We are looking at another hour and half of work before he can take the bike. Okay, 12:00 is alright, we can still make the 2pm meeting. GEL and I are planning a day of kayaking while the boys are running around the expo, dropping their gear and attending the meeting. We were looking at a really fun, fun weekend.

12:00 comes and goes. So does 1:30. and 2:30. 2:45. OMG we get the call. The Bus is ready. So, we get to the LBS Muy Pronto - it's less than 5 minutes from our house. Bigun pays for the repairs, we load it up and head to Clermont. Crossing our fingers that the Bus is in excellent working condition. Arrival time in Clermont is now 5 hours later than planned. GEL and ExcelMan were very gracious. GEL and I were not able to go kayaking because of the late hour and the combined downpour of rain. Yahoo!! This didn't bother us really. We were determined that the Bus fiasco wouldn't ruin our weekend. So, GEL and I set out solving some NY Times crossword puzzles. Solving crosswords from the NY Times is hard work so we decided to seek assistance with some Vino. You know how wine adds mental acuity where previously there was little. A bottle and a half later... Evening takes over day and it's time to think about Dinner. GEL and I were unaffected by the wine. That's right, we are ALWAYS giddy and happy. Oh. Right. Dinner.

Excelman's parents were in town for the race too. They had their RV at a campground in the same park we were staying at. They joined us for dinner at a place called Bruno's.

We had such a good time. The food was good, the wine was good and the company was full of good humor and cheer. Did I happen to mention that Kenny from Southpark, joined us for dinner too? Half way through dinner a fellow walks over and hands ExcelMan a balloon Kenny (from southpark). This fellow had overheard one of our funny conversations where ExcelMan had referenced Kenny. In good humor the balloon guy made an actual Kenny out of Balloons!! Yes, I have proof.

GEL in the mean time sees a baseball cap perched on top of a bottle of wine on the counter at Bruno's. She loves the hat. In usual GEL manner she approaches Bruno and asks if the hat is for sale (you never know if you don't ask right?) Bruno denies Gel the hat. Basically told her to go find her own hat. lol In a much nicer, flirty, Older, Italian Man way. That big buy in the black, that's Bruno. He's telling GEL where to go, the other guy, he's the ballon guy and he's telling GEL 'grab the hat while he's not looking..." The rest of us... we are beatin' feet to the door. Bruno is bigger than Bigun.

Back to the cabin we go. Another puzzle gets knocked out (sorta)... The boys have to get up early so we all decide it's lights out time, we'll see everyone in the morning. Cut to 4:30 am. Bigun and ExcelMan gather their things and head over to the race to set up. GEL and I stay snug under the covers, afterall we don't need to be there until 7:30. 6am. Miss Sunshine 'n Happy Voice knock on my door. "RISE AND SHINE, IT'S 6 AM" Okay. OKAY. lol, those of you who know me, you know....before coffee, please speak in a whisper if you can. Give my brain time to warm up before expecting coherent thoughts from me. GEL starts laughing, looks at me and says, "Should I be a little quieter?" LOL "Uh. Yeah." I croak. Guess what. No. Coffee. Anywhere in the cabin. None. Nada. OMG. SHIT. How am I going to make it? Crap. I buck up, get dressed and out the door we go. GEL and I zip over to the campground to pick up Russ and Betty (ExcelMan's parents).

As we make our way around the areas for car parking we quickly discover, there isn't any. Every available space is taken. It took us less than 15 minutes to get to the race site and almost 40 minutes to find a place to park. Oh. Did I mention that it has steadily been POURING DOWN RAIN?!?!?! Not a big deal. Really. Finally I find a place where I feel comfortable enough to invent a parking space. We trudge up the hill with umbrellas in hand and head towards the race site. We missed the boys swim start by seconds. Not a big deal really. We are standing where they come out of the water and we wait. Now, keep in mind, it's rainy and we didn't bring any jackets. I didn't bring my camera down to the race site either because I didn't want to subject it to the weather. Luckily ExcelMan's Dad, Russ brought his camera. He got shots of the boys coming out of the water. He doesn't use digital though so we'll have to wait for the hard copies to come in the mail.

GEL and I are wet and freezing. Decision is made to go back to the cabin for jackets. My head is pounding the way it would if a 2 ton elephant had used it for an ottoman. Ouch. Coffee. Please. Finally, a RaceTrac. They have coffee, hot cocoa, tylenol and bathrooms. RaceTrac is a coffee junkie's heaven. The day is looking better. The hot beverages helped us to shake off the chills. We decide rather than drive all the way back to the cabin for a jacket, lets run to Target and pick up a sweater. It'll be faster. Laugh with me now. Two women, in a store, looking for a sweater or jacket. Pretty quick right? No. Finally, we decide on sweaters. Identical sweaters. Yes, I know, if we were guys you would call us gay. But we're not, we're girls and we have the bras to prove it. So, instead of Gay we look Adorable. Seriously. What? We do. WE. DO.

Okay - so we don't look as cute and cozy as this couple do...

Back to trying to park again....woohooo we actually find a space just down from Betty Lou. The guys drove Betty Lou to the race because we girls needed the Honda so Russ and Betty could ride with us. There we are. Walking back to the race site, in our matching sweaters. We look HAWT. We were hot. The rain had stopped and the warm air was hitting us. It was hot out. And Humid. Who cares. We were going to have fun. Now we have our matching sweaters, the chairs, our cooler, the camera bag and umbrellas. We are ready for a day of cheering. As we are walking into the Park, we notice they are letting people park on site now. Cool. GEL and I go down, set everything up for Russ and Betty's comfortable viewing of the bike portion and head back to our cars. We moved Betty Lou and The Honda down to the race site. Wow, what a lucky break. Now, when the race is over, the boys won't have to walk 20 minutes back to the cars with all of their gear.

Returning to where we left Russ and Betty GEL and I set up to watch the bike portion of the race. We are about 50 yards from T2. We are cheering for all who pass us. There were some nice bikes at this race. Really nice. Thankfully this race isn't a sprint. We get to see ExcelMan and Bigun coming in off the bike portion of the race and get a ton of great pictures.

I got a picture of Rocky.... the Bird, not the Racoon.

And another picture of Rocky (click on the photos for a better view)

some pretty butterfly pictures

Oh. Right. The reason we are at the race...here's ExcelMan getting ready to dismount at T2

Here's Bigun ready for T2 as he hits the last curve on the bike.

After our guys hit T2 we decide to find a good spot where we can watch them on the run course. Our goal was to be able to see them more than once. We found choice real estate for this. At one point the athletes have to loop around before they run the course around the lake. We clapped and cheered (notice, no cow bells are mentioned - Bigun did the packing for this race, that's all I'm going to say).

Bigun's Mom and his sister Allison joined us for the running part of the race. We were all having a good time. I know Bigun told you there wasn't much spectator support here. He was right. We tried to make up for it and cheered on as many people as we could. After the guys looped past us we moved another 50 yards to position ourselves closer to the finish line. This is where our cheering abilities really increased. A lot of people were feeling the bite of the race at this point. Some were taking to walking. Well, this is not acceptable, they needed a cheering squad to get them running over the finish. We did our best. It was awesome to see the gratitude on the faces of the athletes. I only got "The Finger" once I think. Not bad. Most everyone who went past us said "thank you". Glad we could help. ExcelMan joined us for cheering after he finished. He helped us to cheer Bigun in too. What a fun day it turned out to be.

Bigun's Mom and his sister had to leave so we said our goodbyes and meandered our way over to the cars. The guys went and packed up their stuff. They wanted to get to the cabin, clean up and head back to the finish line to cheer in the Ironman distance athletes. That was the plan anyway.

Back at the cabin, we all shower and get dressed and realize, heading back to the race wasn't going to happen. The guys were exhausted. We found a place for dinner, ate and went back to to the cabin to go to bed. The awards ceremony was the next day. As we were headed back to the cabin we witnessed an incredible sunset on the lake where the cabin was perched.

At the awards luncheon on Sunday, both ExcelMan and Bigun had a little hardware coming their way. After awards were handed out we all said our goodbyes and headed back home.

It was a great weekend. We had such a nice time and enjoyed ourselves immensely. No Bus fiasco or rain got in the way. Good laughs and good company were enjoyed by all. I am looking forward to IMFL and cheering on all of our friends who will be there. In addition I am looking forward to a few cocktails with everyone too. Until next week, have a great day every day.

Di