IronMan at the Redneck Riviera

Oh where to begin. Tough one, well the very beginning is too far in to the past, you know, packing the bags, packing Betty Lou with all of our weekend worldly belongings. That kind of stuff.
We finally do get it all done and hit the road on Friday morning around 11 am. Not too bad. Our drive is about 6 and a half hours to Panama City. With the time change from eastern to slow (central) we make it to town at about 4:30 that afternoon. Land at the Hotel with out any hitches at all and check in. Now, the staff was very friendly, they were very helpful too. I should have had an idea however, of the rooms when we walked out of the lobby and to the elevators and had to make our way through a smog of cigarette smoke. Not pleasant at all. Open the door to our room... that's all I am going to say. Well, besides, ewwww. Really. Ewwww. My advice, if you plan on going to IMFL next year, you should book your hotel now. Better yet, book a condo with a few rooms and get some friends to share with. It'll be a lot of fun!!

Bigun and I settle into the room, change clothes, freshen our faces and throw on some deodorant before we head out the door for food, fun and beer with blogger buddies. Because everyone we know who isn't racing is volunteering(meaning they are attending Volunteer meetings) we decide to secure some seats at the Host Hotel's Bar. We figured it would be slammed with athletes who were staying at the hotel. Imagine our surprise when we walked in and virtually had our choice of any seat n the place. Okay. We're ahead of the crowd. What a streak of wonderful luck for the Biguns!! Woo Hoo. We are SO scoring. NOT. On our way in to town I had spoken with IronJenny, IronTriTim, TriFeist and Taconite Boy. Everyone was eating dinner early. Before we were going to be there. So, we decided to play catch up and grab a meal there at the bar. The menu didn't look too bad. WARNING: Do not eat at THE CARIBOU CAFE at The Boardwalk Hotel. WARNING: Do not try to DRINK at THE CARIBOU CAFE at The Boardwalk Hotel. Just. Don't. Do. It. Don't. Don't Don't. After a weekend at PCB we have all come to the conclusion that it is owned by Miller and Budweiser. Try to get another kind of beer there and they look at you like you have two heads. Two Heads. I swear it's true. Other than that, this weekend, was stellar. Remember - DAYS INN, CARIBOU CAFE - Don't. Do. It. You'll thank me later.

So, we hang out at the Cafe and folks start to filter in. We see Taconite Boy and TriMama wander in. It was great to finally see them live and in person. Tac already had a beer in his hand and TriMama was packing her chainsaw, ready to show Bigun just what "Long Division" was really about. Next in we saw TriFeist and her hubby Joe, followed closely by IronJenny and her entire entourage. There was Nick, Robert, IronGirlNyhus...soon or right at the same time came Lana, Michele (one L), and Lana's sister Holly, IronTriTim (Tim just started blogging today - go give him some blogger love!!)and his lovely wife Gemma... We had the makings of a party!!! Man oh man. We were going to ROCK this town to the ground!!!!!!! Then, it was 8:30 or so and all of the athletes left. Yes, they were all mumbling something about an early day or something. WTF? You would think they were facing a 3 something mile swim, a 112 something mile bike and a marathon the next day. Oh. Wait. They were facing that. Okay, so they had to hit the hay. Tac and TriMama stayed to play as well as the three party girls from Tennessee, Lana, Michele and Holly.
The first picture up above is Left to Right is Bigun, Taconite Boy, TriMama, Lana, Michele, TriFeist (front) Holly (back)

Next picture is Michele, Lana,Tac, TriMama IronJenny, in front Of IJ is IronGirlNyhus, TriFeist, Di and Bigun.

This lovely couple is IronTriTim and his wife Gemma. They just found out that they are expecting twins!!! Cheers for The Davies!!!

Everyone ditched the Caribou and those of us left over headed to Hooters. Now we could party. PCB ain't never seen partying like this before. We all ordered our big fat plates of greasy wings, fries, fried pickles and beer and we were having a great time!!! What time does this town shut down any way? Cause we can take it into the wee hours of the morning. Laugh with me now everyone. Laugh with me. We were so tired. We were all facing an early morning too. Tac and TriMama were volunteering as Peelers aka Strippers (can't say that with out smiling) and our lovely Tennessee Crew were volunteering at the starting line.. We left Hooters around 10. Yep. 10 pm. Good God we are old. I was sawing me some ZZZ's the second my head hit the pillow!Thank goodness Hooters was next door to our Hotel. I don't think we could have made it 3 miles further. lol

4:30 the alarm goes off. Turn on the shower and mentally prepare for a day of cheering and sherpa'ing. It's tough work I tell ya (do you hear the theme to rocky playing in the background of the running shower?). Oh yeah. This is The Day of Days. 6 am we're ready to go. Knock on the door of Tac and TriMama and we meander on down to the starting line - actually we drove but meander sounds so much more...I don't know, meandering...? I have to say, as a spectator, it didn't seem any different at the IM than it seems at St. Anthony's, Disney or Miami Man. Really no visible difference at all. Until we arrived at the beach. That is when It hit me. You know the "It" I'm talking about. IronMan. This wasn't just any race. This was IronMan Florida. The swim start was like a swirl of kinetic energy. Spectators were standing in the water to film/ photograph/ watch the swim start. Oh. I forgot. I live in Florida. It was 80 degrees when I left Tampa. Just in case it cooled down a little, I packed a sweater. Cooled down? It did. It was down to 63 degrees!!!! It was friggin FREEZING out there!!! I wore a sweater with my shorts. Yes, I did. So, back to these insane people who were standing in the water and they weren't swimming in the IronMan. Ka.Ray.Zeee. Insane.

The gun went off and off went the athletes. It was an incredible sight to see. I know many of you know what I am talking about. You've been there. You've seen it. A massive surge of capped heads swathed in black rubber. Amazing. There are no pictures that can truly capture the sight. I did my best but these shots are found lacking. If you have not been to an actual IronMan, you have to make it a point to go. Those of you who were in that massive surge of bodies, it's a different animal for you. Finding your way to your stroke amongst all of those people. I simply cannot fathom let alone imagine it. I bow to you.

Taconite Boy and TriMama were told the night before that there were plenty of strippers and that they should lend their aid at a different station. Huh? What was that? Sorry. Didn't hear you. I think you were mumbling. Least that's the story we're tellin' and we are stickin' to it. Tac and TriMama WERE the Strippers. When all of the peeling action started to turn into a sea of confusion they took charge. They looked like Veteran Traffic Cops out there!! Not only were they peeling here and peeling there they kept all of the incoming going to the next available station of peelers!! I am telling you, those two put on their work hats Saturday morning. I am going to show you more than one shot because, I couldn't stop photographing them!!

I even caught Taconite Boy trying to squeeze in a little extra curricular too!! Uh Huh. Oh yes. Say it Baby...

"Who's your Daddy?!?!?"

After the bulk of the athletes finished with the swim Bigun and Taconite Boy headed to the car to get their wet suits. TriMama stayed with me to help cheer in the last 5 or 6 swimmers. While we were waiting we saw them bring in a woman on a ski do. She was draped over the board they tow people in on. A near tragedy was averted because -as we heard one of the IM officials say- they had the best teams out there. We were all so very, very thankful for her survival. We were able to cheer in the final person who made the cut off time. We also cheered in the last swimmer who unfortunately, didn't make cut off but he sure did put his all into trying. There were many Iron Hearts out there.

Lana, Michele, TriMama, Bigun and Tac all donned their wetsuits and dived into the Gulf. Did I mention, it was cold there? It was. They swam down to the spot Bigun had sited earlier with a jog up the beach. A jog in hard packed, wet sand on a 45 degree slope. Wonder why his knee was bothering him. Maybe it was the swim. Taconite Boy is quickety split in the water! He left all the girls behind. Try as he might, Bigun couldn't catch up. Oh, did I mention, Bigun was swimming with the girls. TriMama did a ninja move in the water to avoid a jelly fish and twisted her knee again. After the fun was had by all swimmers we parted ways with The Tennessee Crew and headed to the pool at The Boardwalk. They had an out side Bar and cafe. Beer was ordered and munchies were wrangled. After the hunger was put back to bed we found lounge chairs and joined Tac in his beer drinking.

It started to get breezy and the chill was back in the air around 1:30 or so, so we called it a day for the pool and left to go out and cheer for our friends out on the course. Walked around a bit and found a fellow blogger peep IronGirlNyhus, her main squeeze, Greg, her mom, Betty, a few other friends of theirs and proceeded to yell, ring cowbell, clap and yell. Time went by and before we knew it, it was almost 5 pm. GreenEyedLady and ExcelMan were expected momentarily. I was getting grumpy. My food intake at lunch was not holding out as long as I had hoped it would. My sugar was plummetting and we needed food fast. Thankfully, we were right across the street from Guadaljara's. Yumm Yumm Yumm. This was not only GOOD Mexican Food, It was GOOOOOD!!! Taconite Boy and TriMama had eaten there last year so we took them up on their suggestion. GEL, ExcelMan, Tac, TriMama, Bigun and myself had the best meal of the weekend that night. I highly recommend it. If you ever go to PCB visit this restaurant. It's on the corner of Joan and Thomas. Way yummy!!

After dinner we went back to our cheering spot. We saw IronJenny twice. She even stopped for hugs and a little chit chat. TriFeist came by - she looked so strong!!! She said "See you at the finish in 2 hours!" How awesome!! We saw a lot of Gear West Teammates and cheered loudly for them. There were some Ortho blokes and sheilas out there too! We Cheered! This is where confession time arrives. I want to tell all of you that we stayed and cheered the very last competitor over the finish line. We screamed and yelled and rang cowbell. We jumped up and down and clapped and just couldn't stop. Truth is, we didn't. We were so tired. It had been an uber long day and none of us got any rest. After dinner, the air was even colder than it had been that morning. We trudged our way back to the car to call it a day. We clapped and cheered and offered our heartfelt encouragement to those who ran past us. We even walked to the finish line, but we were smoked. So, we decided we would try to warm up with a little alcohol at the Boardwalk Bar. Tac needed more beer. Our group had dwindled to Green Eyed Lady, ExcelMan, Bigun, me, Tac and Trimama. Tac nodded off at the table...

At that point we walked back the way we had come and slid into the soft seats of the rental car. Back at the Hotel, our heads hit the pillow and it was lights out. I attempted to blog but awoke with a start with my laptop on my knees when it finally logged on. So much for that idea. I was barely awake when the phone rang. My heart leaped when I saw on my caller ID that it was IronJenny! Oh, I was so happy to hear from her!! We saw her quite a few times out on the course and she looked so awesome!!! She ROCKED THE SHIT (pardon me but it's the appropriate use of terms in this case) out of that Friggin course!!! OMGosh!! I just love her so much! She told me she was okay, but she was SO done with IronMan. I got a very brief recap from her and then she was headed to sleep. She really is an IronMan, from the inside out. Time to sleep. Lets see what Sunday brings...

blogger is giving me fits, so please overlook any typos etc...I'll fix them later.