Cocktail of the Hour

Some of you out there may already know about this. For those of you who don't....

Mix this

with this

Here is how it's done, sip a little off the top of the Corona so that the neck is clear of beer. Then, tip the Bacardi O and pour it in to top off the Corona. Place thumb tightly over opening, turn upside down to mix. Place upright, slowly remove thumb. Enjoy. Yumma yumma.

If you don't think you'd like the fresh taste of orange try this instead....

Mix one of these

With This. Same directions as used for the Bacardi O just substitute Absolut Citron. Both drinks are light and refreshing. For less calories, substitute with Corona Light.


This is a great Sherpa beverage. Minimal ingredients and no manual mixing. Use it for your own enjoyment but please share with your athlete post race.

You Decided

Sorry about torturing you with a vote. The Shirt company will do black or white for your shirts, we have reached a quantity that will allow a combo of the two colors!!! YAY!!


here are the samples for the shirts.

Here is who I have so far for shirts-----------

Tea - total of 3 Sherpa black
Blink -total of 3 Sherpa Black
JohnnyTri -total of 4 no sherpa black
Iron Eric -total of 2 no sherpa -waiting for color
Duane -total of 2 sherpa -black
GEL -total of 1 no sherpa white
IronJenny -total of 1 sherpa black
SWTriGirl -total of 2 one sherpa one no sherpa
BigMike -total of 1 no sherpa white
Dan Seifring - total of 1 sherpa white
IronTriTim -total 1 sherpa white


I know that there are others who wish to order- please email me at Art2Di4@aol.com with your qty, size and color. The shirts are $21 each (we didn't reach the next discount level) plus $5.00 for shipping. The $5.00 Shipping will cover up to 4 shirts. I will send you an email with my mailing address. I believe we have a paypal account too, I have to check, only thing is, with paypal there may be addl. fees. These shirts are quoted at rock bottom cost. Honest to goodness.

Thanks for everyone's support!! I love you guys!!!
Di

Great Clermont

First of all let me start by saying....lucky we made it to Clermont. Okay, TriDogmom and Momo, I know you both know what I am about to discuss. Pre-pre race night partying. WooHooo. Wow. I know Momo and TriDogmom are both table dancers when they drink...or so it has been assumed. (JUST KIDDING!!!LOL) I didn't do any table dancing pre -pre race night but i did do a little "cage" dancing. Yep. Girls' night out and the scotch was flowing... and flowing... I am 99% sure I had a great time. At least my girlfriends are saying I did! I believe them.


So, needless to say, after getting home at 4 am on the day before the race, I kind of took my time getting ready to head to Clermont the day before the race. I was draggin' ass to say the least. I didn't have what you would traditionally call a hangover, I was just tired. WAAAAAAAYYYYY tired. Finally though, after Bigun had BettyLou all packed up and ready to go I figured i should get my fanny in gear and get packed for our overnight stay in Clermont. Geez Louise. How do you pack for only one day?!?!? I don't know!!! Shouldn't someone, a woman in the know, give classes for that? I packed enough clothes for three days. You know, just in case. Hell, it was supposed to rain on race day. What would I do if I got totally wet while watching the race and then wanted to go somewhere afterwards? AND if we did go somewhere else, what did I want to wear? These are all important points when a woman packs an overnighter. Right? Finally, I get packed, enough for three days, throw the bag in BettyLou and we hit the road.


By the time we get on the road it's pretty obvious we'll roll into Clermont around dinner time. Bigun and I are pretty hungry. Afterall, I was too sleepy to bother eating all day Saturday and Bigun, well, I don't remember why he didn't take a break to eat, I was busy. Sleeping. We call GreenEyedLady and ExcelMan to find out their plan. After much deliberating we decide to all meet at the Italian restaurant we enjoy, Bruno's. It's good eats and it's on the way. It's all good.
Dinner is fun, GEL drinks, and drinks, and drinks and well, you get the picture. Okay, I am exaggerating, I just didn't want you to think I was the only one of the group that liked to drink. So, GEL had two glasses of wine. I stayed with water. After the night before, it was a wise choice, hydration and all that.

Finally we make it to our Hotel. If any of you ever stay over in Clermont, stay at the Fairfield Inn. It was really nice. Bigun and i had a super room!! Fantastical as a matter of fact. Supercalifrag...wait, that's a movie I saw. Never mind that train of thought. So, we're checked in and all comfy and finally decide to crash for the night.
Because we are so close to the race site I don't have to get up at O'Dark:thirty with Bigun. He and ExcelMan head out to the race site sans myself and GEL. Wow, who would have ever thought that sleeping in means getting up at 6:30am? That's what I did though, I slept in until 6:30 race day. UN. BE. LEEEEV. ABLE. Truly. Loved it.


After getting a coffee, checking out the breakfast line, drinking some orange juice, chatting about plastic bottle vs wax carton....we head over to the starting line. Parking for a change was actually pretty easy. Even though we didn't arrive until 5 minutes after the first wave. Whoops. GreenEyedLady and I were having a nice leisurely stroll down to the beach. I notice all the women lined up waiting for their start. So I start yelling, really yelling, "CINDY!!!", "CINDY JO!!!", "ANYONE HERE NAMED CINDY JOVANAVICH?!?!?!?" Everyone is turning and staring but no one is raising their hand. I am yelling to a line of blank faced chicas. Nothin. Finally one girl turns and asks.."What does she look like?" my answer..."I don't know." now, just imagine this, an entire line of women staring at you like you have 2 heads. That's what happened. I almost started to put that second head in my hat. Jeez. So, I proceed to say" She's one of my creepy internet friends." The entire group just about fell on the ground laughing. They wished me luck and then the gun went off and they hit the water. I didn't find Cindy Jo until much, much later.

In the mean time GEL and I wait for our guys to come out of the water. Bigun's wave went off first, 5 minutes later, ExcelMan's wave and 5 minutes after him, the women. So, GEL and I are waiting, and we're cheering. Then we cheer some more and wait some more. After a bit GEL and I look at each other. We don't say anything but we are both beginning to think the same thing..."Where are they?" Then, we see the first woman come out of the water. Our guys, both of them, just got chicked, Majorly, in the water. Still, no Bigun and no ExcelMan. We start to worry. Ofcourse, we had no knowledge of the 2 egg mcmuffins that were scarfed down. Finally, huge sigh of relief, ExcelMan comes out of the water. Phew!!! Thank Goodness. Wait, he took off AFTER Bigun. Crap. Worried again. A couple of mintes go by and then we see Bigun making his way on shore. THANK YOU JESUS!!! We crossed ourselves, said a few Hail Mary's, snapped some pictures and hit the path for the bike ride. It was all good.


This race is always a good race to go to. I like it alot. Fred Sommer and his crew do a really, really nice job. GEL and I settle in our chairs on the bike route and commence to more cheering. This is where I dropped the ball. In my foggy stupor of psuedo hangover the day before, I forgot to pack the booze for the race. No. Bloody. Marys. I know. I. Suck. Moving along...
The guys do great on the bike portion. Their timing was right, we cheered, whistled, clapped, etc. (I don't actually know how to whistle but I always imagine myself whistling). It's cowbell time on the run portion. After staking out a great spot just this side of the finish line we start ringing. It's funny how when we start off with the cowbells there are all sorts of people around us. 5 minutes later, not so many. When we start ringing cowbell, we can clear a spot at the finish line faster than a bad case of IBS. We raucously cheered everyone in over the finish line. It was a lot of fun. Not only did we get to cheer in our guys, we also were able to cheer in first time Triathloner John, our blogger peep Moonpie, and blogger peep Cindy Jo. It was fun. Except for the big emptiness left by the lack of Bloody Mary's it was a great time. Swear.

Sommer Sports always has a pretty good post race spread. This past Sunday was no exception. As a Sherpa however, I don't partake in the post race food. I would hate to have an athlete miss out on a plate of much needed nourishment because of me. As I told Moonpie, sometimes I will pilfer a banana or a bottle of water but otherwise, I don't eat the Athletes' food. Wait, unless there are cookies. I will snag a cookie, or two. On occasion. So, it's lunch time for us. Outback is sounding really good and especially fulfilling in the beer department. An added bonus is that it was Happy Hour. 2 for 1. We could drink all day. Until 7 pm atleast. That's when Happy Hour was over.


Gel, Excelman, Bigun and myself all enjoyed a really good lunch. With beer. Moonpie and Cindy Jo were held up at the race but they joined us later. Because of their time schedule GEL and ExcelMan had to leave but the four of us, Bigun, myself, Moonpie and Cindy Jo enjoyed a few hours at the bar laughing and having a good time. We may have even buzz texted TriRob a little bit. Can't really call it drunk dialing like we did to 21CM at IMFL because we weren't yet drunk and we were texting, not dialing. Poor TriRob...lol we are all still laughing pretty hearty about it.


BTW, did I mention that the West Point Triathlon Team cleaned up at this race? They did. Here's a shot of a few of their team members. These guys will be America's future leaders folks. Sharp. Easy on the eyes too!!

Any Time at All

All ya gotta do is call, and I'll be there....

Sunday morning, November 4th. Bigun heads out for a run, I snuggle back under the covers. It's 7 am. I'm on vacation.

7:28 am. Phone rings, it's IronJenny. "Di, Waffle House. Breakfast. Get there." I question which Waffle House, determine location and agree, "Bigun will be back in 30, we'll see you there". I in turn call GreenEyedLady. I know she is in her room, alone - on the morning of her Birthday- because ExcelMan is in the line to get a slot for IMFL 2008. After a really horrible rendition of Happy Birthday, she clears her ear and says she too can be ready in 30. IronJenny had already called Tac and TriMama - we would see them there!

When Bigun gets back, it's takes him a little longer than 10 seconds to get ready to go... he's such a primadonna!

By the time we arrive at the Waffle House, everyone has consumed their breakfast and are heading out the door. We missed it. Darn it. No worries, they are all headed over to the Registration site for IMFL 2008. Even Ms. Athena Extraordinaire (you know the one...the one who called me last night and said - and I quote - "I am SO DONE with IronMan"). lol. Bigun, GEL and myself figure we have plenty of time to enjoy breakfast while they are standing around in the chilly PCB morning air waiting to put their names down and to fork over ungodly amounts of money to be tortured for a day by a group of IM organizers they don't even know. Okay. No worries. We'll see you all at the pool after breakfast.

After a torturous ride in the car GreenEyedLady is relieved that Bigun and I can finally decide on a place to eat. Half of the places listed, we went to, they were gone. Disappeared. No longer in existence. Beach towns. We would have eaten at the Waffle House but the line was wrapped around the building and we were hungry. Oh well.

Lovely Birthday breakfast was consumed and back to our charming, well kept, non rusty toilet paper holder rooms we went. A girl can dream, can't she?(remember the "eeeeeewwww" from my previous post) lol ExcelMan arrives at the Hotel moments before we do. We see him briefly in the lobby, congratulate him on signing up for IMFl '08 and chat briefly about the day ahead. We really really really want to talk them into staying one more day, but alas, they're responsible grown ups (something Bigun and I are unfamiliar with) and explain, they really must get back to Tampa that day. We have been invited to Brunch at TriFeist's and discuss meeting up there. GEL and ExcelMan explain, they really must get back, they'll go by and congratulate Trifeist a little early and then hit the road south. Hug hug, kiss kiss...you know.

Bigun and I point BettyLou in the direction of the Boardwalk Hotel and head over for early morning cocktails, poolside. the gang is all ready kicking it up at the pool. TriMama, Tac, IronJenny, IronGirlNyhus, IronGreg, IronRob, IronNick...man, it was virtually a Who's Who at the pool. Bigun has the video camera out and it's rolling. I have NEVER met a bigger bunch of camera hounds in my life!! They were ALL mackin' for time on the Bigun Video!!! Tac, he's really diggin it. IronJenny, well, lets just say, she may soon have a place in the Halls of Video History. IronGirlNyhus....total camera Hawg. Total!! LOL Just kidding!! Sort of, a little. It was so much fun, it really was.

We parted ways for a little while and drove over to Shores of Panama for a celebratory brunch with TriFeist and her hubby Joe. We met some MORE new people there! Good food (the BEST spinach quiche I have ever had), excellent Champagne and wonderful company!! I met TriAndBeHappy along with several of their friends. It was a really good time!

Cut to the pool - suits donned. Oh - did I tell you that IronJenny was walking around introducing her new friend to everyone? This is Wilma

We laughed, we drinked, we laughed, we drinked some more. Uh, I mean, we drank....I must still be buzzed!! TriMama didn't know her drink was gone...

The day was enjoyed by all. One of the best parts of the weekend - we all went out to the water line to watch an amazing sunset. Amazing.

Then we all changed out of our suits and headed over the Caribou Cafe to finish watching the game between the Patriots and the Colts. A couple of Bostonians joined us for the game. It was a really good time. Don't get me wrong, I like the Patriots, I do. But. Tony Dungy is the Colts' Coach. I'll take Tony. Too bad it wasn't in the cards for them last Sunday. We checked the time and decided we needed to be getting to the awards ceremony to watch our friends receive their beautiful Plaques!! Lots and lots of pictures. Iron Jenny placed first for Athenas. She is now 2 years running Athena Champion!! The night was not over.

Coyote Ugly had a few barstools waiting with our names on them. We arrive - guess what. Remember the beer situation we told you about - the lack of. It wasn't any different at Coyote Ugly!!! OMG. We were in the land of bad/no beer!! It was a black vortex and we had been sucked down into it! Kicking and screaming was of no help. No beer of any distinction ever magically appeared over the whole weekend. ARGH. We made the most of it. TriMama and I had already set our spokes spinning with some Tequila Shots at the Caribou Cafe. My philosophy, when all else fails, Tequila will solve the problem. Actually, I think Tequila solves all of the world problems for a few hours. It just doesn't matter where you are - black hole or PCB. lol A good time was had, that's what matters. IronJenny came in to join me, Bigun, Tac and TriMama at Coyote Ugly. Man - talk about CELEBRITY. IronJenny was the talk of the bar!! Everyone wanted to touch her plaque!! We even got a free round of beer...well, you know what I mean. She was HAWT!! Everyone wanted to touch her running suit! Everyone. Did the Bartenders dance on the bar for her too? Oh, wait, no. That was that guy who kept touching her plaque.
Everyone knows - no night out at a bar is complete without a follow up at The Waffle House. We did. I don't even know what time it was. Felt like midnight, it was probably only 8 pm. Time took a different turn on the clock that weekend. I never knew what time it REALLY was. I laughed so hard all weekend. And laughed and laughed.... Oh my gosh - to quote Tac " I just love my creepy internet friends!" I just love them!!!! Here I go, I am getting all misty eyed just thinking about it!

After our late evening breakfast we decided to call it a night and went back to the POSH Days Inn. I was out in seconds. Oh. Wait. No I wasn't. Nevermind.

The next morning Tac calls. He and TriMama know of a great little coffee shop - Java Joey's or something like that. LOL I think I have totally butchered the name. We meet up there with IronTriTim and Gemma, IronJenny, IronNick, IronGirlNyhus, IronGreg...wait, do you see a theme going on here...? Anyway, we fill the coffee house with all of our peeps and begin the massive download exchange onto everyone's laptops! It was hysterical. There were 10 different conversations going on all at once and we were each a part of all 10!! It was an early morning coffee party!! After about 2 hours, everyone started looking at their watches and decided it was time to get to their prospective hotels for the 11 o'clock checkout times. IronTriTim and Gemma had a long drive ahead to Chicago and had already packed up and checked out. We hugged, said our good byes to all and laughed heartily about our next meet ups. We are already anticipating the fun to be had.

Bags packed, check out at the desk and Bigun and I sigh sadly as we get ready for BettyLou to transport us back home. Back to IRL - In Real Life.

All ya gotta do is call....I love you guys.

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.

IMFL - We are Here...

Can't wait to tell everyone what a great weekend it has been!!! Our friends - ROCKED the course!!
We'll share more later, right now, there are some Bloody Marys and Captain Morgan waiting anxiously for consumption...

Stay Tuned!!

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