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.

Extra Extra - Behind the scenes

The Pro start

Eye in The Sky

Ortho Bloke - friend of IronGirlNyhus













Tac before attending to his Stripper Duties












An IronMan Sunrise












Above the IronMan Beach

























Another IronMan











Still watching...













IronTriMama - getting ready to strip...














TriMama in action- she made that wetsuit her bitch.






















IronMan IS a team sport...



















Okay - I know you've seen this one can we just say it one more time?

Who's your Daddy?!?!?














The Monarchs are on their migration south...






































After the swim
































The morning after...Who's in for IMFL '08?















IronJen





















IronRyan ...that's a bit of a tongue twister



















IronGirlNyhus


















TriMama












Tac and Bigun coming in after a swim













Got a little Captain? (sorry, Wilma was cropped out accidentally)





















































Yes folks, that there on the far right is our ELITE ATHENA IronJen collecting her beautiful award for 1st place Athena - 2nd year in a row!!




















A smacking good self portrait with a HAWT Mama!!
I think this was only minutes before we started drunk dialing...21CM - are you in?!?! LOL

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!!