Florida Race Report.

On May 12Th I started out early for my drive to Florida. Actually it was 8am. My plan was to make it to Macon Georgia for Thurs morning where I was going to visit my friend Ricky. I drove straight for 17 hours except to fill up with gas 3 times and made it to the outskirts of Macon by 1am Thurs morning where I pulled into a rest stop just outside of town and only 15 min from Ricky's house, but being so late I didn't want to show up at Ricky's house in the middle of the night even though he left a key to his house out for me, so I slept for 5 hours in the car. When I woke up I drove out to find Ricky's house. When I got to his house I found the key and let myself in, Ricky told me he would be at work and should be home by noon. I was still tired so I found the couch and laid down for some more sleep. I woke up when I heard the front door open, it was Ricky. I jumped up to greet him. We then talked a while then he took me out to lunch. After lunch we went back to his house and since he had no TV we decided to take in a movie and watched the new Ironman 2 movie, what else!?! lol

After the movie we went out for dinner to Longhorns restaurant where again Ricky treated me to some of the best Prime rib I've eaten in a long time. By the time we got home it was getting dark and since there was no TV to watch it was time to get some sleep as I was still tired from my long drive and Ricky being the gracious host who stayed up all day when he should have been sleeping working the midnight shift was tired to. I told Ricky I wanted to hit the road early as I was excited to get to the Florida 70.3 venue and check into my hotel, as well as there was suppose to be a space shuttle launch that I wanted to see live and in person.

Friday morning I got up at 6am to start my travels. Ricky woke to, to see me off and I thanked him for being such a good friend for letting me visit and being so gracious and generous to me, Thank you Ricky.


Me and Ricky in his living room and my bedroom. lol Actually the couch was very comfy.

It took me around 6 - 6 1/2 hours to get to my hotel, but my room wasn't ready yet so I went to fort Wilderness where the Florida 70.3 race takes place and went to registration to pick up my race packet.

The registration table..... also the same place where the awards presentation takes place.

I wondered around checking out the swim course....

After a few hours wondering around the expo I went to check into my hotel room. I was delighted with my room, it was a corner room on the ground floor. it was a very large room with comfy double beds. I quickly got organized and settled in then laid out my race packet to see what I got.

Not to shabby, a tec shirt and hat and a carry bag.

After I got settled I checked my face book status on my daughters computer which I borrowed and to my delight I got a message from Greg Guzman if I wanted to join him Jennifer, Katy and Jerry for dinner. So I did. I was the first there at the restaurant at Disney downtown so I waited outside on the patio pretending to be a tourist and snapped pictures of Katy and Jerry as they walked by me not recognizing me until I yelled at them and said " What! your not going to say hi! " lol Katy was quick to say she thought I was some strange tourist taking photos and was ignoring me. lol Greg and Jennifer showed up shortly after and we all sat and chatted and ate dinner.

Katy, Jerry, Jennifer and Greg with the kids in the back all busy watching Greg eat his fish. I had a pasta and chicken dish.

Group shot. ...

After dinner we all went to Greg's hotel room which was across from Disney world to take in the evening fire works over the Disney world castle which we could see over the water from outside his room directly behind Greg and Jennifer and her kid in this picture.....

Jerry and Greg in deep discussion about beer in his room before Fireworks, Katy listening intently.

The next morning was the famed pre-race pancake breakfast at Allen and Jenna's campsite at Fort Wilderness.

Jenna serving up pancakes, with Libby her daughter and Allen? ..well being Allen. lol

Good food and coffee brings on smiles.

A little later Debbie and her friend Jo showed up for pancakes after doing some volunteering at the Ironkids race.
Group shot of everyone.

While talking around the picnic table Katy makes a face and points to my neck telling me there is a huge Caterpillar crawling on me and I quickly brush it off, then a few minutes later I feel tingling down the back of my neck and front torso, so I excuse myself and go to the washroom, take my shirt off and find I'm welting up. I start washing my neck with soap and water which didn't help much but made me feel better. I get back to camp and show everyone. Jenna then tells me, ya we have poisonous caterpillars here. I asked her what to do? since she is a Doctor after all, and she asked if I'm have trouble breathing? I said no, then she told me to take some antihistamine and calamine lotion. At that time Allen handed me some lotion which helped with the burning and itching.

After the breakfast I realized I didn't have my race stickers on my bike? as my plan was to go and rack my bike and set up for the race.

When I got back to my hotel room I took some antihistamine and I had some pure Aloe lotion which I put on which helped the itching and burning right a way. I was worried that this might affect my race the next morning, but in the morning the Aloe lotion brought the welts, bumps and redness down, so it din't affect my race at all. I put my stickers on my bike and went back to the venue to rack and roll! lol I met up with everyone again and we were deciding to meet for dinner again. But as time was short some couldn't make it.

Picture of the reaction from the poison Caterpillar ( called a low moth caterpillar)

That evening ( saturday night) I met with Allen and Jenna for dinner and Megan who took the time to come an meet up with us. It was great to see her again! she was looking like a million bucks! Thanks for meeting us Megan.

After dinner we all went our seperate ways I went back to my hotel to perpare for my race. I went to bed by 9pm and was up at 3am.

Race morning started off nice and warm, it looked to be a great day. I set up my gear by my bike, checked my bike and laid out everything the way I like for a quick transition. After that, I went to the washroom where while waiting in line I met up with Kevin aka Lanceman! We didn't have a long chat as the line move quickly. I looked for Kevin after I did my business, but didn't see him again? Oh well it was nice to see him anyway.

I then went down to the swim start and watched the pros go off, I was in the 5th wave I think? I don't remember now. but before going off I did see Allen and wished him well.

The horn blows and away I went. I took the outside hoping to avoid all the bashing. I had a good start and was swimming away from everyone? I'm thinking whats going on? I'm not even pushing hard. i kept up my pace and rounded the far turn boy with a little congestion but was soon free to more open water. I finally reach shore and check my watch, 28 min, not bad? easy swim and I'm feeling fresh. I get into transition and change into my bike shorts pulling them over my bathing suit and put my shirt and helmet on then my shoes. I UN-rack my bike and run/walk it out of transition to the mount line and away I went.

It was already hot out and new I needed to start drinking, so I started sipping my orange G-aid.

I got my speed up to a comfortable speed got into areo and stayed there as long as I could manage. My back started hurting about 20 miles in where I had to sit up and stretch, at the same time I would grab my snack to eat which was stroopwaffles! I love these things Google it if you don't know what it is, but I find they give me lots of energy and fill my belly nicely taking that hollow feeling out of my belly. I ate three of them on the bike over the 90 kms along with 2 full orange gator aid I made and 2 waters and half a lemon lime G-aid handed out along the bike course.

The last half of the bike route the winds picked up and I was straining to keep my pace up. I must have lost a good 1/2 mile per hour on the last 20 miles because of the wind. I finally made it in and I was right! I finished the bike with an average of 19.5 mi/hr with a time of 2:52:28, not bad considering the heat and wind.

I was well hydrated and fueled up after the bike. Matter of fact I didn't need any more nutrition along the run course! the 3 stroopwaffles were pleny to sustain me the rest of the way and the only thing I took along the run was water and ice to cool down and G-aid to sip.

I racked my bike and changed again pulling off my shirt which was stuck on me from sweat, and my bike shorts. I took my running shirt and dipped it into my cooler of ice water I had in a cooler I brought, then I pulled my shirt over me to cool me down. I grabbed hand fulls of ice and iced my head face and neck down as other riders changing saw me do and wished they had thought of. lol I offered some ice which a couple of people gratefully took. I then sat down to dry my feet and put my socks and shoes on, I was in no hurry as I knew it was going to be hot! My transition took almost 12 1/2 min. long I know, but I knew I wasn't going to kill myself in this heat, specially since I'm not used to it.

I finally started out on my run, My legs felt like lead! the heat was melting me I barely made it out of transition and onto the run course before I had to walk!?! I knew then this is going to be a long day and I have no chance for pulling off a PR with a hopeful 6 to 6 1/2 hour race. There was no way I was going to end up in a hospital, I could feel my face radiating with the heat and my heart pounding when I started to run, so I had a change in plans, I'll run when I feel up to it and walk the rest, no problem.

Then the problem started! I get to the part of the run where it is over grass lands running along side a river probably infested with alligators! the heat was just radiating over the grass and the ground made running very hard with sapping the energy out of your legs with the softer ground so I baked as I walked through what some of us were calling the African Serengeti., the water along the side looked so inviting, but for fear of alligators I didn't dare to tempt fate, so I just kept walking. I hit every aid station along the way with dunking myself with Ice water taking my shirt off and dunking it into the pools of ice water and putting it back on to cool myself. I also sipped on ice water and G- aid at every station carrying cups of ice to suck on along my walks.

Over all I would say I would walk 10 min and run 2- 3 min most of the way, once we got back on to the paved trail through the park I was able to run most of the distance as there was some shade and the fact that I could run better on sturdy ground as apposed to the grass trail in the heat of the sun.

Finally the first loop was done, now to do it again! by now my shoes have gotten soaked which is bad, as the blisters started to come. I tryed to avoid getting my shoes wet for fear of blisters, but now it was to late. I noticed more and more people where starting to walk more, so I started feeling better. I had heard people were passing out from heat and all I could hear were the sirens of medics in the air. I said to myself is it really worth it? don't people have minds? well I stuck to my plan to survive and not die in this heat, so I took my time and enjoyed the day.

As hot as it was and knowing I wasn't going to have a good run split I was enjoying the heat, even with the intencity of the oven baking heat, I know back home it was cold, as only days before we had snow! so I didn't care. Bring on the heat! I love it!!

I kept pushing forward and looking for the next aid station hoping there was still ice around, which there was plenty of! even nearing the end of the race!

I finally made my way around the 3rd and last loop, then through the last mile of trail path through the campgrounds and into the finish. I was battling back and forth with a couple of AG men in my AG when I finally took hold and ran out the last half mile leaving them back behind me, good thing or else I would have been 105 out of 105 in my AG for the run lol....I cross the line in 7:27:51... I was happy! What a hot day though!!

After I finished and had a short rest I went looking for the others, I found Katy and Jerry at the awards area so I camped out with them. Katy had a good race finishing a good hour or more before me. great job Katy. We sat and waited around for Allen and Jenna but they never showed? they said they wanted to get slots for IMAZ? but with a change of heart I found out later they decided to pass. I don't blame them. today race was tough! and Allen had issues with his running to and wanted to rectify that before attempting a full again. So then after the awards they opened the slots up and Katy picked up her slot for IMWI, she almost got a slot for the 70.3 championships in clearwater, but missed the roll down by one girl, Oooo so close. :)

We left company and said our goodbyes and I went back to my hotel. I had a full day Monday to recover and relax before heading back home so Monday I just did the pool thing at my hotel most of the day and relaxed.

Me after the race collecting my gear and bike.

Me and Katy at the awards venue, you can see the sun we got on our faces.

Me back in my hotel room checking out if the metal is good. lol

13 out of 105 AG Swim time ...39:02 2:04/100

64 out of 105 AG Bike time ... 2:52:28 19.5mphr avg

103 out of 105 AG run time ... 3:38:19 16:40

Total 7:27:51

Tuesday I got up early and started my drive home. I drove straight home non stop except for gas and potty breaks and took me 22 1/2 hrs. I saw Joanne when I got home she was getting ready for work and was suprized to see me, She didn't expect me until late night, but was happy to see me. She went off to work, and I went for a nap.

I had a fun time seeing everyone and secondly racing the race I hope to do it again some time soon.

The end.

:)