Crazy Likes Company: Ironman Florida

Less than 48 hours after getting home from Washington, D.C., Mike and I were back on a plane headed to Panama City Beach for Mike to race Ironman Florida. He did the same race in 2009, and in 2010 he did Ironman Wisconsin. Ironman Florida is a flat course, which he preferred, so it was back to Florida for this year. We arrived on Wednesday for the Saturday race as participants have to check in and attend a mandatory meeting on Thursday.

I’ve been pretty seriously considering registering for IM Florida for next year. I signed up a long time ago to volunteer on race day since I enjoyed volunteering at IM Wisconsin. I had just received my cancer diagnosis two days before that race and knew an IM in 2011 wouldn’t be possible. After a good triathlon season this summer, I starting giving an Ironman some thought. With two kids in high school, I have time now to devote to training. After the kids graduate, I’m hoping to go back to school full time, so IM training probably won’t be a good fit in just another year or two. Mike wants to do at least one more IM and my biking has improved enough that we could do a lot of training together. Now just seems like the perfect time to do one if I am going to give it a try. With the idea of signing up, I was in Florida not only to support Mike, but to also make the final decision for myself and to see what I could learn that would be helpful for next year.

I was hoping for a couple of warm days on the beach before race day but the weather did not cooperate. It was cold and windy the whole time we were there. We were surprisingly busy as there are a lot of gear and bike logistics to deal with before race day. Picking up the bike, testing out the bike, picking up registration materials, packing gear bags, dropping off gear bags. While doing all of this, there are literally hundreds of the most fit people I have ever seen constantly running, biking and swimming everywhere. It’s very intimidating. We stayed in a condo down the beach from the race hotel and I was relieved to be able to get away every now and then.

It was wonderful to be able to shadow Mike and see what he was going to be experiencing as well as get an idea of what it might be like for me. On Wednesday night we drove the run course, and on Thursday we drove the bike course. On Thursday night I went with him to the participant meeting and heard about all of the rules and logistics of the race. I heard the jelly fish warning and that they were expecting a cold and windy race day. Just hearing about the logistics of the transitions made it a lot easier to think about actually racing myself. Friday night, Mike went to my volunteer meeting with me and I got instructions for my job on Saturday. We went to bed early and we both actually slept reasonably well.

One of the amazing things about Mike is that, on the exterior at least, he never looks nervous. After getting up at a crazy hour and heading down to the start, he went into transition to do some last minute prep on his bike and then we headed into the hotel to relax until it was time to put on the wet suit. Sitting and watching athletes fidget and nervously pace around, Mike sat with his eyes closed. Just the thought that I would be doing this race a year from now filled me with waves of anxiety. Trying to imagine what it would feel like knowing that I had a two hour ocean swim ahead of me even before I got on the bike and then had to run a marathon, I felt incredibly nervous. One of my main jobs for the weekend was to try not to add to Mike’s anxiety, so I tried to keep it to myself. Finally it was time to put on the wet suit and head to the beach.

Here are some pictures leading up to the big day:

Mike heading out the door to give his bike one last test ride:

Suited up and ready to go:

After the cannon sounded and the swimmers headed into the ocean, I went to T1 to do my two hour shift helping with gear bags. After an hour, swimmers started coming through a corridor looking dazed and confused searching for their gear bags. We helped find their bag and then sent them off to get changed for the bike. There were almost 4 men for every woman racing, so I didn’t hand a gear bag to a single woman all morning. I did get to hand Mike his gear bag, which was great. During my shift, I met two fun, amazing athletes who were on the fence about registering for next year. They are both accomplished runners and triathletes. Here we are at the end of our shift. If you can see, there are still some gear bags on the ground. At least a dozen participants didn’t make it out of the water in time to get their bag or else DNF’ed during the swim. It was really sad. Here I am with my two co-workers, Kate and Megan, who I’m hoping to see again on the course or volunteering again next year:

After volunteering, I had time to go back to the condo, go for a quick run along part of the run course, and then relax before it was time to see Mike on the run. Our condo was just two blocks from one of the water stops, so I got to see him run by twice before it was time to head down to watch the finish. The bike had been incredibly windy, but he looked fantastic on the run. He didn’t even look like he had swam or biked. After he passed the second time, I headed down to the finish.

Mike had an incredible race and finished in 12:36:35, about 13 minutes faster than his time in Florida two years ago. He ran the marathon leg in 4:32:40, just a couple of minutes slower than I ran MCM the weekend before. He ran a smart race and managed himself well all day long. I was jumping up and down on the bleachers as he came in and fell over, taking a couple down with me. Sorry! I was so happy for him. Mike, you are an Ironman!

Incredibly, after Mike got himself together right after the race, he got showered, had a bite to eat, and then we headed back down to the finish to watch some of the later finishers. This was important to me as I know that I would be a late finisher. We watched people finish around 15:30 and then, on the ride home, we saw many participants still on the run course. This post is getting long so I’ll have another post in the future about watching people come in for the finish. Between waiting for Mike and the time we spent after we went back, I probably saw 3 hours of athletes crossing the line. All were inspiring and thought provoking.

The next morning, it was time to get in line to register. Being a volunteer, I was pretty much guaranteed that I would get a spot. I had to wait in line for about an hour, but I enjoyed it. Every person in line volunteered and each had stories about their experiences the day before. I talked to people that worked the bike hand off, the changing room, and the swim. I learned so much about the race just from talking to them that I kind of wish we had more time in line. Finally, it was time to take the first step of many. Time to put down the credit card. Here I am after registering:

Watching 2,500 crazy people torture themselves all day and then break down with joy after crossing the finish line somehow looks attractive to me. I don’t know if I’ll make it to the start line, but I’m going to give it my best shot. I guess I better dig out my swim suit and put my bike on the trainer!