SWBKRUN fast, furious, and closed (Page 260)

TrevorC - 2011-11-07 3:31 PM

gotta run - 2011-11-07 2:28 PM

fattyfatfat - 2011-11-07 4:20 PM

Havin'Fun - 2011-11-07 4:13 PM

fattyfatfat - 2011-11-07 3:46 PM

sdalessio - 2011-11-07 1:34 PM

Alright gang - I'm struggling even more than usual to stay caught up. 

So who has signed up in 2012 for what and where.  No more cryptic messages!  My poor brain can't compute. 

 

hows this for cryptic.

there is one more person in this MG that is racing IMFL other than Linda and myself. 

 

edit.  this person has been busy trying to figure out how they are going to tell their spouse that they threw down the cash money since yesterday.   lucky for them i don't have spouses phone number.... yet.

I have the number. I told "him" to break the news before "she" sees the cc charge.

Why do you hate Kim?

 

Oh the drama! This is too good. I'm thinking I'd better go to spectate/volunteer and throw beer cans at Fatty. 

If he is 'running' it will be harder to do though.......

Oh, he'll be running.  I'm not going down there for any hand holding.

That is great Doug!!

Awesome for you Doug!!  2012 will be a big year for sure!!!

So how did that conversation go..."Honey, I just dropped 600 bucks an you are not going to see to much of me after June of next year."

And you better hurry up and get some pens made before training starts...just sayin!

We have a thing we do at dinner where each member of the family says what was the best part of their day and what was the worst. They made me go first. So my drive to work was the worst and registering was the best. I just told her I registered and that it sold out in 16 minutes. If I had not tried right after it opened I would not even have had a chance to race.

Pens? What pens?  We'll see what can be done on that score, but people are going to have to send me their adrresses by PM

Thoughts, pics and a few vids from IMFL. 

This one was really special because I got meet some peeps after all these years.  Absolutely loved hanging out with Linda for a couple day.  She hates beer and I made her drink a few!!!  Barry is one tough bastard (and a few inches taller than Suzy) Chris never stops smiling.  You’d never guess that William is a Harvard and Columbia grad… just a great down to earth guy.  

So,  Got into town Thursday night.   Woke up to this Friday morning.  Shores of Panama.  Next year the Wednesday before the race (the day you get into town DOUG!!!) is on Halloween.  This place has 1000 rooms.  We get to have MG trick or treating with all the kiddos!!!!! 

Got a text from William that he was down at swim start, about a 1/4 mile down the beach.  Headed out and met him a short time later.  Awesome!  But I forgot to take a pic.  boooo.

Jarrett, the kiddos and I walked back down later.  Here's the corral.  I know its cheesy but standing there... man you can't help getting lost in the thoughts of all the dreams, challenges, sacrifices and stories that will be here in the morning.  its pretty f'ing cool. 

After playing around on the beach for a bit I walked on over to the expo and to check out what was going on in transition.  Some observations... IMFL was different than IMTX in a couple ways, all of which were positive. 

• The first thing I noticed was the expo was open on Friday.  At Texas everything closed up and tents were down by midday on Friday. 
• The IM village was also a ways away from transition, star and finish.  Its all right there at Florida.    
• The overall atmosphere just seemed more relaxed than Texas.  Probably has a little to do with not racing.  

I did a double take when I saw this bike.  And sure enough, I saw her race and she was looking realy good coming off the bike.  Whatever works!

I hung out by the pro bikes for a bit.  Very cool watching these guys and gals get set up.  Kim Loeffler was getting set up while I was standing there.  She noticed a brown dirt smudge on her white cobb saddle so she licks her finger and rubs it off.  Never one to miss an opportunity to comment, I tell her "ahhhh good.  now its faster.:  She looks at me and starts laughing hysterically.  She stops and says "damn, I've turned into one of those people, haven't I."  She finished 4th so maybe her clean up efforts did help.  And no she wasn't one of "those" people, she was cool as heck.  And has a nice bike.

Walking over to the expo i heard YO JOHN!!!!  These two jokers were standing in front of me. 

The three of us just started laughing.  What a great sight.  Both looked so relaxed and ready to roll.  Barry told me how he went to ride his bike the other day and could barely pedal because of his knee.  I just smiled and told him ahhhh.. you'll be fine bro.  Its just Ironman.  We talked about his mom a little bit and then we were off. 

Linda called around 2 but I missed her call.  So i called back and bam.. i'm talking to you after all these years.  So funny.  I've met a bunch of you and its always the same reaction. damn I didn't think you'd sound like that. 

I get to the volunteer meeting and no Linda.  I'm standing in the room with like 4000 people.  Its loud and I can't find her.  So I call and she says she's standing by massage and there's nobody there.  I'm thinking massage was right around the corner, she's got to be here.  I see a bunch of doors across the room so I make my way through all the people and open one of the doors.  There she is.  Dude, open any one of these 10 doors and you're in the middle of it all.   Blonde... HA! 

The meeting was crazy.  Not much organization.  i thought they'd give us some direction on what we were supposed to do but nope, just handed out t-shirts.  After a few minutes it wasn't going very well so I asked for the list and a highlighter and started calling out names and verifying who was there.  All done, we got our shirts and headed out.  There was some concern about not getting wrist bands to sign up but we took care of that the next day.

Back toi the condo for dinner, Jarrett and the kiddos immediately fell in love with Linda. The kids especially because she brought them presents.   Jack kicked her a$$ in horse.  June and Jacy learned how to use lip gloss Linda gave her...

Saturday was here!!!! RACEDAY!!!

We walked down to the swim start and guess what.. it was AWESOME!!!!  Future Ironman getting ready to roll..

Good tip from Linda, the sand was freezing so wear socks.  Looks others received similar advice.

One of the coolest sights of the day.  I never thought about the pack being still pretty tight on the first lap.  It was an amazing sight watching them come back to us on the backstretch.

June clung to Linda all morning.  And more than once during the day people assumed we were married.  I wonder why? 

While Jarrett and Linda were busy watching guys run up to them while stripping i took off with June to the bathroom and over to bike bags.  We got there just as the first pros were coming through so we had a front row view of it all. 

Some thoughts for future Ironpeeps...

• I was absolutely amazed at the number of people the didn't know where there bag was and then didn't know what to do to where to go once they got their bag.   How on earth do you spend so much time and money and sacrifice so much and yet you don't take 10 minutes the day before the race and walk through transition.  i watched a male pro be a complete d+ck to the volunteers.  While standing in the volunteer line the next day a transition worker was telling us about people that were yelling at the m where the F is my bag, go get my F'ing bag.  wtf? 

• here is a short video i took from above.

June and i met back up with the rest of the crew and headed back to the condo.  I took this just past the mount line,  the big building with the last few floors painted brown was where we stayed.  Just posting for some perspective for folks thinking about coming in next year.  its a great location.

We got back to the condo and hung out a bit chowed some lunch.  While sitting there we here a buch of sirens outside.  We run out the front door and there was the lead bike.  This was another awesome sight.  All kinds of people came out on the balconies of the condos and hotels lining the final stretch to the finish.  People were going nuts cheering, blowing air horns, etc.  Just over Linda's left shoulder is the finish line.  

then Linda and I walked back to see if we could pick up and extra shift at the finish line.  The hope was to be there when the first males came through.  No luck they didn't need us.  All good, we got to go walk out to run special need and watch the peeps run! 

Well, as usual IM tracking sucked so we missed the boys coming out of T2.  We got to watch the female leaders at the 1/2 way turn so that was cool.  The run course was really narrow where we were.  It was a bit different this year due to road construction.  Hopefully next year it will be back to normal.  No big deal if not. 

So you might have heard or red in Linda's post that Ronnie Schildknecht went sub 8 for the first ime in North America.  That was awesome to watch.  We were on the side of the chute about 100 yards from the line when the announcer said Ronnie was making the turn down the final stretch and he had a shot at sub 8.  So Linda and I take off running towards him.  We get to him and yell get your a$$ moving.  The dude was flying.  I tried keeping up and got toasted.  Its kind of a crappy vid but here it is. 

Listen to the crazy lady yelling at 10 seconds.  Yeah, she's loud. 

We walked back to the condo to grab some grub and take it easy.  Then head back to start our shift.  Awesome sign...

About to start our shift.  We were finally given some instruction on what to do.  Catch the racer.  Walk them through, chips removal, shirts, blankets, water, photo, then point then to the food. Nothing about medical, i thought that was rather odd.

First guy I caught was an English dude.  First timer.  Excited but very tired.  Second guy's first words were I need medical.  Ok,  I look for medical staff.  track one down and she says you'll need to find a wheel chair and take him over because she's here alone and can't leave.  Wow.  ok.  off we go.  We had to leave the secure area to get to medical (dumb) so i just yelled make a hole and the crowd did.  Not sure what happened to the guy. i'm sure he's fine.  I ended up taking two people to medical.  Linda beat me, she had three. 

I learned pretty quick not to trust anything a finisher tells you.  One guys comes across looking good.  I ask him how he's feeling and he said great.  So I let him go and down he went.  Medical was there this time so they took him. 

 I was on my phone tracking the fellas trying to determine when hey would come in.  But after a while i just checked in on the MG once in a while because it was quicker to get updates.  Trevor's post about William was key. 

Chris' buddy Thomas surprised him by being there to catch him,  Very cool! And so awesome to see crush Louisville wit ha huge PR.  (I look huge here... bad angle)

 Up next was William and this time I was ready with the Camera!!!!

Barry...again bro.. sorry we missed you in the chute!  i owe you a beer or ten.

Catching was awesome.  Front row to one of the greatest accomplishments in some people's lives.  Lots of smiles, lots of tears, lots of people that got their a$$es kicked and loved every minute of it. 

This dude was hanging out right under the camera at the finish.  After a few minutes I walked up and asked what was up.  he was waiting for his girlfriend.  He was gonna propose. 

She said yes.  And she was hot.  Good for him.

At the end of our shift we were dead tired.  Long freakin' day.  But worth every second. Tons of memories that I'll cherish forever. 

And now I'm off to b+tch and moan about this crap....

Good for you Doug!!!

I went to the registration page and was very tempted to do it, I asked the kids if they wanted a trip to Florida next November and they all shouted YES!!! Then my wife came in and said "don't be so stupid...." and that was the final word

John ... Those pics were AWESOME.  Hell, after looking at those, I think I missed most of the day.  lol

Don't worry about missing me in the chute.  I think when I got thru, My friend and Jones were at the end of the chute, he opened a hole in the gate and I hobbled to condo.  Don't remember a thing about the finish, but looking at the replay, I looked fine coming thru.

I do remember the pain being GONE as soon as I got in the chute...didn't feel a thing.  May have been adrenaline or something.

Again awesome pics.  

Linda, I hate that I did not get to meet you.  Hopefully I will come down next year just to cheer you guys on.  

A good prep 1/2 for IMFL is Gulf Coast in May.  It is the IMFL course.  May want to check it out.

Fatty--thank you so much for sharing the pictorial.  Absolutely awesome.  It was great to see some faces to stick with names.  Can't wait to track the motley crew next year.

Doug--big congrats on the IM sing up. I look forward to monitoring "Proect Unrecognizable".  How did your coach like the trophy display?  And you have to admit I was pretty much on the money on my guess.

All this IM chatter has got me fired up to start the season...course that is a LOOOOOOONG way away for me. 

Darn DP! ANyway, I am amazed how many people did NOT get in! Besides Suzy, who else is going to come down for the party? Come on you know you want to!

Just because you are doing a IMFL like jeepguy does not mean you need to adopt his posting habits as well

x2 Thanks John!

Doug - you have to let me know what you are doing to lose weight - it is a constant struggle w/ me too

Suzy -  tri season is not far away for me....  first race is in Feb... 

going cryptic here again...  read between the lines,let me know if you have trouble figuring it out and we'll take it off line.  don't want to give away all the secrets.

ok. here we go....

coldbeerwarmbeeranybeer he signed up for ironman anybeerlindaisahottiewarmbeer

if you figure it out... sssshhhhhhhh!!!!!

edit.  terp'd it!

Let me see....  hmmm....  DRINK BEER TO LOSE WEIGHT....

was that it?

Hellz yes!

Speaking of beer....

I would like to know where people are staying.  Fatty and Linda had an idea--is that the game plan?  I know it's a long way off, but figure we should be securing rooms soon, no?

Jacy chugged my beer.

We should see if we can coordinate and get places close together.  

Awesome write up and pics, John! LOVE IT!!!

Congratulations, Doug, on signing up for your first Ironman! And, not getting killed by your wife

Congrats to Trevor, Linda, John, anyone else I missed, for signing up for another round! It is going to be another exciting year around here!

I'm up for this. I need to talk with the family to find out if they are coming to determine what accommodations we will need. What days are people thinking of arriving and departing? Any recommendations on the size of the units we should be looking at? (I know what to do if it just me) for 2 adults and 2 children?

This would be a lot easier if we could have an MG conference call.

BTW: I don't think I mentioned it but I am now on the Board of the local Inside-Out Sports Delta Triathlon club (IOSDT). A local racer Todd started it and this year formed a Board. He has me run the meetings, (ugh).