Fun Race....great job!

What fun you and all the BTers had!!

I'll have to put this on my list of things to do next year!

I sure enjoyed your blog...you should cut and paste it to your race report!

Here it is then, Kathy G! 

WOW!  That has got to be one of the best '36' hours of my life!  (Note to folks:  I have a lot of best '36' hour folders in my memory!  )  Gasparilla is DEFINITLY on next years 'To Do' list!

Friday, the work thing, the rain thing and the complete and total inability of the general Florida population to DRIVE IN A STRAIGHT LINE thing caused me to be an hour late getting to Possums' .  She was very gracious and we loaded up the 'RWS' (you figure it out) and Off We Went to Tampa.  The 'RWS' had onboard navigation which for some reason refused to acknowledge Sue7013's address.  So, it was Up to Me as chief navigator to land us safely on the Other Coast.  Right!  Lucky for me a regional meeting and two recent trips to Tampa have made me an expert at remembering to turn left onto Rt 60 in Barstow.

Now, many people I've told about this trip were kinda like 'wha?'  'You're riding with who?'  'You're staying where?'  Oh, some girls I met off this website ... .   Let's just say ... well let's not.  I'll just continue blogging.

Wondered how the drive would go since Possum and I have some divergent opinions.  Let's just say she did an admirable job keeping it between the navigational beacons after she told a political joke and I fessed up to voting to keep Florida RED (are Red states faster?).  Dispite that, I now have a good friend in Wisconsin.  And she has (another) one in Florida.

Even though I was tardy, we got to Sue7103's LOVELY home on time.  We met Charlie-cat and darlin'-Lexi who, judging by their thorough inspection of our bags could be very effective TSA screeners.  Charlie played fetch with the Flutterballs I'd brought and Lexi almost slept with me, but opted for momma.  Such cuties!

Dinner, BT talk, race talk, talk talk and then bed.  And then up.  I'm a dork and packed my little bag of victuals - apples, bananas, protein powder.  Then pack and drive to the race.  We got separated from Sue, but reunited when Renee saw Possum and I bodymarking each other.  Blessed are the cellphone towers that keep us united.

The race started and a woman behind us asked what the markings were for.  I was shooting sparks out of my ears 'cus I was so psyched to be running my longest race to date so the duties fell to Ms. Possum to 'splain.  Then something about the woman having done '100' tri's ... yadda yadda - RUN!

Through the tunnel!  WAAAAAA HOOOOOO!  And into the sun!  Past the popcorn (?) and bread (??) and a table full of bananas (???), over the bridge through the itty bitty channel lane and this girl keeps yelling 'on your left - on your left' - SHUT IT YOU!  We're all 'on your left'!  AND WE'RE OFF! 

The weather was PERFECT!  Sunny, dry and high 60's low 70's.  I started to run at a bit faster pace and went a head of Possum.  I pass two fellows running together and hear one remark "BT, Foolproof, that's that website."  Woo hoo!  I'm a billboard!  Sorry Ron, but you get what you pay for and yesterday was free!  And I keep running.  Mile 4.5 and I go over the timing mat.  Mile 5 - some guy I'm now running near has the HUGEST sneakers I've ever seen not on an adolescent boy. PONK PONK PONK PONK!  He sounds like he's wearing BASKETBALLS on his feet and it's driving me NUTS!  Incentive to run faster. 

Make the turn around and now I'm on the side of the road where the bay is.  IT'S BEAUTIFUL!  I look back over to the upside and there's SUE!  She is such a strong and consistent runner!  We smile, point, wave make some noise.  DAMN THIS IS FUN!  There's lots of music on the course - radio stations and LIVE BANDS!  Loved the rapper at Mile 5!  Mile 6, I get ready to take some gel.  I can't bite the package open.  Step off the course, make a pin hole and try to squirt it - all over my face, my shoulder ... lucky there was some left for ME.  Water station guy just looks at me - I won't tell if he won't tell.  I'm fading and having to put some 30 second walks in now.  Mile 7 - edjit twins come up beside me "So who's the runner now," one comments as they pass me.    So I launched back into a 'run' and 'dusted' (as much as you can 'dust' at 9+ minute miles) them both to the finish line. 

Was shooting for sub-1:30, my HRM said 1:31:29.  I'm still pretty pleased.  Longest run of my life to date.  And there will be more!

Saw Possum come into the finish.  Then lost Possum in the mix.  Went to forage for food.  I swear I would die in the wild.  Finally found some water.  Where are the bananas?  Where's the bread?  IDIOT!  WHAT DID YOU PASS ON THE WAY OUT OF THE TUNNEL?!?!  Got fed; the guy handing out bananas looks at me, hands me my fruit and intoned 'YOU have won a banana.'  Hehe!  I guess I did!  Had my picture taken with the Gasparilla Pirates.  We were going to meet at the Nike booth at the Expo so I went there.  Waited.  Went back outside and found Possum in the tunnel.  Found Sue.  Shopped.  Met up with Renee who was kind enough to babysit my crap while I went and had a blast.  I Do Solomnly Swear That I Will Jockstrap One Major Race For My BT Bretheren B4 The End Of The Year.  Met Max and FT150TPA.  Rode my stinky carcass with Rene and Max to lunch where I met Comet, JeepFleeb, Tri-Take-Me-Away and Coredump (finally!  I got to meet the guy that makes me spit liquid on my screen in chat!  He's funny!).  TTMA asks me, "So are you as talkative in person as you are in your blogs?"   Who, me?

Possum and I went to the OWS.  We programmed the 'RWS' navigationals system and followed 'her' directions.  FLAWLESS.  Possum named her 'Alison.'  There we met Lucy and Renee's friend Brian.  Max's tatoos are AWESOME!  I think I want ink.  There was a dolphin in the water - so cool.  I went IN the water! I'm putting that in my log for this month.  Sunned, took some 'what happens at BT beach stays at BT beach' pictures (HEY!  See? I am real!  Nine BTr's can now attest to that!, and then Possum and I were tired so decided to skip dinner; programmed 'Alison' and started the drive back home.

Typical Florida drive, bang away at 65 mph until we came to a useless dead stop for some stupid inexplainable reason.  But, we made it!  'Alison' and I had one major disagreement but Possum shut us both off since we were now in her 'hood.  We left 'Alison' on for a bit, just to get her BP up ... 'next left, make a legal U-turn.'

Got home to my fur babies, cleaned up and WENT TO SLEEP! 

Now today?  Icky house work and a MASSAGE at 3pm.  Tonight I'm

Great race and blog reports!!!

One of my favorite stories of the weekend - "Sue, I think I found them..." Bummer you couldn't stay for dinner; you would have been wicked fun company!

Great fun this weekend Janice, was a blast meeting you and everyone eles.  Hope we can all get together at another race sometime.  Get a tat before then!!