Thursday, November 5, 2009

Update #1 from Florida

Ok, so - on Tuesday morning (11/3) I drove from my house in Austin, TX to just east of Mobile, Alabama - trying to make it most of the way of my long drive to Panama City Beach in one day. Mapquest said that my total drive time would be around 14 hours & it took me about just around 9.5 hours to get from home to east of Mobile.
As it turned out, though, it was only 3 more hours from outside of Mobile to get here to PCB. So, the drive time total was just over 12 hours. Not too terribly bad. Glad I broke the drive up over 2 days, though.
Got here yesterday (Wed. 11/4) around noon & checked into my condo (very nice place, BTW) which is at the Panama City RV resort.
Trev & Rebekah also pulled in behind me & have a little trailer that they've got the whole family in - very cool little rig - and got set up next to my condo in their space for the trailer. They are traveling with their girls, Madeline & Antoinette, little man Cannon (who is just over 1 year old now & walking!) and Trev's mom, Karen.
Driving around the town on the beach road - the town is buzzing - tons of triathletes around - running & riding the roads of PCB & I was itching to get out on my bike or run - just seeing everyone else.
After setting up at the rv resort all of us ladies & little Cannon had a great lunch at Liza's Kitchen. Cool little hole-in-the-wall cafe & they had some yummy sandwiches. You should check 'em out if you are ever here.
Then, of course, no trip anywhere is ever complete without the all-important stop at Wal-Mart....right? All of us ladies and little Cannon did our shopping & saw our fair share of "people of walmart".
We got our necessities & headed back to our condo...it was now time for me & Trev to head back up to the athletes check-in area & pick-up our packets.
I guess the check-in area is what is called the "athlete's village" ??? There are tons of tents set up - with all kinds of vendors - bikes, shoes, clothing, compression gear (who the hell really NEEDS compression socks???? geez).
It was kinda cool, though. Then off to the check-in tent. Boy - is this a procedure. First, we'll check take your driver's license & USAT (usa triathlon) card, next you'll sign your life away on this injury/illness waiver, next we'll completely humiliate you & put you on a scale to weigh you IN FRONT OF ALL OF YOUR CLOSEST FRIENDS, and then we'll give you a cute little Ironman bracelet to wear all week & a race packet (in your very own Ironman Florida commemorative race bag) that contains everything you need to know & have for racing.
All in all, though, check-in wasn't bad - just a lot more than I am used to doing at races. The Ironman store, outside of the check-in tent, was pretty cool, too. Lots of things you really don't need but can be kinda cool to have. I got the kiddos a little gift, but restrained myself from more financial damage.
After all this, I got a quick & easy run in before dinner with the Trevelise family. Which was really yummy, by the way...thanks for cooking Rebekah!
Day #2 here in PCB will probably just be a short swim in the ocean and a ride on the bike to check out the marathon course.
After that? Who knows....maybe just some relaxin' on the beach!

No comments: