Chapter 50: IMFL Race Recap, Part 1 (Travel Week, Check In, and Friends)

 

     It's taken me a little bit to process last Saturday, but in a nutshell....I am an IRONMAN!  I'm still not convinced I actually did 140.6 miles of self-propelled movement, AND did it 27 minutes faster than my general goal time was!  12 hours, 33 minutes, and 20 seconds from entering the Gulf of America to crossing the final timing mat at the finish line and having Julie be the first person I see and hug.  Dang it, who's cutting onions while I'm typing?  What an incredible day.  

   

    These next several blogs are going to be a little bit different as I'll just recap the week in chunks. I'll start today's recap with the travel week and working up toward bike check-in. As I've been thinking back a week, there are things I remember clearly, and parts of the bike and run especially that I lost time somewhere in my head.  I still can recall the whole race, but I'm really not sure what headspace I went into for time to go by pretty quickly.  Kind of like a timewarp.  I'll put more photos up in a FB album, but these are just a piece of the week!

  Julie and I left Monday morning and drove to Birmingham, AL with a coffee stop along the way in Bolivar, MO to see Ashley Raines in her natural environment.  Julie finally met the person she's heard about for months.  So great to get together (while NOT running) and talk about our upcoming adventures--my IRONMAN Florida and Ashley's NYC Marathon. Long drive for the rest of Monday, but that left us with only about 4-1/2 hours on Tuesday to get to Panama City Beach.  The drive from Birmingham to Florida took us through back roads and state highways, past numerous cotton fields, farms, and finally into the 6th state of our drive.     

    We pulled into our condo right before 4:00 and settled in.  Great place with view of the pier, 1/4 mile walking distance to the local shops, eateries, and groceries.  We walked down to the beach and pier, but found out you had to pay to walk the pier. For the race however, they were going to shut it down to fishing on Wednesday evening, then the pier would be free from Wednesday midnight through the end of the swim on Saturday.  The beach walk put me into my happy place.  It was cool, around 63 degrees with some breeze, but the water was clear, calm and inviting.  It was dark by that point since we'd grabbed dinner first, and it was time to settle in and settle down for the week.  It was cooler than I expected, but still shorts and hoodie weather, or maybe jeans (which came into play on Thursday).    

 Wednesday I was planning on doing a Gulf swim but the weather and wind had other ideas.  On Tuesday night, the Gulf had a yellow flag (calm conditions), but come Wednesday the wind had shifted to a south wind and had kicked up the riptides and waves and the beach got red-flagged.  Later in the day you could surf out past the pier on pretty decent waves if you wanted to.  Uh-oh.  The weather still looked good for a few days from then, but I had my first little twinge of worry.  I couldn't swim, but I could still bike and run.  Went for a short 35-minute run along the run course (just down Ocean Front Rd), then grabbed my bike for a 30-minute ride to make sure everything was still working right after being on the carrier for almost 16 hours.  10 minutes into the ride, I got a "Gale Warning" alert on my bike computer and it wasn't lying.  The wind picked up and was blowing around 35-40 MPH directly at me.  Twinge of worry #2.     

    We walked to the park where Ironman Village was and I checked in.  Got my wristband, timing chip, swim cap with #433, backpack, all the bags needed for bike check-in and special needs, and my race bib  with my number and name printed on it. Pretty easy, and it felt good to get that done.  Now I was officially in the race and could go back to worrying about the water and wind. Got that done, though, and it was time to just hang out, get some groceries, and walk around the shopping center area, which would be the transition area and finish line. It started hitting me that I was actually going to be doing this thing.  

     Julie and I had signed up to volunteer at Athlete Check-in on Thursday morning, a way to give back, serve other athletes, and be able to be part of the behind-the-scenes of the race.  Also, once you get a volunteer shirt, you get access to everywhere. That's one of the perks of Julie and my Dad volunteering at the finish line!  We had a blast checking athletes in for about 4 hours on Thursday.  I scanned athletes in, gave them their packet with their assigned bib number, and put a wristband on.  Julie was a "runner", grabbing the packets as needed and resupplying the neon green and pink swim caps.  One of the great things about volunteering there was meeting new people, including two couples who snowbird in Florida from Illinois and Indiana.  

    We had a blast with them, and were able to see them throughout the rest of the week and weekend (including me seeing them on the run course cheering me on and at the finish line as I crossed under the metal archway with my time). I talked to athletes from all over the world:  Argentina, Japan, Sweden, Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Germany, U.K., Canada, Cayman Islands, Peru, and Nigeria (just to name a few!).  Also, I checked in a young guy who said this was his first triathlon ever.  Say what!?  I also got to meet Chris Nicik, who 4 years ago was the first person with Down Syndrome to complete a full Ironman race.  He started the 1% Better Team and brought over 10 physically and intellectually challenged athletes to compete at Florida.  That was my celebrity geek out moment!   

    Back at Ironman Chattanooga while volunteering at the finish line, I had met a couple of ladies from Team Rocket Tri Club out of Huntsville, AL.  Cynthia Mitchell came through the line in Florida and it was awesome seeing her again.  Julie was starting to wonder how all these complete strangers knew me as they yelled my name when they walked in!  I also met Layne Argyle, another Everyday Ironman Podcast member who was also racing on Saturday. The triathlon community is awesome, and it really made the week fun and exciting since we could meet new people and enjoy time together with old friends.

    Thursday night, we were able to do dinner out (my carb load night) with one of our son's

old youth mentors, Larry McGraw and his wife Rhonda.  They moved to Florida from Kansas around 2021 and it was great to catch up with them.  Nothing like going to Florida and eating with friends from your home state.  Thanks, Larry and Rhonda for the happy hour pizzas and pasta! It was a perfect fueling night with some good conversation, laughs, and crazy Larry stories!

    

And with that, travel and the beginning of the week was over.  Friday was swim practice,  my last bike and run, and bike check-in and Dad flying in.  That will be the next blog!  

    As always, thanks for following along.  It still doesn't feel real that it's over and already a week past!  Stay tuned for Part 2 for Friday's practice swim, bike check in and the Ironman swim.  Part 3 will be the bike, run, and finish!!  Part 4 will be the day after--learning to walk again, Awards ceremony, and Volunteer banquet and final thoughts.  

Until next time.....

Show Up, Keep Fit, Stay THE Course, Focus, and Keep Moving Forward

CPC

11/8/25

Olathe, KS