The Three Coconuts

Hammerhead buddy Angie...also "most photographed" race morning

Blain, Joy, Leah, and Tyler

My race season is over and the Flipper only has one more. This weekend is the party at the end that we've been looking forward to, Ironman Florida in Panama City Beach. We're not racing this year, just cheering on Alan. It will be his first Ironman. Last year this race was our first Ironman and he came down to help Tyler crew for us. Basically it's a full circle, and a fitting symbolic end to what has been a great year. We're a little run down and tired now, but we filled every minute of 2009 with 60 seconds of living fully.

A short recap:
-National Club Challenge mileage top three for bike (diesel) and run (flipper) miles, in addition to our Hammerhead Tri Teams success.
-Epic family first mountain biking day in Hanna Park where I crashed biggest.
-Crazy trail half marathon in Alafia Park. Where we had to drag ourselves up by roots and slide down hills and through gullies on single track bike paths.
-Sunrise to Sunset run where we (Alan, Diesel, Flipper, Genius, Leah, Josh and Pam) ran our way from the Eastern coast of Florida to the Western coast. 178 miles... and going all night long.
-Olympic races in Miami, Marineland and North Carolina. Personal bests for both of us.
-A family trip to the Big Island, where we caught a 1.2 mile open water swim that all three of us participated in.
-The Genius graduating valedictorian from High School and giving a great speech.
- Half Ironman races at Augusta and Austin. Blain qualifying for Clearwater.
-The 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater where Blain had another personal best.
-A great condo shared at the beach where we all got together and enjoyed each other. Lots of training and card playing.
-raucous fishing trip... and Gram going jet skiing for the first time with Tyler.

This could get really long so I'll stop there. Back to IM Florida.

Those of you who keep up will remember that Alan came out of the Sunrise to Sunset ultra race really painful. After workup they found a stress fracture in his pelvis and just like that his season was over. Worse than that he works in a physical job so he was told to stay home until fully cleared for work. This is a man who has always worked 50-60 hours a week. Now he couldn't train and was told basically no activity and was stuck at home. All the while thinking about his goal and pre paid entry into IM FL. Lets just say it was a long year. He did distract himself with grilling. He apparently grilled every day... until the gas back flashed and he got first and second degree burns. That was just insult to injury at that point. But things started looking up as he hit August with no pain. Dr's visit still didn't recommend running, but allowed some bike and kicking in the pool. Alan never did get fully cleared for running, the Dr. could still see a small defect and left it to his judgement. Alan decided to try, but continued to listen to his body. Augusta 70.3 was his test. He completed it (with almost no run training) and with a personal best. Training started in earnest. Unfortunately so did work.

Alan at body marking prerace.

Alan prerace doing his best Usain Bolt impersonation.

Ironman Florida dawned with great weather. Alan was ready. Blain and I were excited. Alan's wife Joy was there to cheer, or throw her body in front of him if he looked lame, or dial 911. She is my sister, but I was scared to share with her Florida's Baker Act laws, where you can get someone put into a lock down unit if they are deemed a danger to themselves or others. Leah (Joy and Alan's oldest) came down from Clemson to cheer. She wasn't nervous, she's on the tri team and used to the process. We had a blast leading up to the race just spending time together, swimming in the Gulf, getting Leah into a wetsuit for the first time... Then there was the Octopus incident. While Alan was being interviewed after a practice swim by Ironman.com, he handed me a old can he had picked up on his way out of the water. I held the can which felt heavy, but I assumed it was full of beach sand. During the interview, while I was standing behind the cameraman, the can started to move. I looked down to see a slimy, multi legged, miniature octopus thing exiting the can and considering climbing up my arm. This was not about to happen. I did manage not to squeal like a girl, but slung the can away and proceeded to do the big "OMG ickky cooty dance" until the interview was over and I could show Alan what he handed me to hold for him. The camera crew got a kick out of it, and filmed the baby octopus. Apparently they were pretty numerous, as we found another to show to Leah and Blain later in the week.

Tyler and Leah, the "IronChefs."

Flipper the "Trigeek" in support mode race morning.

Blain and I enjoyed reliving our Ironman experience, running the run course early in the day reminded us of some of the wilder aid stations. The naked women, MASH, hippies... it really is a party that goes on for 26.2 miles, with lots of food, drink and porta potties.

Alan, Joy, and Leah....just before the start.

The swim start.

The swim start was crazy. Ownership of Ironman has changed and they accepted alot more entries to the race. They seem to be more concerned about raking in the entry fees than safety. 2800 people started the race... at one time. Crazy. Alan started swimming as an adult and has worked hard at it. But the only way not to get beaten up with that many people is to be REALLY fast and get out front. Lets just say he got mauled pretty good... dunked, arms and feet grabbed, goggles ripped off. He came through the first lap on schedule but got slowed by the wrestling in the second lap. Now we were starting the bike with a little time to make up. After days of needling, Blain had finally gotten a goal time out of him, sub 11 hours. We were hoping for a 1:20 swim and came out closer to 1:30 after T1. But Alan can bike, and he's used to doing it in hills, where this is a flat and fast course. He was so fast we almost missed him coming out of T2. Bike time, 5:10:25 . This was now very doable goal. All he had to do was run a 4 hour marathon. He's been a great runner with numerous Boston qualifications, but has not been able to run much this year... and he just hammered the bike for 112 miles and you don't know if your legs want to play for another 26.2 miles of running. First split, way ahead of schedule... putting time in the bank. Second split, at the half way point, slowed a little but hanging in there. Now Blain and I are running to the computer for splits and figuring down to the minute if he'll be able to come in under 11:00.

Our camp on the run course.

Third split, a really slow one, and he's all the way out in the park where we can't get to him. If he slows any more he won't make it for his goal time. We don't know if his legs are gone, if he's having nutritional problems, or (God forbid) he's having pain in the hip. In fact, he was fine, just realizing he went out to hard. He actually picked it up on the fourth leg of the run!! That's just about unheard of for an Ironman distance. But Blain met him 2 miles out and pushed him to come in hard. He looked great coming down the chute with not so much as a hitch in his stride. Run time 3:51:40. Finish time...........10:46:38. Absolutely phenomenal.