The Ironman Florida in Panama City was an incredible experience for
me this past week. The setting could not have been better, with the
Florida panhandle's emerald coast and beautiful beaches.

I was pretty much prepared after many weekends of training with
Ironman Nancy Marino and future Ironman Megan Lawton, who are both
competing in a few weeks in Arizona. Our training rides and open
water swims included Tim, Pat, Jean, Darren & Stacey.

The temperatures were beginning to drop in the State of Florida, and
were certainly cooler in Northwestern Florida. The highs were in the
high 70s and low 80s, while the lows were in the mid 40s to low 50s.
Upon arriving on the Tuesday prior to the Saturday race, I went out
every morning for the open water swim. And having a familiar face
from Naples and meeting Bob Frailey every morning as he preparing for
his first Ironman competition. This was my second IM race coming
after completing Lake Placid in 2008.

On Wednesday, Bob Frailey and I drove the bike course and it was
amazing not only how flat the course was in comparison to Lake
Placid, but that it still had a few challenging inclines. And no
matter how easy a course is, 112 miles on the bike is still a
daunting distance and time in the saddle. Bob actually missed one of
the turns on the bike course, while driving, and I was able to
demonstrate the cool GPS features on my new iphone to get us back on
course. Only if I could find a place to mount my iphone somewhere on
the bike.

The night before the race, I had a hard time sleeping. An
overwhelming thought of such a big event after training all summer
long. I knew that I had slept well the days prior, so I was okay with
very little sleep. I ended up waking up around 2:00am and could not
stand the suspense and head trash. I all could think about is the
laundry list of things I had to do before walking out the front door.
I laid in bed until 3:30 and just got up so I could check off my list
of stuff I had to do to be prepared. Looking back, training seemed
like a piece of cake with so much less to worry about.

Fast forward to race day morning around 5:30am. It was an amazing
sight to see athletes lining up and completing their race
preparations. The rituals included important routines such as
bodymarking, checking their gear in transition, pumping up their
tires, final words to their loved ones, including hugs and handshakes
from fellow athletes. Many were just hanging out in the lobby of the
hotel as the outside temperatures were in the low 50s and all wanted
to stay fairly comfortable and relaxed before the 7:00am start. The
most interesting factoid about this year's event in Panama City was
that it featured over 1,000 first time athletes out of almost 2,300
registrants.

The pros went out first and then the 2,200 athletes later took off
right at 7:00am. And this was the first time I was without my Polar
watch as it died the week before, so I raced with my favorite Swatch
Watch. It was a good a watch as any as I was only concerned about the
hours and minutes and not too concerned about the seconds or
milliseconds in my only second IM event. I definitely stayed in the
back as I am definitely not the fastest swimmer.

During the entry into the gulf, there was a lot of walking before
reaching a point where it was deep enough to start swimming and
moving horizontally. Thankfully my wetsuit keep me buoyant enough to
stay relaxed and calm through the swim. But the army of swimmer did
make for a challenge to swim between mass bodies of human
trajectories looking for space in the open waters of Panama City.
There were some currents pushing us away from the buoys, yet placed
out to be a better place to stay as almost everyone wanted to be as
close to the buoys as possible.

And by the time I made the final length of the first loop, I was
getting into a groove and enjoyed a pace with a pack of red cap
female swimmers. I found that the "Blue Cap" men were a bit rough
when sharing space with them. A lot of the male competitors were
kicking and arm smacking during the swim. I don't remember getting
smacked by a female athlete. As we made our first loop, we got out of
the water and interesting enough, they actually handed out some water
during the transition to the second and final loop. Since they did
not provide any water between Lake Placid's two loop swim last year,
I was better prepared this time by hydrating all morning and right
before the swim start. It was certainly nice to have that refreshing
glup of cold fresh clean water.

The second loop was a faster loop for me and allowed me a bit more
room. I enjoyed it, but still an amazing length to swim, yet the swim
is the shortest amount of total time during the entire event. I
finished my swim at 1:26:56. My swim at IMLP time was 1:32:46.
I was certainly happy to have made the next step and ready to take on
the bike. The bike ride along Panama City Beach was quite nice, but
we did have the big bridge to get off the beach area and to the rest
of the bike course. I felt confident about the bridge climb since I
had enough practice going over the Fort Myers Beach bridge. Though
this bridge was certainly a bit longer the bridge over Matansas
Pass.

Yes, it was a long a daunting ride, and a bit cool and chilly. I am
glad that I packed my sleeve warmers and kept them on for most of the
ride, due to the cool breeze we had along the way. I certainly kept
it in the smaller chain ring and remembered to keep the pace around a
comfortable 18mph. I did take advantage of using my big chain ring
when going downhill and with the wind in my back. I should have taken
things a bit more conservative on the bike as I did push harder on
the hill climbs and went faster on the tail winds. There is certainly
a long stretch of highway 20, but then the course provides a bit of
diversity upon making your first turn onto Hwy 231 and Camp Flowers
Road. There are definitely some really bad sections of the bike ride
where the road is rough and bumpy on Camp Flowers Road and on Hwy
388, but you just peddle through the mess. This is where a carbon
frame bike may make a difference.

Essentially after your make the turn around on Hwy 388 it is all the
back to the bridge and the route along the beach. The final ten miles
on the bike seemed an eternity for me, with a slight bit of an
afternoon head wind and legs looking forward to touching the ground.
But it was here were I became a bit concerned about my next phase of
the course….the run. My right knee and my hip were a bit sore from
the ride. I was only hoping that that my legs were yearning for some
diversity and change to another activity. My bike time was 6:42:21
with an average of 16.7 mph. My bike time in Lake Placid was almost 8
hours long at 7:57:40 with an average of 14.1 mph.

I arrived back to the finish around 3:15pm and was happy with the
amount of time I had left to run for a sub 15 hour finish. I told my
wife Pat that I would be finishing around if not before 10:00pm. The
rate I was going maybe I'd be able to finish at around 9:00pm. I'd be
happy with that.

Finally my legs were able to hit the ground running, or so I thought.
It was a bit tough to turn over my legs as I was hoping for some
fresher set of legs. The same legs I was using for 112 miles of
cycling were now being prepared for a 26 mile marathon. The course
was definitely a very friendly welcome with a lot of fans, families,
supporters, and partiers along the run course. So many people along
the course were there to call out your name and to cheer you on. I
was looking forward to the end of the route and making my way to the
state park. But I had to enjoy the route along the condos and
neighborhoods along the gulf coast. I even saw Joe Bonness along the
course and he finally recognized me a few seconds after calling out
his name.

As I was making my merry way and waiving to the partiers along the
route, I was checking out my knee and wondering how long I'd be able
to make it with my IT band issue. With my IT band being so tight from
overuse on the bike, at this point I was not sure if I was going to
make it to the finish. For every time I ran, my right knee got worse.
I was not in pain, but I felt a discomfort in my right knee which was
not diminishing for every run stride I'd take. So I was better off
walking, but now uncertain about how I would fare if I were to walk
the duration of the course. I certainly thought it would be a long
and enduring walk. I knew that I would not make my goal. And I asked
myself if I wanted to repeat another late night finish like I did
last year in Lake Placid. Would it be worth the effort for a late
night stroll through the course, into the state park, and then back
around again to call myself an Ironman again.

I did not want to take a chance and injure myself and thought I would
walk back to the run start/finish line. Before I reached the turn
around at mile 6, I noticed an athlete getting some first aid help. I
asked one of the course volunteers where at the start/finish I would
be able to exit the race. And he told me he could have someone pick
me up right now. I wasn't ready for that answer, so I continued to
the end of the park and decided to think about it as I cruised
through the turn around. I was happy to see the timing mat soon after
and glad to see that I could cross it so that my friends back home
can see my progress, but I knew that they would be a bit disappointed
in seeing that would be last official time recorded, before I finally
decided to DNF after 7 miles on the run course.

So in an instant I became a participant to a spectator along with the
volunteers at one of the water stations. My final beverage along the
course was a nice hot cup of chicken broth, something I was looking
forward to on the run course. They had just broke out the soup just a
few minutes to my arrival. And then my golf cart ride arrived and
picked me and another athlete who had it a lot worse than me. He had
only 5 miles to the finish and had stomach and dehydration problems.
From there I was transported to a pickup truck which eventually took
back 5 athletes who DNF. And looking at these guys, I was amazed that
they were worse than my situation and appreciative of my personal
decision not to injure myself any further. I also appreciated the
support the volunteers were providing along the course to us athletes
who wanted to get back to the base camp via motorized transportation.

I am definitely pleased with my experience and had a great time along
the course. I am glad I made the decision to cut my future or
potential losses I could had done to my right knee and the rest of my
body. So far I am doing fine and look forward getting back on the
bike and into my running shoes again this weekend. Hope to you soon
along the way and at the next race. My next goal is to finish that
marathon I left behind in Panama City and to sign up to a marathon
early next year. The Miami Marathon in January 2008 is calling.
Congrats to Bob Frailey of Naples for finishing his first Ironman and
for Joe Bonness for finish first in his age group.

Be sure and check out one of the coolest videos on this year's race
at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGOPn6CoOcI. Is it an incredible
time lapse video of the swim start, transitions, and the finishes.