Ironman Spectating

 

Good morning from sunny Florida! I haven’t really talked a lot about this trip because I wasn’t sure the logistics of it, having someone watch the dogs (we have some people house sitting for us) etc. Well now I can tell you it is going to be a crazy trip! We left Friday and went to Panama City beach for two nights to spectate ironman Florida, which my sister was racing in. Then we left at 5 am this morning to drive to Orlando to be at Disney. I am running the Wine and Dine half this coming weekend, and then after that I will be staying on a few days for a work conference, Bobby will fly home before the conference and I will fly home after. So I won’t be home until the night of the 16h. Whew! It will be almost Thanksgiving!

Anyway, we are at Saratoga Springs with my parents and we are absolutely loving it so far, it’s a great resort! Anyway, more on that later, but I wanted to share some photos and a recap of the ironman weekend!

Friday late afternoon we got to our condo, the Shores of Panama. My mom booked this six months ago, and when we walked into our two bedroom condo unit we were less than impressed. it was old, beat up, smelled, had stains all over the carpet, etc. and it was on the 3nd floor right next to a bar with live music. No bueno. My mom called to have us switched and they claimed they didn’t have anymore two bedroom units so we agreed to go to a one bedroom unit with a sofa sleeper so we could get a better room. So we hauled all our stuff up there, and we loved it, it was much nicer and had beautiful views of the gulf.

We cranked the AC down, and started unpacking…then we realized it wasn’t getting any cooler….and then we realized the air wasn’t kicking on…at all. So we called down, and went to dinner while a maintenance person came. We walked next door to a great place called Pineapple Willy’s. It had outdoor seating on the gulf and excellent food, highly recommended.

After dinner we walked back to the condo to discover they couldn’t fix the air, and we would have to move again. Fail. However, they put us in a very nice three bedroom unit which we really enjoyed, but we were exhausted after all the moving around and were just ready to relax!

We got up super early to walk down to the start of the race. It was a gorgeous day.

We watched the swim start then walked up to transition and were able to see my sister running from the swim to the bike.

After that, we headed back to the room and Bobby, my dad and I headed to the hot tub and pool, then out to the beach to walk around.

We did not envy my sister out on the bike while we were relaxing! We went back up to the room for lunch and to watch some football, and then headed down to watch the bikers come in.

We were tracking my sister online and were actually able to see her come by right before getting off the bike. We then headed back up to the room for awhile before heading to the finish line. We found a great spot in the shoot and I screamed my head off cheering for everyone with my awesome sign with everyone loved (and some people even came up and took pictures of!)

Oh yes. I did.

Before long Christy came flying by and was officially an ironman! Yay! After a year of training is was over, and we were a bunch of tired spectators.

It was very cool to watch the ironman, but I have absolutely no desire to do one. Some of those poor people coming across the finish line….did not look like fun. I of course got excited to race in general, and can’t wait for Wine and Dine!

QOTD”: Ever raced or spectated at an ironman? Do you want to do one?