Triathletes Village Forum

Kerry & Coach,   I'm staying at the Tiki Bar there on the run course.  I couldn't resist after running by so many times and smelling that food.

I get off early today and will be swimming 1mi. and biking 70.  I hope to do 70 Sat. if I can schedule it between work and soccer.

Rich, Susan's been real good about letting me put-off the patio brick work. I think it has to be part of my LABOR day weeknd though.

Looks like Pix and the rest of us will be indoors for the next few days. Go away, Fay!

Got in a good weekend of training. Long brick Sat. and long run Sunday. Saddle position really helped. Thanks, Tony!

Did I mention that it's been REAL hot here in SoFla? Tough to keep up with the fluids, but you have to try new tricks, like stashing bottles of electrolytes in trees and bushes for the next go 'round, hoping no one finds them.

K. Riggs

Happy Monday all,

Funny that Kerry posted about the numbers in the race and that a possible thought is that the course is just too tough. I have spoken to a number of folks here in the Tampa area and they all pretty much ask me why do I want to do this race; there are so many easier courses......I never really gave it any thought. When I decided a come-back was in order I simply asked myself what I need to do to propare for GFT 09. I never gave any thought to a different IM in the fall.

E-dad, looks like you are right there with the distances and yea, it is hot my friend. We actually had a pretty nice weekend here......while it was humid there was good cloud cover Sat and Sun morning. I got an easy (if that is possible) 80 mile ride in, and then ran 9 on Sunday. I'm not ready for the mega bricks yet, but probably don't need them yet. I'm still trying to accumulate base miles, and man, the times are slow. 

I'm back on the road this week, so like last week the schedule may suffer a bit. We also need to see where the storm hits tomorrow. The fun just never stops. 

Hope everyone out there has a fun week. Train safe. 

IC 

Good morning.

It's a real Monday. I feel ready for a nap already.

I Dadn't know GFT was hard? I did Pineman and that was near imposible and Duke had a run I would never do again.

So what are the easy races?

I think GFT just suffers from so many races to choose from.

How did the women do last night at the Olympic TRI?

I think I need spell check.
Men race tonight at 10pm ET.

The low here in Indiana was 58 last night. Wow! I did an 1 1/2 run this morning and it was a beautiful sunrise. Labor day weekend will be my first century and I hope to tak ethe swim up to 2 1/2 . 

Rich, good thing Joe B. has not signed up for GFT I think I could take him this year . (@ eating pizza at the finish)

ICoach  are you doing the 1/2? or the full GFT this year?

E-Dad......half this year and full next year. Mentally that seemed to make sense to me, but I'm looking at my base right now as the build-up to next year, otherwise I would be backing off a bit on the miles and focus on more quality.

I still have my notes from 99 when I finished the full and it really did take me that log to build a base, and hell, that was when I was young.

I'm coming over to Assult next month and have a ID race in Orlando the following week. I'm just trying to add time but having a tough time getting more than 8 hours per week. Good thing I have plenty of time.

IC

Pineman was dangerous and Duke had a run that no one would want to do twice. GFT's run is the best part of the race to me.  I hope that the finish line still has a party in town? I remember the search lights, bands, and Mad Dogs. That's why I'm coming back. 

How bad is the weather in FLA. ?????

E-Dad, Rich,

  How about the row of lights around the transition area? The ones along the walkway? That is another way to gauge your progress around the lake. For awhile, they're on your left, then when they're in front of you, you know your close. Same with the spotlights. Mad Dogs are great, but the same goes for the rest of them. They are all great. I just wish they wouldn't wait til after dark with the chicken broth. If I finish, you guys are going to save some pizza for me, right?
  I'm already looking forward to getting off of the bike and starting the run. I'll tell the bike valet to throw my bike into the lake, thatI never want to see it again. He'll tell me fine, there are already 500 bikes in there.
  I MUST remember to "body glide" my feet this year. Hard to enjoy a marathon on blistered feet.

  I wish this race could get alot more attention. I don't know why it doesn't do better. The volunteers are a big reason to keep coming back. Seems like IMFL really hurt it. What does IM have that the GFT doesn't? An Ironman is an Ironman...

  Kerry Riggs (M 45-49) 

The first year Suzie and I ran together for a while and howled at the moon.

The last hour Fred let us get into the street so we could HI-5 the finishers.
We closed the night by singing happy birthday to the new IM.  

KAR no promise about the Pizza. So you better stay way ahead of me!

I'm sure we can have fun even if there's a few less.

Small but mighty!

We have alot of international particapants.

We have 10 of us 50 year olds.

And we have 1/3 of the group that are women!

There are about 900 racers racing that day 10/25. 

So if we get them to stick around and cheer for us that would make for one big party!

Hi Folks

This will be my first full IM distance race.  I am not new to racing but there are some things I am not familiar with as it relates to this distance.  Like all the bags that are listed as part of the process...  Transition bags/ bike SAG bag/ Run SAG Bag...  Are all these required or just available?  How does the hand off of these 2 Bike and Run bags work?

I am curious if Fred is using last years bike course?  Does anyone know?

thanks for your patience

Elvis

Elvis, Glad you're in with us.  You will want to pack all the bags. Fred will give you bags and lables. You fill them. First Bike bag is for stuff to transition from swim to bike. Second bike bag is for anything special you want at bike half  way point. Extra foods, drinks, stuff.

Bike to run bag is next.

Run special stuff you might want. like something in case it cools off at night. extra socks....

I years past we got together for a bag party to compare bags and to keep from forgetting stuff.

Fred doesn't provide a bag for finish line party,  cow bell, whistle, sparkling grape juice and glasses.

so besides this being your first. what's your profile? where you from? age group? who's coming with you?  ect...