IMFL support crew has arrived

Now that family and friends have arrived it was time to hit the beach. The sad thing is there is a storm coming in and the skies are over cast and the waves are breaking high. The good news is, that won't stop our kids, they were all over it getting out to the sand and the water!

The kids were off to hunt shells. Since there are not many shells in Hawaii Tristan has never really got to do this. He followed Paige's lead and had a blast!

Tristan thinks he struck it rich too bad most of them were broken. He will understand that soon enough but today that did not matter. He was thrilled!

Looking for the best one's.

It was not long before we noticed the sea gulls hovering around us. Turns out they thought the shells were food. Then we started tossing them in the air and it was almost like the movie Birds, they were all over us! Then brilliant me went in to get some bread. This was crazy! They were eating right out of our hand. It was all fun until one pooped in Tristan's hair, then we were all grossed out!

 

 

Sheree brought Patti and I some super cute chocolates from a new place in Boise. They were super cute! 

 After a short training day we headed to breakfast followed by St Andrew's State Park. This is the turn around for the marathon but also a fun place to visit, so we took the family. With the storm coming in the winds were high as well as the surf. The locals were out with vengeance both kite surfing and surfing.

Then it was time to check alligator lake. Patti and I had seen a gator here earlier in the week and we were going to scout some out again for the family but no luck : ( Beautiful park though!

 

Patti and I had taken this walk earlier in the week and taken a cute picture of some kids in these tree's, now it was out turn. 

I was so bummed that Tristan is not in this picture because it turned out so cute. You may ask why is he not in it? Well, he took it.

Back to the beach!

Sue was so sweet! Sheree and I were out on the beach with the kids just getting ready to look for more shells when here came Sue, fruity beverage in hand. Yummy Cosmo's also probably not on the Ironman nutrition plan but they were sure yummy!

I always make Mom's spaghetti for out carb loading night. This race would be no different!

Hairy Cow carbing up!

One of the reason's everyone flew in yesterday was so we could take the kids Trick or Treating Florida Style for Halloween. This was totally worth it. It gave the kids a chance to see something different. After dinner they got all dressed up and we headed to Pier Park. Pier Park is a local outdoor mall where they hand out candy on Halloween!

Another super fun day in Panama City! 

Happy Halloween Everyone!

IMFL Check In

So, for those of you that don't know, I have a thing for the number 13. It has been my jersey number as long as I can remember. It was not a number that was worn by someone else, and it was not a player I like, it was just the number that I liked and have carried with me for years. 

Well, this has defiantly bee the year for the number 13. 

My Boise Ironman number was 328 total them up = 13

Ran into my friend Bucky running the Boise marathon, his # 13 

My Florida Ironman number 247 = 13

We rented a house next to beach access 13

And yes, my official finish time 16:31:11 add them up and...

13 

This was my year!

I wanted to get some pictures of our house before everyone shows up and it becomes a mess : )

Our house was officially named Memory Maker and boy oh boy was it!

My room.

Patti's room

Harry Cow and his friends having a party!

Kitchen and dinning.

Dad and Sue's room

Paige and Sheree's room

This space was pretty cool. It was kid of like a front porch that was enclosed but it allowed us to set up our bikes and race gear way ahead of time and look it over many times and use it and make sure we had everything we needed. There was one table for me and one for Patti. Kept our gear out of the living space but available when we needed it. It was great!

The "entourage"

What might you ask is the entourage? Well, let me tell you. Patti and I decided to get all checked in prior to the family arriving. Upon our arrival to the athlete's village we see this... A line of 12 - 15 black Range Rovers. Well, we were not born yesterday. Leave it to my sister to go up to the window and ask the driver who they are here with. The first driver gave no info... the second driver told us "The King" is here? The King? Well, that is all we got. They would not tell us any more. 

As we began to walk to the village I noticed an "athlete" getting out of one of the Range Rover's further down the line. I pointed him out to Patti. I dared Patti to go talk to him and of coarse she did! It was then we met Ahmed. Ahmed informed us that "The King" of Dubai was racing. There were about 35 people traveling from Dubai and about 13 were racing, one including the King. Patti and I headed towards athlete check in as did Ahmed, funny thing was Ahmed was toking on a cigarette. Patti began to chew him out and told him he needed to put that out. It was hilarious!

More on this story shortly...

Now it was time to get down to business. 

Athletes Check in.

Really? 

These are the decorations you put out prior to an Ironman?

It's official!

Off to the Athlete's briefing. Before long the Entourage had arrived. We began looking for Ahmed so we could find out which one was the King. Patti spotted him and ran over, Ahmed pointed him out and then we got this photo.

The King of Dubai = The Crown Prince

In the Blue Nike Shirt

OK, so it gets better. We call Ahmed over and have someone take a picture of us together because you all know I have to get this story down on paper. The funny part was that about 20 minutes later Ahmed comes back with one of his friends and get a picture of us too on his smart phone. It was super cute!

58 hours to Ironman Florida!

While we were at the athlete's village we got all of our family and friends that are arriving support gear. We laid it all out neatly on their appropriate room.

OK, bring on family and friends!

oh, and this little thing called Ironman Florida!