I am in Panama City Beach for Ironman Florida and it is surreal. I am sitting here with a glass of wine trying to figure out all of these stupid race day bags – special needs bike bag, running gear bag, bag to go to your grandma’s house for the weekend…I thought the hard part was doing the race under 17 hours, but turns out it is figuring out the damn bags.
Rewinding to yesterday. Guess who was on my flight last night? Mirinda “Rinny” Carfrae. You know, the one who just won the World Championships in Kona. I sat behind her on the plane and kicked her seat the whole way. We are now pretty tight.
This morning I woke up to howling waves and rough seas. WTF. I ‘m pretty sure no one told me the water was rough down here. Red flag warnings and all.
But then when I went to the expo I learned everyone is just as freaked about water as I am. If it is like this on race day they will probably cancel the swim, so fingers crossed that does not happen because then I would not be a true Ironman. I would be a semi Ironman who covered 138.2 miles. Loser. I don’t even think they make a sticker for that.
I REALLY wanted to get in the water just to prove to myself I could swim those waves if I had to (this was right before they put out the red flag). I got onto the beach and found a young dude who was standing there debating whether to get in and try swimming. We decided to tackle it together. It took us quite a while just to get past the breakers and then we swam the swells and got airborne a couple of times. Then my friend, a 25 year old stud muffin, started freaking out about sharks, so we got out. Pussy,
Then I saw “Rinny” and her fiancé , Tim O’Donnell, again at the expo. They get married in December and I’m pretty sure I will be invited. I might even be the maid of honor.
I met some of my teammates that the x2 Performance team:
I checked in and got all my cool swag, bib, etc. and went and picked up my bike from tri transport. I went to the mandatory meeting and met up with Shelly and Rick who are readers and SO nice…and wanted to say hi. See the backpack that guy is wearing? That is the one we all got at check in. LOVE.
Then I finished the race and it only took me 45 hours.
My friend Erika flew in from Denver tonight and went with me to the race dinner. She wanted me to show you the mess/garbage can I made of my carb-heavy meal. God I’m a pig and you clearly can’t take me anywhere, not even to an athlete dinner (I farted once or twice too):
Okay, two things I need to tackle:
1. Tracking. A few of you have asked how to track me. Just go to Ironman Tracking and punch in my bib # 1054 or my name (Beth Risdon. I don’t think it will work if you enter SUAR or Shut Up and Run).
2. Goals. Yes, I have goals. Sharpie doesn’t want me to have goals set in stone because she thinks that just completing this bad boy is enough and she does not want me to be disappointed. With that said….
Goal #1: Finish this bitch
Goal #2: Finish under 13 hours
Goal #3: Finish closer to 12 hours. For this to happen, I would need to have the best day ever and meet around these times:
Swim: 1:20
Bike: 6:20 (~17.5 mph)
Run: 4:20 (9:54 min/mile)
Transitions (both): 15 minutes
I think the above times would really be a stretch, but you have to dream big, right?
With tons of family flying in tomorrow and just trying to get in the zone I won’t be posting again before the race so…here goes nothing!
Thank you for all of your amazing support and for sharing this journey with me. I seriously have gotten so much encouragement, advice and good vibes from you all and it has meant the world to me.
SUAR