While I did not get to race the 2013 Ironman Coeur d’Alene, I am signed up for 2013 Ironman Florida. The race is less than two weeks away. I have been training here in Panama City beach for nearly a month. Swimming in the Gulf, riding and running along Front Beach Road, I am ready to race. Well, I am ready to go mentally. I don’t know if my body is ready. After crashing my bike in June and missing IM CDA, it was 5 weeks before I got back on the bike, and 8 weeks before I started running again. Ideally, I could use another month of training, just to get some more long rides and runs in.
The water here is great, but I found out that there are jellyfish. Thankfully, I will be wearing a full wetsuit, so that shouldn’t be much of a problem. The bike route is one big loop. I have heard it’s boring, so I haven’t tried to ride the course because I only want to be bored once! The bulk of my training has been along Front Beach Road, which comprises the first and last 5 miles of the ride. The run course is two loops and from what I can tell should be nice. I will be walking most of it anyway, which means it will be dark, so I am not going to miss much.
This is my last full Ironman this year and maybe for a while to come. Half Ironman races just seem much more manageable.
I live in Orlando, Florida and participate in marathons and triathlons.
