Ironman 70.3 II: You did what the night before the race?

Saturday afternoon, after checking in my bike, exploring Ironman village, then meeting up with my buddy Steve at the Fort Wilderness Lodge, it was time for me to head out and get something to eat. I was staying at the Disney Port Orleans Riverside, about 2 miles from Downtown Disney, so I figured I'd start there.

First things first, I had to find a place to watch the Preakness. I knew it was starting in about 5 minutes once I parked so I had to work quick. Planet Hollywood? no good, too big of a line...Wolfgang Puck? No TVs...House of Blues? Sweeeet. I arrive just as the last 2 horseys are loaded in and watch the race with a bunch of Southern Rednecks Tourists. Some 50-something overweight woman from Kentucky was chatting me up at the bar, which was actually enjoyable. We watched Curlin pull it out and then I was off for my dinner hunt.

But first, time to explore this giant line in front of the House of Blues. I knew full well that this wasn't your average Saturday night in Downtown Disney. A week prior, as I was watching the news, I caught a story out of Orlando that Britney Spears was coming to town on Saturday night. Tickets sold out in minutes for $35 and were now on ebay and craigslist for upwards of $120.

Been there, done that. It seems like such a great idea at the time to buy extra tickets for a concert, thinking hey, even if my friends don't show up I can always scalp the ticket at the show, even though I have absolutely no clue how to scalp tickets, but it'll be soooooo easy. I've lost over $150 trying this technique, so it would be nice to be on the other end if given the opportunity....

Well as I meandered back outside the HOB, a nice young girl came up to me and offered me $30 to take her ticket off her hands. Her friends was a no-show and now she needed to unload the extra ticket. "Surprisingly" there was no one there to buy it. I considered her offer and kept walking. 5 seconds later a couple of fine Orlando natives pushing around a baby carriage and scalping tickets offered me tickets for $25. Apparently nobody was buying. Surprise surprise.

Nonetheless, the line was quite impressive, as you might imagine for a Britney Spears concert. Plus, you gotta figure that the Britney generation is now legal, so I had that goin for me. I started getting a little tempted to purchase a ticket.

But what the hell was I thinking? I still have to find dinner, eat dinner, and then I have to get some good sleep tonight because I'm up at 4:00AM tomorrow morning to race a freaking Half Ironman!! I can't go to a damn Britney Spears concert.

But...it's supposed to start at 9...it's supposed to only be 15 minutes...Hmmm, I can get home and get to sleep by 10:00, that's 6 hours of sleep, I'll be good, right? right??

It's 7:30, doors are at 8, do I want to do this? Gotta eat! Wolfgang puck to go! Pasta? nah...I always eat pasta before a race...lets go chicken sandwich. MMM delicious, good choice.

Back to the line. Original girl trying to still sell ticket for $20 now. Decide..decide..Screw it, why not, I'll give you $10 for it. Sold! Sweet! I'm gonna see Britney Spears at her prime worst. Check that off my things to do before I die list.

By now the line was wrapped around the entire HOB and it seemed like this might actually be a hot ticket, which was nice that I could get $30 off. DOORS at 8, I wanted a barstool, I cut in line at 8:05, get my barstool, pull it up front, I'm set for the show.

8:30, place is packed. Girls going crazy, I'm flanked by big Mexican lady chaperoning her kids on one side and 2 incredibly awesome 13 year old girls and their foster dad from Tennessee on the other. These 2 girls were finding and making fun of every person in the club, talking ish about Britney Spears, just completely entertaining in every way.

9:00, lets get this thing going!! By now I'm firmly entrenched in my barstool and do not want to move so I've decided against talking to any girls in the club other than my new 13 year old friends.

9:15, Hurry up Britney I have to go to sleep!

9:25, If this show doesn't start in 5 minutes I'm gonna leave

9:30, Show starts. I'm not gonna lie, Britney and her 4 dancer friends actually look pretty good and are are very entertaining. A fun little cd skippage during song #3, and a wireless microphone that spent the night at her eye level were definitely the highlights, but the crowd was wild the whole time.

9:50, Show ends, time to get the hell out of here and get to sleep!

9:55, As I rush to get back to my car to leave, I throw huge fit in middle of Downtown Disney, as the security guards have stopped all walking traffic so that Britney Spears' vehicles can leave the House of Blues...Well, apparently you're not supposed to scream (PG-13 version) "HURRY UP BRITNEY!!! SHOW SOME HUSTLE!! THIS IS RIDICULOUS!" at the top of your lungs on Disney property. As soon as the extra security guard started coming towards me, I hightail it in the opposite direction, and ended up walking all the way around the long way and still got to my car 5 minutes quicker than I would have if I had waited for her to take her sweet time to leave. Anyways, nice little adrenaline rush to end the night.

10:15, Back in my hotel room. Set the wakeup call for 3:55. Guess I'll be getting 5 hours of sleep, not bad. Okay, perfect, at least now I'm prepared to dream about banging Britney Spears. All in all, the night ended up a success. I better be ready tomorrow morning...Goodnight

To Be Continued....

Ironman 70.3 I: The background and the build-up

I guess it all started in January 2005 when I was at Big 5 looking for some swimming goggles. As any guy will tell you, a typical trip to a sporting goods store lasts about 2 hours, as you peruse through every section of the store, take a few swings of the newest baseball bats, shoot some hoops into the tied off basketball rims, make a few putts in the golf section, etc. etc. Well, on this fateful trip to the store, as I meandered about, I stumbled across a 50% off sale on all speedos.

At this point in time I had no business whatsoever with a speedo. I hadn't been in a pool since July 2004. I sure as hell hadn't swam laps in a pool since I took swimming lessons when I was 10, and I definitely didn't wear speedos back then. I was expecting to just buy some goggles and swim in my board shorts...But for some reason, I talked myself into it, and ended up spending $15 on a pair of speedos that would forever change my life.

Now, I had already gotten the ball rolling on the whole "going to the gym" thing. After my 31 day road trip where I put on 20 pounds of beer and pizza, I was working out 3-4 times per week for the most part, taking a few 1-hour spinning classes, hitting the elliptical for half an hour, maybe put in 1-3 miles on the treadmill or the local sidewalk, spend an hour lifting. But I was still very far away from wearing a speedo with any confidence. Yet, 24 hour fitness had an indoor pool, so at the end of every workout, I'd head to the locker room and throw on the speedo...IMMEDIATELY followed by my board shorts. I'd then slowly walk to the pool, put my goggles on, and when no one was looking, I'd quickly rip off my shorts and jump in the pool, minimizing the chance that anyone could see me standing around in the speedos. When I finished my swim, I'd again wait for a strategic "no-shame" opportunity and jump out of the pool, grab my towel and cover up.

It wasn't a perfect system...but it was a system. Biking, Running, Swimming...It was all getting done....

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Fast forward 2.4 years
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May 19th, 2007....I pack $3500 worth of triathlon equipment into my car and drive 2 hours south to Orlando, Florida, to check in to the Florida Half Ironman Triathlon.

Now marathons & half marathons are one thing...anybody does them. With the exception of Boston, every marathon is filled with a bunch of flimsy participants who only take running half-seriously.

Short Triathlons are a little more serious. Triathlon is a sport that it takes a lot more $$ and commitment to get into, so your average competitor is usually pretty serious about the event and it is a much tougher field to compete against.

But when we step it up to IRONMAN. Let me tell you that is a whole 'nother world altogether. Anybody crazy enough to get to the point in their life when they decide, "yea sure I can go for a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run back to back to back," is insanely committed to their craziness. The average racer probably has a bike worth at least $5000, trains 2-3 hours a day, and grew up competing on a swim team or as a cross country runner. We're not messing around anymore. This is the cream of the crop and they've traveled far and wide to get to Disney World so they can strip down to their speedos at 6:00AM on a Sunday morning and put themselves through a living hell.

And I was one of them.

The only difference being, I'm sure I was the only one out of 2000 who decided it would be a good idea to go to the Britney Spears concert at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney 8 hours before the race started.

To Be Continued....