Kathleen's Adventures

This was my third time to do this race in Panama City Beach, Florida. In 2006 , it was my first half ironman, and in 2008 it was a victory lap of sorts, racing just 4 weeks after IMAZ on little to no training during that period. 2006 and 2008 were completely different races for me, and 2009 was yet another completely different race. There was no pressure whatsoever in 2008 - I had no expectations other than a fun weekend at the beach. This year, I am six weeks out from IMCDA and this race was both a training day and a chance to get some idea of where I am. The hard work was not over after this race, as I have my 3 hardest training weeks between now and my taper. We left Houston Thursday afternoon, stayed in Pensacola Thursday night, and got to PCB around lunchtime on Friday. It was hot and windy, no question about it. Staying at the Boardwalk Condos is soooo nice because everything is right there and you don't have to drive anywhere. We also made a good decision to cook most of ou...

Cameron, Michelle, and I signed up for this race back in January or February. I did this race as my first half ironman in 2006 and enjoyed it then. I knew racing this 4 weeks after IMAZ might not have been the brightest idea, but I thought it sounded like fun. I was right. The weekend was awesome and I had a pretty good race as well. We packed up my huge car and headed out around noon on Thursday. The drive was pretty uneventful except for hitting traffic at 4:30 in Baton Rouge. It took us about an hour to get through. I drove to Biloxi where we ate dinner and I made Cameron drive the rest of the way to Pensacola, where we stayed for the night. Friday morning we got up and drove the rest of the way to Panama City Beach, arriving just before noon. We checked into our condo and I was very pleased. It was awesome, on the 18th floor, overlooking the beach. We then went to packet pickup and registration which took way too long. We waited in line for over an hour and decided next time we...

I left Houston around noon on Thursday and picked up my mom (aka my driver) in Beaumont. We stayed just past Mobile that night and then drove into Panama City around noon on Friday. I had planned to do a test swim since I was using a borrowed wetsuit (thanks Jill Gellatly!), but then did not see anyone else swimming and was not about to do it by myself. I decided to go lie on the beach for a while and as soon as I got down there I saw all sorts of people swimming and decided I should probably do the same. I went back to the room and changed and brought the wetsuit down. It was very windy and rough by the afternoon and I was left slightly traumatized after floundering around in the breakers for a while. I called my practice done after about ten real strokes, lots of floating and riding the waves around. The pasta dinner was not that great, but when is it ever? It was nice to sit with the other athletes and meet people. We sat with four guys from Carrolton, GA and it was the first triath...