SGC's Highs and Lows @ the PCB 1/2 Ironman

Amy, John Palmer and a good friend of the Palmer's, Sunni Florida, recently took on the PCB Half Ironman 70.3 down at the Redneck Riviera. The weather was outstanding on race day with partially cloudy skies. It wasn't until about half way through the half marathon that the sun finally broke through the clouds and heating things up quite a bit.

John and Rhonda Palmer had a good friend from ATL come down for the weekend adventure, some of the SGC folks might remember him, John Leonard. Unfortunately, John had just recently been a victim of a bike path accident that left him dazed and confused and left his carbon frame broken, so he had alternate plans for the weekend to provide mental support to the TRIathletes.



I came to the conclusion about half way to PCB that even though the SGC mountain bike team was not well represented on this trip that the TRI folks and their friends would represent. J. Lo (John Leonard) as his crew refers to him, busted out a bottle of liquor to spice up his coke from Hardees. We arrived in PCB about the same time as Sunni and Nikki who came over from Jacksonville. Check in went smoothly and before we knew it we where in our 9th floor penthouse. At least it seemed like a penthouse for a guy that is use to peeing behind the tree and showering in a stream after the race.

Friday afternoon/night events consisted of registration, expo with some awesome and expensive TRI equipment, and trying to find our way to an Italian restaurant in the Redneck Riviera. Many laughs were had by the group as we following Google maps apps to a restaurant in Panama City that was located in the middle of a street festival. No big deal we just pulled a U-turn and drove to a small Italian restaurant at the west end of the PCB beach. So even though at this point we had spent about 45 minutes in the car, the food was great and the bottles of wine were even better. After dinner J. Lo's plan for mental support came together when Dr. Leroy Bynum arrived to surprise the TRI group. As it turns out not only did J. Lo invite Dr. Bynum but he also brought along Yalda, Shane and their family. All those folks = tons of laughs and good times. I believe that J. Lo and support staff went out after dinner. I will leave the details out but just say that I am pretty sure that I heard that Waffle House was visited in the wee hours of the night.

Saturday AM came quickly. We were up by 5 AM with Amy, John, and Sunni heading down to check in by 6 AM. Luckily for the whole group we were staying at the condos right next door to the start/finish which made coming and going quite easy through out the day.

Amy was the first into the water 35-39 women(yellow wave) @ 6:25 AM, Sunni (30-34) was next into the water at 6:27 AM, and Palmer's age group came somewhere around 6:40 (purple wave). The water conditions were less than ideal with swells around 3-5 feet and a Northeasterly wind that was blowing folks off course if you did not start up the beach and drift as you swim. The TRIathletes said that there was also a minor current throughout the swim and that one of the hardest parts was the fact that if you looked at the floor of the gulf that you would get motion sick because of the rising and falling from the swells. Amy mentioned throwing up in her mouth at least once or twice. YUCK!!!!! Swim times were a bit slower than most in the group had planned because of the rough water. (see results list)

Next to the bike, all 3 had great bike legs. The wind was not to bad out on course with the exception of Front Beach Road where the wind was whipping around the high rise condos. Unfortunately the bike leg is where John's day started to go down hill. I think it was around mile 40ish that John felt his first cramp come on and by the time he got to the bike/run transition, he we in full cramp mode. (John ended up being the grunt of many jokes throughout the rest of the weekend)

Amy and Sunni came through the bike/run transition about the same time. Amy ran a super solid half marathon with very consistent splits throughout. She finished the in 5:49:59 about 10 minutes faster than last year. Sunni who had recently been hiking in Peru on the Inca Trail had picked up Machu Picchu revenge started off strong but Machu Picchu had left her weakened and even though she finished very strong it was not the time that she was looking for but very respectable, 6:12:21. Way to go girls!!!!

I am not going to be as hard on Palmer as some of the folks in the group were but before I explain what he went through I must take a moment to highlight some of the better comments. First was the t-shirt that was purchased for him that said "out of beer", my next favorite were the comments to many other participants "how did you do today? Oh, great! No! Did you see the ambulance? That was our friend, he cramped up and had to go to the hospital. Oh, all he needed to do was drink Gatorade? =-), and lastly... well heck my favorite is the Gatorade comment!!!!

Unfortunately for Palmer, he ended up getting so depleted that around mile 6 in the run, they made the decision to pull the plug and go to the medical tent. This year the folks that put on the Gulf Coast TRI decided that they were not allowing IV's to be administered on site and participants that needed an IV would have to be transported to the hospital. So after arriving in the medical tent the staff realized that he was going to need some almighty IV juice and before he knew it John was on his way to the hospital. He is doing well know and he believes that he has found the magic mixture that will fix the problem, he will have to tell you on the next ride.

Saturday night was capped off with some yummy oysters, dinner, and spirits at J. Michaels in PCB. Some of the support staff went out again and partied through the wee hours again. These folks definitely fit in with the SGC crew, actually I am a bit worried that we wouldn't be able to hang.

Sunday AM everyone awoke casually to see that the gulf didn't have a single ripple in it, it was as clear as glass. After packing up and loading all the gear, everyone meet up at Another Broken Egg which I highly recommend on your next visit to the Redneck Riviera.

That wraps up this race report. Good luck to Amy, John, and Sunni on your preparation for the Louisville, Kentucky Ironman on August 29th.

*Sunni Florida aka April Childs