I went home to Panama City Beach, FL (yes. people DO actually live there) this past weekend for my favorite time of year: IMFL. I’ve been a part of this race since I was in high school and volunteered more times than I can count. I love it. I love the energy, the excitement, the passion, the nervousness, the dedication. i love it all. there’s an aura at races that is hard to describe, but you can feel it all, and for one week, Panama City takes on a whole different vibe. My parents host a professional home-stay every year and we’ve had several awesome triathletes in our home. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Tim DeBoom, Heather Gollnick, Sister Madonna, among others. And this year, we were to host John Flanagan — perhaps the biggest reason of all to make sure I was home this year. the dude is a human fish. he even outswims andy potts!
After an intense week at work and sitting in a room for 3 straight days wireframing & planning out a new client’s web app, I came home Thursday evening exhausted, but pressed on. I packed the car with my bike, my dog, and my food and hit the road. Because of the busy week and not having a minute to spare, I wasn’t able to be as prepared as normal in my food prep, but I did as well as I could. I started dehydrating apples and bananas a few days prior to make sure they would be ready and pretty much scrounged together everything I could to make sure I wouldn’t be coming into a meal without anything to work with. I didn’t really have much of a plan for meals, so I essentially packed the produce that might go bad, and some dried ingredients to work with. 
I stopped along the way to see my best friend and her fiance’s bed and breakfast, La Maison de Lucy and let me just tell you, if you’re looking for an escape and want to be truly taken care of, look no further. it’s a pretty awesome spot (albeit it’s in a podunk town that has not a lot to offer), but the property itself it so incredible you have no reason to leave. They resurrected it from an old school house and turned it into an international treasure. They have 12 rooms, each representing a different country and as soon as you open the door, you are completely transported. I’m so proud of them and all the hard work that has gone into it. go. stay. thank me later. After getting the royal tour and visiting for a while, I ventured back into the rain and continued on for the last hour of my trip. I so wanted to just be home and in bed.
Friday morning I woke up and got in a nice 2 hour ride and 5 mile run. Though, the winds were brutal and the temperatures were low. It was my first taste of winter this year and yes, I was in Florida. The bike was tough and I haven’t had wind like this in quite a while. It was like I was on a stationary bike. Luckily, the bad conditions were not an indication of what would come for raceday, so I’m glad I was the only one who had to endure it and the 2500 athletes who poured their blood, sweat, and tears preparing for this race avoided it. My run was uneventful, though it felt long and I was anxious to be done. You know me and how much i hate skipping meals, so i was bummed that i finished this workout so late that it was lunch time and i missed my delicious bowl of granola. Luckily i had lunch plans to go to Lotus Cafe with my mom and my stomach was growling by the time I got there. Last time i was home i got to preview the new menu they had coming out which actually featured a raw dish, so i was super excited to try it. panama city is not at the forefront of most things, so this is huge.
I ordered the “raw wrap” (which wasn’t a wrap at all, but instead in romaine boats) and a kale avocado salad (i always order these when available to compare mine with). The “wrap” was pretty good– they used 2 different seed cheeses and a variety of veggies. It wasn’t anything to write home about, but it was tasty and I was hungry. the kale salad was decent, but i still think mine wins :) i ate half and took the rest home for dinner. and, of course, i picked up a couple of raw chocolates for dessert. they were the star of the show. i can’t quite put my finger on what i like so much about them— perhaps the coconut oil and that they’re frozen?– but they’re yummy and completely satisfied my sweet tooth.
A few hours later, my parents and I picked up Chloe and headed to the race site for the volunteer meeting. My parents are a part of the wetsuit peelers and my dad takes his title of “wetsuit peeler captain” very seriously. like, for real. haha.
chloe and i met up with her friend Heidi and we found our way to the draft marshal table. after an hour debriefing we had all the info we needed to regulate that bike course.
We headed home and while my mom prepared dinner for my parents and John, I whipped up a super quick beet ravioli. I peeled a beet, sliced it as thin as i could with a knife (my mom didn’t have a mandoline!), added a dollop of leftover cashew cheese, mixed up a sauce to go on top and paired it with my leftover kale salad. I think i was done making dinner before she plated hers! who says raw food has to take hours to prepare?! we had a great dinner and it was awesome talking to john about his pre-race tactics and exchanging experiences and advice. he’s so totally chill and down to earth and not at all the type-A personality you find from most triathletes. he wasn’t picky when it came to his dinner and looked cool as a cucumber the night before his big event.
Alarms went off around 4:45 and after john tossed back a banana and a bagel we made our way to the Boardwalk Hotel (about half a mile away). I wished john luck and rushed off to my 5:30 draft marshal meeting. we went over the rules again and got to pair up with our motorcycle buddies. There was a team of veterans part of a bike group (way diff than the OTHER bike crew you usually see at triathlons!) that volunteered to use their bikes and drive us along the course. I got paired with Chris and his apple gigantic green harley. pretty sure i lucked out :)
we got our red/yellow penalty books and our helmets and were told to be back by 7:20, so chloe and i rushed off to the beach to watch the pros race start. we pushed through the thousands of people to get a front row spot at the swim exit (it’s a 2 loop course). i got to watch john effortlessly run out of the water about 7 minutes ahead of the next swimmer. i screamed my head off and ran next to him as he purposefully entered the water towards the first set of yellow buoys all over again. I couldn’t believe how much distance he put between his competitors. no one stood a chance. he was wearing a brand new TYR wetsuit (which arrived fed-ex the day prior!) that isn’t even on the market yet, it even said “prototype” on the sleeve. It’s a $1200 suit and he said it felt incredible in the water. i’m wondering if for that much money it doesn’t come with a propeller!
well, it seems john’s legs are human propellers, because he not only slaughtered his competition, but with a 44:36 he crushed the COURSE RECORD.
just like that.
i was setting up with the rest of the marshals at the bike start and was able to cheer him along as he took off on his bike.
