And it's a long way down, it's a long way down...

Yesterday, I was in Clearwater, FL (just north of St. Pete), to watch one of my friends compete in the half-Ironman World Championships (or "Ironman 70.3" as it's apparently now officially called, after the total mileage: 1.2 swim, 56 bike, 13.1 run). And like the map, my day yesterday stretched from end-to-end... (and almost just out of sight).

I awoke yesterday morning at 2:45 a.m., and was on the road by 3:00 a.m. for the 270 mile drive from Lauderdale to Clearwater. After a few stops, I got to downtown Clearwater at 7:30 a.m., and then proceeded to sit on a shuttle bus for an hour waiting for it to be allowed to run again. (The race, itself, started at 7 a.m., and the shuttles to the starting/turning/finish area from where the advised parking areas were stopped for 90 minutes or so because they shared roads with the race route.)

After the hour of waiting, a few of us decided to just walk over to the starting area, and 40 minutes or so later (after crossing a causeway to Clearwater Beach, and seeing the shuttles start running about halfway through), I reached the start area around 9:30 a.m. This was about 90 minutes after my friend started (he was in the last wave to start the race, an hour after the first) and completely after the swim (which is the part of the race I most wanted to see--oh well).

I then proceeded to watch the transition area, trying to catch my friend as he came in (triathlon's not a very spectator friendly sport: wait for an hour to catch a glimpse of the person you know... assuming you know when they'll be coming in). In any case, I managed to meet-up with my friend after the race (he dropped I believe 20 minutes off his time, finishing in 4 hours and 14 minutes), as well as run into some fellow ex-Longhorn swimmers who were also in the race (whom I didn't know were there... including an old roommate of mine). I then hung out in Clearwater for the day, and drove back around 6 p.m.

I got into Lauderdale just after 10 p.m., went to hang out at a friend's house (watching the Florida Gator's game), and was in bed at 11:30 (I was greatly trying to avoid being up for 24 hours straight). And I'm doing much better today after sleeping in.

And it's a long way down
It's a long way down
It's a long way down to the place where we started from