Ironman Florida

By Cliff Rigby

In Panama City Beach, Florida, DENNY’S is considered fine dining. And to picture the bike course, imagine sitting on your wind trainer for 6 hours watching a Barbara Streisand film festival. It was easy to pick out the locals racing because they had gun racks on the back of their softrides. You go to Ironman Florida when you want to try and post a fast time. Period. And so it was with this in mind that Doug (Buford T ) Rice, John (Vern) Bartram , Rob (ROB) Mckinley and me, Cliff (Cliff) Rigby ran over and sand bar and into the Gulf of Mexico for our second Ironman of the year.

This was a very difficult swim. The water was warm and very salty. It was very hard to sight a course and I drank my fill of salt water in the rough swells. Coming back to shore I felt like an outrigger canoe riding the waves. But after running over the sand bar, back into knee deep water, across the beach, knee deep, and sand bar again i noticed that my heart rate was 174. this was not good. Time is meaningless in an Ironman swim. The goal is to get out of the water fresh and ready to ride. Early on I knew that this was not going to be the case.

After about 2 hours on the bike I was thrilled to see an intersection. Soon thereafter I was equally unthrilled to see Vern in his pink shirt looking very relaxed and strong. Part of my training was to get a song locked into my head and sing it on the bike. Counting Crows, "Hard Candy" was played in the condo for several days as part of a taper. But the day before the race we stop at a bike shop to get Buford a part and I hear the Bee-Gees. Doomsday Scenario. But with great mental strength I am able to forget all about it. Until Vern says, "remember the Bee-Gees" 5 minutes before race start. Just imagine doing a century ride with "Night Fever" playing in your head.

Consistently hitting 10-mile markers slightly less than 30 minutes we knew that if we could just hold things together that this would be a great bike split. And we did this despite leap frogging each other at alternating port-o-johns. I passed Vern for the last time sometime after mile 80. I was pretty whipped at this point and was acutely aware of the fact that we would be close getting off the bike. I looked at my bike nostalgically knowing that I would never see it again if I had to throw it into the Gulf of Mexico. I was sworn to do this and take up golf if Vern beat me. A heavy Florida rain soaked us for about 30 + miles heading back to town and a 10 mile stretch into the wind back at transition left me about as dead as I've ever been getting off the bike. (please refer to other Ironman reports as I always get off the bike as dead as I've ever been.

Vern described the Ironman run best when he said to the unfamiliar, "imagine what you felt like at the 23 mile mark of the New York marathon and just picture feeling that way at mile 1" Fear is a great motivator and I was pleased to finally run a marathon with no stops except quickly to chug water and coke. At each of the turnarounds Buford, Vern and me were within minutes of each other with the fate of the free world in the balance.

After the race lying in the medical tent, legs wrapped in ice and an Iv poring into my arm, a nurse asked me why I had such a big smile on my face. I told her. " I had my best race ever. I ran harder that I ever though I could because my friend spend almost 4 hours running 60 seconds behind me and pushed me to a new level. And he is lying down on that bed right over there."

We made it back to the midnight finish in time to see a big hairy 275 lb guy in a one piece zipper front Zoot tri suit run by and become and Ironman. I'm proud of Buford at how strong he ran and proud of Vern at how well he was able to perform. I am thankful that I have good friends to train and race with. I also am praying for a guy badly hurt out on the bike course and ask that you do the same.

"Night Fever, Night Fever....You know how to do it!"

Cliff