Posted by: Kyle

Today's race started at 7:00 am with a two-lap 2.4 mile swim in the Gulf of Mexico. The water was crystal clear and beautiful, though it was fairly rough due to the swell from hurricane Ida down near Mexico. It was a mass beach start, and with more than 2200 people in the race it was pretty chaotic. There was a lot of unintentional punching and kicking for the entire first 1.2 mile lap.

After the swim it was on to the bike for a 112-mile, mostly flat loop. It was a nice bike course and a nice day - sunny and in the 70's. I was amazed at how many people rode the bike portion of the race way, way faster than they should have. It's a long ride all by itself, but it's really just a way of getting to the start of the marathon. I let a lot of people ride by me on the bike, but, as expected, I saw most of them again later as they were suffering through the run.

The run was next. The run course consisted of two 13.1-mile out and back loops through PCB and the surrounding neighborhoods. At the east end of the course the road entered a state park and took a loop through the sand dunes, which was a very pretty, though quiet, portion of the run.

As I came back into town at about mile 13 of the run, I saw Becca on the side of the road watching the race with Pat and Steven Stockwell. They were in Pensacola visiting their son, and came over to Panama City Beach to watch their goddaughter race. Becca just happened to bump into them along the side of the run course.

Panama City beach is actually in the central time zone, but being so far east it gets dark really early this time of year. By the time I finished my second and final loop of the run, 10:09:13, after starting the swim, it was mostly dark already. After a shower we headed to a Mexican restaurant to finish the day off with some enchiladas.