From GVL to PCB to Lanzarote - Part 1

 

In early January of 2025, I felt like I had no direction with my training as I was struggling to put together my race schedule. Karel knew that Ironman Lanzarote was always on my race bucket list because of the ocean swim w/ wetsuit, hills on the bike and heat throughout the entire race but I was very scared of the wind. Over the past few years, I have stepped way out of my comfort zone with mountain biking and Xtreme triathlon events so I feel more comfortable embracing challenging race day conditions. When Karel mentioned that I do Ironman Lanzarote this year, I slept on it for a few days and finally committed by registering for the event. Having a race on my schedule that was exciting and challenging gave me the motivation (and direction) that I needed to design my training for the next 5 months. Two of our professional athletes (Katie and Yannick) did the event last year and had great things to stay about the course and island. 

In the fall of 2024, we selected our 4 Trimarni team races of 2025, with IM 70.3 Gulf Coast being the first race of the season on May 3rd. With IM Lanzarote being 7 days after IM 70.3 Gulf Coast, I knew I couldn't race both events and with Karel returning to training after his 2nd knee surgery in 4 months (meniscus tear in both knees) we decided that we would still go to the race to support our athletes. We decided we would stay in Panama City Beach until Sunday (the day after the race) and drive to the Atlanta airport to start our travel to Lanzarote. Logistically, this required us to have all of our stuff for our trip to Spain with us in PCB. Additionally, because we wanted to bring Sunny with us for his first trip to the beach, we needed to find him transportation back to Greenville (thankfully our athlete/friend Ruthanne offered to bring him back for our house pet sitter Sarah to reunite with him). This was Sunny's 2nd road trip and longest road trip. He was great. He loves his car seat from Funny Fuzzy and stays in it anytime we are in the car. 

We started our 8-hour drive to PCB on Thursday morning around 7:30. The ride was fairly uneventful, just long. Thankfully we gained an hour so we arrived around 3:30pm local time. I dropped Karel off at the Frank Brown aquatic center for him to get in a swim while I checked in to our Airbnb at the Gulf Highlands Resort. After unloading our car, Sunny and I drove back to the aquatic center for Karel and I do to a Sunny hand off. It was my turn to get in a lovely outdoor swim workout (~3000 yards) while Karel walked Sunny. Sunny had a blast playing in the dog park, while enjoying the warm weather. 

After my swim we went to pick up our pizza order at Mr. Maine's pizza (highly recommend) for our team pizza party. We rented the conference center and had 10 athletes in attendance. It was great to see everyone and Sunny enjoy his first team pizza party (he had practice at our recent group training camp). Around 9pm we were ready for bed as it was a long day. 

On Friday morning, I went for my "long" ride. With us staying by the beach, there aren't a lot of safe places to ride. I opted to go to Gayles Trails behind Frank Brown park but I didn't want to drive there so I started off along Front Beach Road and road mostly southeast as it was a bit more quiet, with a bike lane. After I warmed up I did my main set of 5 x 10 minutes (strong effort) w/ 2-3 min EZ spin. I finished with 2:08 and 42 miles. I did a quick 3 mile and 24 minute run off the bike with a few strides. When I returned from my workout, Karel headed out for his ride. He ended up riding 57 miles and covered the race course in 2:50. While Karel was out, Sunny and I walked to the Sunrise cafe and bakery for a post ride meal of waffles and scrambled eggs. Sunny was allowed to sit inside because he was on his best behavior. I ordered Karel the Borscht to-go. 

In the early afternoon, we took Sunny to the dog beach at Pier Park. We have so many memories of Campy at the beach in Panama City Beach and we were so excited for Sunny to experience the sand, ocean water and birds. Sunny wasn't impressed with the water (we weren't surprised) but he loved running in the sand, playing with the other dogs and chasing the birds. It was great to let him run around off the leash and enjoy his freedom that he has worked hard for with his obedience training from Dog Training Elite. 

After our beach date, we went to the Lotus Cafe. This is one of my favorite restaurants as there are so many vegetarian options and I love the atmosphere. You order at the window inside and then you can sit anywhere in the outdoor covered seating. I had a veggie burger and Karel had one of the specials (turkey stuffed with feta). It was so good. 

It was raining on and off throughout the evening but based on the predicted weather, the worst was going to come throughout the night and into race day. We prepared our athletes for a cancelled swim possibility and sure enough, the swim was cancelled around an hour before the race start (the race was to start at 5:30am but was delayed to start at 6:10am). Karel and Sunny drove to Pier Park to cheer for the athletes in the early miles of the bike and I ran 42 minutes to Karel. Originally I had planned a 75 min run w/ a few intervals but by the time I got to Karel, it started to downpour and then it wasn't worth continuing on to run in the rain. 

After all of our athletes passed, we went back to our condo and watch IM 70.3 St. George on Outside TV while tracking our athletes. When I first athlete got close to the last 10 miles of the bike, we started our walk to the Edgewater resort to watch our athletes start the run. Sunny enjoyed watching and cheering for the athletes. We were able to see several of our athletes start the run after the bridge and catch them on their 2nd loop. The rain had stopped and it got very warm and very windy. Later we learned that there was hail and rain on the bike, as well as super strong winds for the last 16 mph. Sunny and I went back to our condo around 12pm and Karel stayed out and cheered for all of our athletes until he saw our last athlete start her 2nd lap of the run. Shortly after Karel arrived to our Airbnb, it started to lightening and downpour. We received a notification from the Ironman app that the race was postponed. And then the race was cancelled. Talk about a rollercoaster of emotions and weather conditions! 

A few hours later, we met up with two of our athletes (Angela and Kevin) and we had a late lunch at Lotus cafe (again). Around 6:30pm, several of our athletes met at Beach Cow Creamery for ice cream. 

We finished our laundry and packing and around 8am on Sunday, we were ready for leg 2 of our trip. We dropped off Sunny with Ruthanne at her car (he was confused but also comforted by Ruthanne and Janice, since he knows Ruthanne very well). We were really sad to say good bye to Sunny as we really had a great time sharing this trip with him. 

Part 2 coming soon.....