Gulf Coast Half -vs- Florida Half(Disney) - Triathlon Week

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

I was going to switch my spring time 1/2 race over to the new Florida Half @
Disney, BUt I have heard conflicting reports that the race was not all it is
cracked up tp be. Was put on well but the coarse left something to be
deisred. I have always enjoyed the Gulf Coast 1/2 in Panama City but live
in Orlando ( close to Disney).

What have ou heard???

Thanks.

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

"Crockett B." <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ].com> wrote in
news:RtWFc.22857$[Only registered and activated users can see links. ].c om:

> I was going to switch my spring time 1/2 race over to the new Florida
> Half @ Disney, BUt I have heard conflicting reports that the race was
> not all it is cracked up tp be. Was put on well but the coarse left
> something to be deisred. I have always enjoyed the Gulf Coast 1/2 in
> Panama City but live in Orlando ( close to Disney).
>
> What have ou heard???
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>

A friend who did the race said the run course left much to be desired.
Imagine a run course every bit as hot as GCT, but with less shade and
more hills!

Tom

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

"Tom Henderson" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
news:Xns951E41ED11F2FTomH4thBellSouthnet@216.77.18 8.18...
> "Crockett B." <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ].com> wrote in
> news:RtWFc.22857$[Only registered and activated users can see links. ].c om:
>
> > I was going to switch my spring time 1/2 race over to the new Florida
> > Half @ Disney, BUt I have heard conflicting reports that the race was
> > not all it is cracked up tp be. Was put on well but the coarse left
> > something to be deisred. I have always enjoyed the Gulf Coast 1/2 in
> > Panama City but live in Orlando ( close to Disney).
> >
> > What have ou heard???
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> >
> >
>
> A friend who did the race said the run course left much to be desired.
> Imagine a run course every bit as hot as GCT, but with less shade and
> more hills!

Also when you race in PCB you get to swim in the Gulf of Mexico......my
all-time favorite swim anywhere.....definitely beats a swim in some hot
murky lake.

Susan

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

"Susan in LA" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

>"
>
>Also when you race in PCB you get to swim in the Gulf of Mexico......my
>all-time favorite swim anywhere.....definitely beats a swim in some hot
>murky lake.
>
>Susan
>

What? You got somethin' against swimming with alligators? <g>

Mike Tennent
"IronPenguin"

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

"Tom Henderson" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
news:Xns95214A4FDA4EDTomH4thBellSouthnet@216.77.18 8.18...
> "Susan in LA" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in news:E_VGc.33793$qw1.6601
> @nwrddc01.gnilink.net:
>
> > Well, yes, since you ask, I absolutely do. I used to live in Southern
> > Alabama and there was this 4-mile OWS in Mobile Bay
>
> Nothing in Mobile Bay is scarier than the water itself. I did a sprint tri
> there on a windy day, and when the waves washed over my head, which put my
> eyes only 6 inches under the surface, the water was so murky that it was
> almost pitch black.

Oh dear. That sounds so much worse than when I swam there in the early 90s.
It was murky then but only greenish-brown.....not black!

> Gross! Can't imagine spending the time in thatwater
> that it would take to swim 4 miles.

Yeah, it was somewhat terrifying.....esp. the part where you climb in a
powerboat, motor 4 miles out, and get left in the middle of the bay.
Landmarks were one sailboat anchored at each mile. One of the braver things
I've ever done in this life, now that I think about it.

> I'll stick to the merely semi-poluted
> Pensacola Bay swim. 3.6 miles is enough distance for me anyway!

That's plenty far. Pensacola is great. I did an OWS at a military base near
there one time. I remember it because (1) it was against the current and (2)
I swam into a dead cat. But that wasn't in the Bay or the Gulf; it was some
other waterway I don't remember. Should we start a "My Worst OWS
Experiences" thread or would it scare the newbies too much?

Susan

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

"Mike Tennent" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
news:[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]...
> Have you checked the sewers.... <g>
>
> I guess swimming with gators is just one of the things you have to
> accept if you're going to do tri's in the southeast. They're there,
> but the odds are astronomically small that you'll be bothered by one,
> and you just put it out of your mind.

You're absolutely right, and I try, I really do try......likewise with
sharks........it's just that, well, if I *did* just happen to get chomped by
a large aquatic carnivore, I doubt the odds would be very comforting.....at
least at that moment!

> I'm not aware of any recorded incident between a gator and a
> triathlete, though I have seen them in lakes where I just completed a
> tri. That's a little unnerving, I admit.
>
> We do take delight in bringing up the subject on the Great Floridian
> forum. Just to shake up the yankees a bit. LOL

Let 'em wonder.....

Susan

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

>
> We do take delight in bringing up the subject on the Great Floridian
> forum. Just to shake up the yankees a bit. LOL
>
> Mike Tennent
> "IronPenguin"
>

I was on holiday at Byron Bay (east coast of Australia) a few years ago
and got talking to one of the local triathletes who invited me to the
daily training swim. He said it was always funny swimming with newbies
to the area as they usually panicked when the saw sharks underneath
whereas the locals where used to it. Never did join them (funny that) so
I guess I'll never know if he was joking or not.

DaveB

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

"Susan in LA" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in news:_yFHc.43268$qw1.20563
@nwrddc01.gnilink.net:

> I did an OWS at a military base near
> there one time.

Perhaps the fort-to-fort swim? About 1.2 miles from Fort Pickens to Fort
Barrancas, held near the Pensacola pass? Also a great swim, although they
didn't have it this year due to budgetary constraints.

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

DaveB <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ].au> wrote:

>
>>
>> We do take delight in bringing up the subject on the Great Floridian
>> forum. Just to shake up the yankees a bit. LOL
>>
>> Mike Tennent
>> "IronPenguin"
>>
>
>I was on holiday at Byron Bay (east coast of Australia) a few years ago
>and got talking to one of the local triathletes who invited me to the
>daily training swim. He said it was always funny swimming with newbies
>to the area as they usually panicked when the saw sharks underneath
>whereas the locals where used to it. Never did join them (funny that) so
>I guess I'll never know if he was joking or not.
>
>DaveB

He probably wasn't joking. The Great Barrier Reef is the most fertile
shark breeding ground in the world.

The second most fertile, I've been told, is right off my little island
- St. Simons Island in southeast Georgia. I've flown over it and I can
believe it. If the tourists on the beach could see all the little
sharksies swimming nearby, they'd never go in the water.

Of course, 99% of them are small and non-threatening, but the
thought's the same.

BTW, I swim in a pool...

Mike Tennent
"IronPenguin"

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

Mike Tennent wrote:

He probably wasn't joking. The Great Barrier Reef is the most fertile
> shark breeding ground in the world.
>
> The second most fertile, I've been told, is right off my little island
> - St. Simons Island in southeast Georgia. I've flown over it and I can
> believe it. If the tourists on the beach could see all the little
> sharksies swimming nearby, they'd never go in the water.
>
> Of course, 99% of them are small and non-threatening, but the
> thought's the same.
>
> BTW, I swim in a pool...
>
> Mike Tennent
> "IronPenguin"

I didn't see any sharks while swimming in the Great Barrier Reef, but I
saw clams that could swallow me whole. Off Georgia, you're not counting
the little sand sharks? Lots of them, but they were more in danger of
being eaten by me than me by them.

rtk

(hi Mike!)

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

"Tom Henderson" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
news:Xns9523CAC4D1532TomH4thBellSouthnet@216.77.18 8.18...
> "Susan in LA" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in news:_yFHc.43268$qw1.20563
> @nwrddc01.gnilink.net:
>
> > I did an OWS at a military base near
> > there one time.
>
> Perhaps the fort-to-fort swim? About 1.2 miles from Fort Pickens to Fort
> Barrancas, held near the Pensacola pass? Also a great swim, although they
> didn't have it this year due to budgetary constraints.

That was it!

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

rtk <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in
news:[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]:

>
>
> Mike Tennent wrote:
>
> He probably wasn't joking. The Great Barrier Reef is the most
> fertile
>> shark breeding ground in the world.
>>
>> The second most fertile, I've been told, is right off my little
>> island - St. Simons Island in southeast Georgia. I've flown over it
>> and I can believe it. If the tourists on the beach could see all the
>> little sharksies swimming nearby, they'd never go in the water.
>>
>> Of course, 99% of them are small and non-threatening, but the
>> thought's the same.
>>
>> BTW, I swim in a pool...
>>
>> Mike Tennent
>> "IronPenguin"
>
> I didn't see any sharks while swimming in the Great Barrier Reef, but
> I saw clams that could swallow me whole. Off Georgia, you're not
> counting the little sand sharks? Lots of them, but they were more in
> danger of being eaten by me than me by them.
>
> rtk
>
> (hi Mike!)
>

Ruth, for the LAST time, quit biting the sharks!

tom

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

rtk <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

>
>I didn't see any sharks while swimming in the Great Barrier Reef, but I
>saw clams that could swallow me whole. Off Georgia, you're not counting
>the little sand sharks? Lots of them, but they were more in danger of
>being eaten by me than me by them.
>
>rtk
>
>(hi Mike!)

Why, of course we count the little sand sharkies! Tourists don't know
the difference. LOL.

And I agree with Tom. Stop harassing the sharks!!!

Mike Tennent

<Done any ball room dancing lately?>
"IronPenguin"

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

>Ruth, for the LAST time, quit biting the sharks!

tom

> And I agree with Tom. Stop harassing the sharks!!!
>
> Mike Tennent
>

Hey! That's the new high cartilage diet. Beats Atkins and Pritikin
hands down.

Ruth Kazez

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

I've heard the Disney races are a pain in the a$$ you have to stay in
their hotel for easy access to the transition area etc or you'll have to
take a bus in. I've also heard though that its packed. Disney draws a
nice crowd.