Kent,
I have come to realization that I suck when it comes to these distance races. I was behind Gebi when you guys tangled on the beach and I laughed. I thought two less people to worry about. Then 5 minutes later you guys blazed passed me. WTF!!! Am I dragging an anchor. I kept loosing my board, leg kept cramping up but I proceeded on. By the time I passed Patrick's you guys were specs on the horizon. At that point I said, I will at least conserve my energy and finish. Once I past PAFB, I hit the shoreline to makeup lost time and was cruising at a good clip. Then mother nature hit me with a few waves and lost my board on the shoreline and I walked up wind to get it. I was finally in a grove making decent time and then I had another wipe out. I got back to my board and started cruising again and noticed my inner bag to my camel pack had fallen out. So I grabbed it and held it in my teeth and rode for a mile until I saw some people that could assist me on putting it back in. I asked this lady if she could put my bladder back in and she saw the yellow Gatorade and she thought it was piss. After convincing her and her boyfriend what it was they helped me out. Then 10 miles later I saw a storm approaching coming in off the water and I was going to play it safe and put my kite down until it passed. I met up with Eric and Al, we held out until it cleared. We all left about the same time and within 30 minutes my camel pack came out again. I decided to just take it off rather than trying to find someone to help me out again. When we all arrived at the half way point we were greeted by some smiling faces. I was told that Keith and AJ couldn't make it around Sebastian Inlet. Since we were the last of the group of guys we decided to call it quits and get a ride to the finish. Keith's wife Patty grabbed us and picked up AJ and Keith down the road. Thanks Patty!!
This wasn't as bad as Jupiter but it's like comparing apples to oranges. We are able to ride 90% of the coastline and we don't have to worry about sea walls. The only thing that made it hard was the storm and the wind switching.
Sean, you're definitely a inspiration to all. But I think you have a big advantage over me. Your front calf muscle didn't cramp at all now did it.
Thanks AJ for hosting this event. Big props to you for putting this together in a short amount of time.
Great to see some old friends again and make some new ones.