Tournament Details Page!

2012 Charlotte Ironman - June 30, 2012

Commentaries

Debbie's Notes:

Could it have been on a hotter day?!? 105 degrees (in the shade!) Normally the Charlotte Ironman draws about 60 people out, not this year! Only 17 started and only 16 finished. This year’s courses were Renny, Hornet’s Nest, Sugaw, Reedy Creek, & Kilborne in their Worlds layout. Now that’s a challenge, plus it’s the hottest day ever recorded in Charlotte’s history! Chris Kramer did say that there would be another Ironman this year sometime after Worlds. Well, I was going to play this one and if I’m available the next one too! So I chose my team… Bob, Bruce Reynolds and the fireball James Freeze. We had a blast together and we all survived! We ate fruit and drank a lot of Gatorade and water. We all did fine. The last course, Kilborne, you could tell we were all getting a little tired. I’m so glad I chose these guys to play 12 hours of disc golf with. We started at 6 in the morning and finished with Kilborne at 6 that evening. James and I went to Icehouse to turn in the score cards and we had dinner there with the rest of the survivors. I was the only woman that played (not surprising.) Bruce was the only advanced guy (Robby Kyle played open.) James took 3rd in intermediate. This was a lot of fun.

Bob's Notes:

I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to play & complete this challenging event. Three and a half weeks ago, I was in a physician's office, having been in intense pain and unable to play disc golf in weeks. We thought it best that I cancel any plans to compete in the Ironman tournament this year.

However, I responded relatively quickly to treatment and couldn't keep myself off the disc golf courses for long. I worked my stamina back up to at least being able to play a full course (usually without pain) and then began reconsidering the Ironman possibility. Using that as motivation, I worked myself back into playing condition. I requested that our team have 4 members just in case I was unable to complete the competition because of my injury, but in my mind, I was determined to complete it if at all possible. The news of a 106 degree weather forecast wasn't exactly cause for celebration, but it wouldn't stop me either. Neither would the fact that I had to go to work after the Ironman competiton as it was the last day of the month (very important monthly processing required at my job).

Despite all the deterants and obstacles, this turned out to be a fabulous event. Only 17 players actually participated (16 of which completed it) so it was much smaller than similar events from previous years.

Debbie picked a great team and we had a fabulous time despite all kinds of challenges. We kept well hydrated and our plan to play all of the open (sunny) holes first worked flawlessly. How well we prepared for (and overcame) the heat, and how well we all got along were my favorite parts of this particiular event. My very erratic & poor play and the painful rash i had to endure were my least favorite parts of this event. I still have a very positive feeling/memory of this year's event though (whereas last year's was so badly stained by the evil Hornet's Nest park patrons) and I look forward to possibly doing the "part 2" Charlotte Ironman event if we're available.

As far as my play, I had my worst score ever at each of the 5 courses. Renny & Sugaw were probably my best (least awful) courses of the day... the other 3 were just flat-out embarrassing. Some shots (like Renny #6) were just tough breaks, but most of the time it was just me messing up normally simple shots. Blame it on only using 3 discs all day, my recent injury, the tough world's layouts, the extreme heat, or whatever... but ultimately, I just played poorly, yet I had a blast anyway. Thank you James, Bruce, and Debbie for a great day of disc golf!