Whirlpool Steelhead 70.3 Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

A beautiful swim with plenty of large buoys. A gentle swell but manageable. Most tiring part was the run into the water. Sun was just high enough not to be a serious problem.

At the finish, crossed a sandbar and stood up to run in. Then the water got deep enough to swim again, so I did.

"ON YOUR LEFT." Unbelievably crowded bike course. Constant passing (mostly being passed); the fast people in the later waves had to get through all of us. Mostly pretty civil with the exception of a few diskholes.

A lot of very bad road surfaces, resulting in ejecta of every kind. I saw bottles, tires, an entire XLAB with cages, cartridges, gel flasks, gloves.

Between the two (crowds and bad roads) this took a lot of concentration.

Good aid stations with bottle handoffs; used only one myself.

Saw one guy get a yellow-card penalty from a marshal on a motorcycle, but I am not sure what for.

For me this was about keeping HR under control in the heat, which reached about 82. Had to hold the pace way back for fear of blowing up.

A beautiful swim off a clean sandy beach. Crowded bike course and a very hot run course. Nicely organized except for the AM traffic. A race worth doing.

I met my goal of going under 6 hrs for the first time. I wish the run had been better--this is a lot slower than my open HM time, but in the heat I had to hold back. So I'm satisfied.