IM St. George

One of my BT friend's husbands was in the race and she posted FB photos, huge winds.  Whitecaps on the lake.  He pulled out after most of the swim puking.  It's a hard day out there, he's done CdA a few times so it isn't like he can't handle an IM.

Guess I'd better go check on our locals (heard that one is on run already and another two past first bike split.)

That's BT's velcromom's husband I believe

A friend posted this on his facebook and he DNF`ed

"All of a sudden at mile 65 ish they stop about 10-20 of us saying we just missed the preliminary bike cutoff by 2lousy minutes. The number of bikers quickly swells as everybody is kind of in disbelief. " 

He is not a strong swimmer and swam just over 2Hours and missed the bike cutoff

Bryan Dunn is 2nd in his AG 7.22 miles into the run!

Go Bryan!

Run strong Bryan!

Not sure if IM live is right as it looks not updated. Has anyone seen Bryan finish?

They just posted on IronmanLive that Bryan won his age group!  Congrats Bryan.

Some of our 2012 Ironman St. George Men's age group champions
Tejada, Raul 2/1/1 24/M18-24 01:05:37 05:33:01 03:32:06 10:15:18
Hemming, Taylor 9/6/1 28/M25-29 01:02:09 05:52:41 03:04:45 10:02:54
Christenson, B.J. 1/5/1 34/M30-34 00:58:38 05:59:28 03:06:42 10:09:23
Sloan, Chuck 7/3/1 35/M35-39 01:03:10 05:44:57 03:07:26 10:00:02
Dunn, Bryan 21/2/1 44/M40-44 01:08:23 05:36:05 03:29:24 10:18:48
Stephens, Dan 12/1/1 49/M45-49 01:10:51 05:41:26 03:37:36 10:34:50
Poisson, John 4/1/1 50/M50-54 01:05:30 06:06:07 03:38:05 10:56:51
McCluskey, Dan 1/1/1 55/M55-59 01:10:31 06:04:23 03:56:56 11:19:26

When he crossed the line they must have had the pro time up.

Congrats Bryan!

You accomplished what you set out to do win your AG. Putting that big goal out there and accomplishing it....very impressive!

Yup.  that was my hubby that got pulled.  He's done 4 IMs (Canada, Moo, CdA, AZ) in the last 3 years.  He's a 1:08 swimmer, 11 hour Ironman.   It was unreal out there.  The rescue boats were back and forth...non-stop....full.  At least 1 kayak turtled. People were yelling for help all over.   Unlike most IMs, you could swim for a while without seeing another person...or buoy.  Buoys were blown off course.  Some people made it back with a car to get their bikes, we didn't, and they told me that over 150 were transported to the finish line.  Mike Reilly annonced that it was the toughest US IM swim ever.....Meredith Kesler said the swim felt she was dropped into an episode of Lost.  WTC let the athletes that were pulled from the water, and those that missed the cutoff (lots) finish the race without a chip.  Nice call, I thought - don't know how many did it.  Jeff did NOT - but he's out riding the bike course today. 

HUGE CONGRATS to those that finished. Tough day, way to make it happen!!!

eta: Jeff was seasick, it sounds like.  puking up a storm.  There are some really good descriptions, including Bryan's, over at ST

Me?  I'm exhausted!!

IMSG yesterday was my first Ironman ever... and I finished!

Are they all this tough?

Holy crap it was gnarly out there!!!

About 10 minutes into the swim the wind started blowing, hard. By 20 minutes, I had waves coming over my head from behind. My wife at the start line said sand was blowing all across the lake. At the 2nd turn when you start heading back, I only saw 1 buoy the entire 1.8km return trip. The Salt Lake newpaper reported winds were 40mph and waves up to 5'.

In the water, we could see nothing, but more waves. Maybe another swimmer every few minutes. I would pause and find the rock island since I knew we passed around it. That was my only guide for the entire return trip. I thought I'd do a 1:15 swim, but I think it ended up around 1:40. Had fears of not making 2:20 since I didn't have a watch.

You couldn't stop and catch a breather because the waves were in your face and you'd just be pushed backward. Couldn't side stroke or breast stroke because the waves would just pour over your head. I literally felt like I was fighting for survival. Made it though, and VERY proud of that.

Then onto the bike. Same 40mph winds on the bike. I should have been able to ride a nice 6 hour leg according to previous trips on the route and normal pacing. Yesterday, 7:30 for my bike. When I was passed by the 2 leaders, riders were pushing along at a blistering 6mph on a 'false flat' into canyon headwinds. The leaders BLASTED by probably doing about 10-12MPH.

So you can put the hardest ride I've ever done on top of the hardest swim imaginable.

The run was just dealing with the energy you spent battling the winds and this stupid course they laid out. Zig-zag-zig-zag, etc, etc. Great for spectators I guess, but having to cover all those back and forth's really just made it an uninteresting and therefore psychological challenge.

I ended up finishing about 2.5 hours slower than what I was hoping for, and felt capable of.But being that there was a whopping 28% DNF rate on this race, I was happy to make it to the end of my first IM.

28%... does that qualify this as the most difficult Ironman in history? Sure as hell felt like it should be.

I give mad props to anyone who survived that swim. It was 'survival' out there, bottom line.
Good job to any other BTers who survived this race yesterday!

Suzanne, so sorry to hear about how your swim went. I couldn't hear anyone screaming for help out there. It was just too crazy out. Such a change from every other morning we were out there.

Personally, I really felt like I was battling for survival more than swimming in a race.

Its good you pushed thru and took up their offer to still participate in the race. I'm very happy to hear that. Sounds like you are taking a positive away from the experience. I heard of so many others who were angry, frustrated. Very happy to hear you kept it positive

I was going to share another experience. As I was exiting up the ramp, a guy coming up at the same time was being told he had to swim back out and around the final red buoy because he cut inside of it... probably didn't even realize it because visibility was so hard. I can't imagine thinking you're done and having to swim back out and around. Harsh.

And the guy who helped me with my T2 bag said he was on a kayak at the lake earlier and was washed off of it. Lost the kayak and had to swim to the island for a rescue. He said a few of the safety people had lost their kayaks. Scary for them! The AtoZion You Tube video just doesn't do justice to what we went thru on the far end of the lake.

i read a report on Facebook from Iron Cowboy James Lawrence, said it's the worst swim conditions he's seen, if the race had been started half an hour later it would have turned into a duathlon.  Over 400 people rescued.  Sh*t.

Scary stuff, IM is not a reason to die! 

Well done to anyone who finished it, to anyone who DNF'd - well done for trying, not sure I wouldve got into the water at all!