The first leg of the swim is down the main channel and ridiculously fast! That said, once you make the first left turn, the waves are actually coming across your body from left to right and it becomes more difficult. This was my first time swimming in salt water and is definitely a different experience!
Not a fan of the swim exit. They have ladders set up off of a dock that you have to climb up to get out. I had to wait behind a few other people for a ladder to open up and that affected my time!
By the time I exited the water, I felt like I had been sucking on a salt lick for the last 30 minutes!

I was happy with my swim. I had no real expectations because of the different information I got from many previous racers. Personally, I think the current assist is over rated.

Oh my god, this was a LONG transition! From the dock exit, you round the building, run up the parking lot, across a 4 lane road and then into T1, grab your gear bag and into the change tent. I did like the warm water "shower" that they had set up to run through and wash off the salt water!

I feel that the combined race made for an overly large transition that again impacted my time. I know I moved as fast as possible through the area, but it was just so large from end to end...

If I do this race again, I will place some flip flops somewhere by the swim exit. That was a very long run over rough pavement and really hurt my feet.

Well, with my lack of overall training, I had no real expectations of the course. I did know it would be tough with the windy conditions, but wanted to try and balance bike effort so as not to burn out my legs.
The course is so flat! There were some "elevations", but otherwise the only hills were crossing a couple bridges.
I did really well for the first 25 miles and maintained about 19MPH. Then we hit the loop and turned directly into the teeth of the wind for the next 15 miles. Ouch! My speed just plummeted and it killed my pace. Looking at my split, I ended up with a 17.3 avg for the first 39 miles.
Then at mile 40, we got to turn back and ride the wind into the finish! For the last section, I averaged 19.8 miles, so that should give an idea of the wind. I would like to think I could/should have gone even faster, but my training gaps were showing through. My legs and back were tiring and I just wanted to get done...

Not a fan of the finish, they ended the bike on a downhill. It was a dangerous place to stop and I almost wrecked into a guy that slammed his brakes right in front of me!

Do more flat training, just turning the crank...

Again, the sheer size of the transition was brutal for timing. I did appreciate being able to hand my bike off to a volunteer and grab my bag.
I did a quick job of switching shoes, grabbing my bib belt and visor. I truly wasted no time in the transition area, but when I look at the time from start to finish, I think it reflects how big the area truly was.

Nothing. I can't make the T2 smaller, and otherwise it was probably my fastest transition ever in terms of bike hand off, changing gear and running out!

So let me start by saying that I have not run a half marathon since 2015. I have not completed a run portion of a 70.3 without walking since 2014. I have almost always gotten cramps in my calves somewhere along the way and then forced to walk, so my biggest goal was to just keep running (except for the aid stations)! Didn't matter the pace, just keep a running motion and not walk unless it was within the boundaries of the aid station.
This was a beautiful run course and the weather was just about perfect! I did keep my goal of running the entire course. It certainly wasn't pretty and definitely wasn't fast, but I was still personally satisfied knowing that I maintained my goal and kept the legs moving. The mental aspect kicked in from mile 9-11 because I had not done any running over 6 miles all season. I just kept telling myself that nothing was injured, I was just tired and of course it's supposed to hurt...

I would like to get back to that stronger, faster runner I used to be

Because of time constraints, my warm down consisted of walking to the bag drop to collect my morning bag and T1 bag. Then a walk to the car to drop those and head over to T2 for my bike and T2 bag. Changed clothes in the change tent there (thank god for warm, dry clothes!), walked back to my car to load the bike and then head out of town!

I tried to grab and eat a piece of pizza before I left, but my stomach wasn't interested.


My level of training


Given that this is the first year IM has handled this race, I am sure they will improve. That being said, there is a reason why they don't usually combine both distances into a single event. I'm sure that when this was an independent event, the number of competitors was much less and then could pull it off. To give you an idea, when I was done, my garmin showed over 2 extra miles of race! That is how big the transition areas were...
They needed to have at least one additional aid station on the bike course. The first one wasn't until the halfway point and that's just too far. Especially when they advertised them to be more frequent.
They need to step it up regarding post race food. There wasn't much to choose from if your stomach can't handle greasy pizza...