my swim was, for me, relatively awesome. beautiful river, beautiful temps. For the first time in a race I found myself enjoying the swim.

Not freak about the swim - it's an easy, fun swim.

slow transition - the changing tent was at one end of the transition area. I took my time.

perhaps move a little faster.

Difficult bike course. It felt like a survival course by the end of the bike.

I packed for 1 e-cap on the hour, gels every 30 minutes. I left a cherry coke and a sandwich in my special needs, which was a welcome change from the gels. I felt bloated and gross about 1/2 way into the bike, due to the heat.

I nearly spewed coming up chalk hill the 2nd time, my stomach really didn't care for the effort I had to put in.

I'm pretty sure I have a faster bike time in me, this day wasn't it.

Do more hill training. Also, pack a cooler for the special needs (bike) -would have made my drink nice and cold.

Not sure about the nutritional strategy - it got old after awhile, but it worked. Mostly.

I walked into transition, I took my time going from bike to run. It was hot.

Made a fatal error leaving transition and put ice under my hat; went into thermal shock within 5 minutes (felt dizzy, short of breath, genuinely panicked). It took 1 loop of walking the run course before I felt recovered from this experience.

2nd and 3rd loops were much better - 3rd loop was in the dark, it was nice and cool. I am really glad I packed a flask of hammer gel in T2 (special needs), clif shot was not working well for me.

I am also really glad I packed my headlamp in T2 (special needs), I needed it for the 3rd loop!

I found a nutritional strategy for the run by the 2nd loop and stuck with it (hammer gel, e-cap, coke and water). With this strategy, I felt like I could have kept going after the run was over.

Not put ice under my hat ever again.

I did not want to sit down, because i knew I would not want to get up. I didn't really start to settle until we got back to the hotel.

I took an ice bath, followed with a warm shower. I think this helped my recovery.


heat


Vineman had small t-shirts available when I finished. That's better than any 70.3 I've done.

For a "C student" race, this is a pretty great race. The venue is extraordinary. The weather was uncalled for.