The water felt good and I like the 50 yard swim to the start line. It really calmed down my nerves and I was able to swim relaxed. The only hairy parts was when I wold get run over by the two waves after me. I had heard about the sun on the way back so I just used the large building to sight.

Decided to be conservative and put on arm warmers and my tri top in T1, so that added some time. But for my first half I wanted to err on the side of caution.

If the weather seems mild I'll skip the arm warmers.

I planned on riding easy and saving it all for the run. I kept my eye on my HR and kept it below 140. It was hard on the flat, fast first half to see a lot of people passing me. On the 3 hills, I was able to keep my HR around 150 and pass a lot of people back. After the hills it was fun to pass even more people on the flats into the wind.

I planned to get most of my nutrition and hydration on the front half, but by the time I got to the back side, I had to pee bad. I kept looking for a place to go but there weren't many places to go on base. Luckily there was a porta pottie about 5 miles past the first hill and I felt much better. I kept drinking though, so I wouldn't cramp so I stopped at the third aid station to pee again. If I do this race again, I know I can spread out my nutrition and hydration more evenly.

Again I didn't want to forget anything (like my Garmin) so I took it easy but I did have to pee again so I went to the porta pottie jsut before the run start.

The sand messed with my head a little. I knew we had to run on it, but I thought only twice. Running on it 4 times sucked. My splits were sub 9 for the first half and the second half was low 9s, so I felt I paced myself well.

For my first half Ironman, I was satisfied with my result. I was hoping for a sub 6 but I'll take it and from what I learned, I have a better idea of what to expect for IMAZ.