It was cold and it looked like it was going to rain. Lost time trying to put on jacket and gloves. It was not happening quickly so I didn't put on the jacket; stuffed the long gloves in my shorts. Did not need either of them. There was only about 5 minutes or so of hard cold rain.

Forget about the jacket and gloves if temp is low 60s. Heart rate was in the 150s throughout the race, so I stayed warm enough that way.

A good ride, but nothing spectacular. Had some fun riding with #210. Congrats to your finish Luke of Leavenworth.

Nothing.

There was no volunteer at the exit of T2 and somehow I ended up running out of a slightly different exit. I was able to get over to the right lane, but it was a bit of indicator of how the day was going.

No problem with heat as it was very cool. Fortunately no rain on this portion. The last mile or so was on a dirt (muddy) trail. Made me think about xTerra events and how that might be fun to try sometime.

Legs were really heavy on the run for the first 2 miles or so. This was race #6 for me in the past 2 years... so I am getting to understand what that feels like and means.

Drinking and eating. Standing around under the shelter to avoid the rain... waiting to see the race results. There was a power-outage (generator went down?) while we waited. This slowed the return of data and we all watched as the finish-line arch collapsed as air pressure was lost. I got a great picture of two volunteers holding up the arch as the finishers ducked under to finish.


Need to be faster at everything. T1 was the weakest link, then run, then swim, T2, then bike.


Having been at the Boise Ironman 70.3 the previous weekend (admittedly more expensive)... this course paled by comparison in nearly every aspect. It was wet and a bit cold, but this is Washington so I am not sure that I can give the race director a full pardon. Parking was a problem right away, managing 4 races at once appeared to challenge their system, lots of twists and turns in and out of transitions, mile markers on bike and run courses absent, food and drink okay to below average, cheap T-shirt and no finishing medal. Pricing seemed to be the same as the Olympic events that I did last year, so where did the proceeds go?

Good event to get out for experience early in the season, but did not have the feel of a great event... particularly for beginners. If I were doing this again, I would find a different venue.