This was my first time swimming in the ocean. I've done lake swims before with no problems, but getting out there with the waves was an education. After the first 20 meters, I thought I was going to be sea-sick with all the up and down. Swallowed a lot of sea water too. I managed to stay out to the right side for most of it, and thus avoided the beating that others took.

Do something about chaffing of the suit around the neck. I had never had problems with it before, but something about the sand, salt-water, or waves caused me a lot of chaffing around the neck. I stopped twice during the swim to try to adjust what ever was rubbing me, and during transition had one of the volunteers check me out just to be sure.

I had a volunteer check out my neck, to make sure the chaffing from the wet-suit didn't need bandaging. Made sure to get plenty of warm clothes on, and was out. From my previous half-ironman, I knew that I needed to catch my breath before jumping on the bike, or it would really plague me for the first couple of miles, so I did that, and was happy with the results.

We had a 14mph headwind/crosswind for the first 80 miles. It really affected everyones performance. I made sure to spend as much time as I could in the aero-bars, and that helped. I also kept reminding myself to save my energy for the run. That definitely paid off. Aid stations were well placed, and though I didn't need it, it seemed that support staff were always close by too.

Saw my wife, and gave her a big kiss. Then off for the run. Even though it had warmed up some, it was still a little on the cool side, and I knew as it got darker, it would get colder, so I decided to keep my long sleeve under shirt on. It was a wise decision. Even though I may have been just a tad warm for the first couple of miles, by the end of the run I was really in good shape temperature wise.

I started off with the intention of running from aid station to aid station. That lasted for probably the first 6 miles or so, and then my breaks started to become more frequent. However, I managed to keep all of my breaks really short (20-30 seconds). I had heard that the chicken broth was great, and they were right. Mixing that with pretzels seemed to really invigorate me. At the half-way point I grabbed an extra pair of socks out of my bag and put them on my hands to keep them warm. By the end, I was just passing everyone. All of the participants were spread out, and I would run from person to person, walk with them for a few seconds, and then run to the next.

Got the medal, hat, t-shirt and then grabbed some pizza and water. It was good to eat something real. I knew that if I sat down, I wasn't going to be able to get back up, so we walked the 1/2 mile back to the condo. I ate while walking and told my wife all about the experience. Then showered and crashed in bed.


Not training in the ocean I think really affected my swim time. My second lap was 14 minutes longer than the first lap.
The wind was also a major factor. It not only added about 1.5 hours to my bike time, but took that extra amount of strength out of me which slowed my run time.


The only issue I saw was registration. We were supposed to register by 4:00pm on Thursday. We arrived at 2:00pm, and stood in line for 1.5 hours, but made it in. There was still a line, just as long, when I was done. It seems that they could have done more of that work in parallel.