Rough swim. Start was good, felt like I was in a good position, as wave was spread pretty evenly across start line. Almost right away, we got into lots of chop, just short of white caps. Wind blowing across course, so no advantage in either direction. Waves were tall, hindering stroke a number of times. Caught a number of waves where my hand going up in the strok never cleared the water, and then got thrown down into the bottom of the wave. I knew early on this wasn't going to be my best swim, just focused on getting through it.

sleeveless suit possibly, and sighting more frequently.

With split transitions, we were supposed to cram everything into a back so the volunteers could haul the bags up to T2, or risk leaving stuff in T1 and risk it "walking away"... so this took a bit longer.

I would be really tempted to just leave everything there and come back for it... it appeared to me as we ran past T1 twice that a lot of people had made that decision -- prior-year participants perhaps?

Really windy, many parts of which were cross winds. As much as I would have liked to be on the race wheels, I think the decision made earlier was the right one - I think I would have been fighting the bike too much otherwise... on two of the aid stations i grabbed a water, squeezed as much as i could into the aero bottle then drank what i could prior to the last trash bin. Feel like I managed the Infinit/nutrition and water intake pretty well. Never felt like I had excess sloshing around inside. Since I considered this a training event and really just wanted to make sure I didn't have another Galveston episode, pretty much just sat back and kept the pedals turning, not worrying about the clock.

probably go with the 58s, would be the only difference.

Had to open bag, because I had wrapped my T bag in a plastic garbage bag in anticipation of rain.

Not sure I would have done much differently, with the uncertain weather conditions. I am okay with this one

Started off pretty decently. Stop at mile 1 for potty break. Down and back up the hill, fully intended to walk up the hill. First 8 miles or so were at a pretty good pace, slow but not a lot of walking other than the hill.
2nd lap walked hill again, and humidity/heat was going up, so I walked a bit more. finished the last 3-4 miles alongside a Internal Medicine doc, probably walking more than I should have.
Drank water off the course, and actually successfully worked with the Perform Mango. This one isn't excessively sweet. cups were half full so it was enough for me. usually 1 cup perform and 1 water at entry to aid station, and grabbing 2 more waters exiting, 1 to drink and 1 for the head. But I am pretty sure they will have different flavor of Perform on IMFL, which will be too sweet.
The finish itself was awesome! Chrissie Wellington putting the medal around my neck. What a memory that will be!

Need to remember to put a bandanna under my hat, cuz I think it would help 1) retain more of the cool water I dumped on my head, and 2) keep some of the heat off the back of my neck.

walk to campsite, HoneyMilk and water, and followed by a Coke while walking back up to transition to pick up my stuff. Chips and another coke in finishers' tent.


Wind, mental "stress" about the Galveston episode... just wanting to get the monkey off my back.


The race itself was put on well, with plenty of volunteers. Spectator-friendly venue. Camping in park is definitely the way to go, very convenient. Having IronKids on Saturday makes this a family-friendly event. I would definitely return for this one.
My race could have been better - swim could have gone a little better, bike might have been improved with wheels and after coming out of the water in better shape. The run is actually an improvement from previous HIMs, especially with the hill x2. But the goal was to finish vertically, and that was accomplished. So I will take what I learned from this into the IMFL journey.