I had a ton of fun on this swim. It was challenging in multiple ways, which made it a lot more interesting than normal. The start was a real mess. I placed myself near the outside back, and then got tangled in the sloppy start - had both goggles whacked - water for the whole swim in the right one, and another kick to the face! I should have been up front - again. I was in the second to last wave, so had plenty of time to suss where people were swimming from the previous waves, made the decision right then and there to swim wide of the buoy lines. Once past the first "funnel" buoys (what a bizarre swim setup!) I picked a line well away from the buoys and got into a nice steady rhythm - saving any push for the very end. The first leg was relatively uneventful, swimming wide avoided lots of entanglements with previous waves. By the first turn I had steered clear of most of the wave. The first turn was a surprise, chop and current galore. Caught a couple of mouthfuls of water in the chop, but navigating the waves was fun. Hard to keep a straight line at this point, I kept wide but was continually pushed back to the buoy line - lots of people swimming all over the place here. Tried to catch a couple drafts, but it was impossible in the chop. At the last turn around I eased back into the buoy line and poured it on. At least I thought I turned it on, but there was either a slight undertow or weird current going on and it felt like a slow crawl into the finish. I swam til my hand touched, but still had to run in through the water quite a way.

Start at the front. Push it a lot more. I was holding back to conserve energy for later in the race, which was not necessary. I was having a blast though! Good enough for the amount of swimming I had done just prior to the race - really need to work on my swim consistency! I probably should have just swam the buoy line - probably tacked on 200 extra yards with the wide swimming.

Saw lots of people struggling on the swim - but have to give credit to the race directors - there was sooooo much support out there - kayaks, paddlers, jet-skis, pontoons, all of it. With the conditions though I don't blame em.

Didn't take advantage of the wet suit strippers. Just hustled and got er done. Nothing fancy. No socks. Got in shoes and took off - had everything attached to bike this go round!

10/50 in age group
67/266 females

Not much, except hustle more = I probably could/should shave off another 20 seconds.

Dismal ride. I planned to avg about 17, to conserve enough energy for the run, planning on ~16 for the first half, and negative split for the second. Big mistake. Should've hammered it a bit the first half, and taken it from there. Around the 2.5 hour mark I faded big time from the now oppressive heat - sudden lack of wind / little soul-sucking hills / and an over-steerage brush with gravel after a turn at high speed that gave me a lovely adrenalin spike and then crash which took about 15-20 minutes to recover from - thank you Gu! It just felt like a blast furnace out there, could not cool down. At each aid station I would grab a bottle of water, fill up the aero bottle and then pour the rest over my chest and back.

I felt my nutrition and hydration were pretty good - took 6 gu from flasks and 1 from packet (i think), drank 2.5 bottles of gatorade, and 1 bottle of nuun + kept refilling with water to sip with gels - i was taking something in every 15 minutes, gels at 15/45, electro at 30/60.

If I had known the heat was going from uncomfortable to blast furnace levels on the second half I might have hammered it out at the front end a little more. Being in the 2nd to last wave did not help at all... 45 minutes earlier would have probably meant a faster bike.

Can't really train for that kind of heat here, so it was what it was.

I grabbed two bottles of water the second I hit t2 - poured one over me immediately to cool down, and had a few sips from the other. I had been waiting for that bottle for 5 miles!

Got to rack, put on sock and shoes, poured water from the 2nd bottle on a wash towel and hung that from the back of my visor so it covered my neck (best move all day to have packed that cloth). Then sun-screened the holy living heck out of my arms, shoulders, neck, face, all of it... I learned my lesson at Oceanside! (still got some sunburn on my right shoulder and just above short line) Grabbed my race belt and took off.

42/50 in age group
222/266 females

Could probably shave time off here, but I took my time to make sure I was going to be as comfortable as possible for the run.

DEATH MARCH!

I was originally feeling really good about this run with all the marathon training runs I had been doing. I planned a 4:1 r:w for as long as possible with a strong finish. Here's what really happened:

I started out with 3:1 run:walk ratio. That lasted about a mile. I was watching my HR and knew I couldn't sustain a half marathon with it running so hot, so I walked. Ran where there was shade - which was few and far between. I was just SO FREAKING HOT. This may be TMI - but when you pee on yourself and it's cooler than your body it's downright scary sensation! I maybe ran for 20-30 minutes total. There could have been an aid station every mile and it still wouldn't have been enough to cool me down. I would get ice down my front and back and pour water at every available opportunity and a 1/4 mile down the road would be broiling again. Ice boob jiggle cracked me up every time though!

Thank goodness for all the locals out there with extra sprinklers going! Thank goodness for the AWESOME support from aid stations - there was ICE at every spot even for us strugglers at the end. With the walking I was actually feeling fantastic up til mile 9.5 - right after the 2nd hill and the long 2.5 mile slog over the shadeless pavement and heat index of >100! That's when I just wanted to give up. But at that point I was so close I was going to have to finish the darn thing no matter what!

So many people struggling - ambulances taking people away (9% of the field DNF). It was just brutal. The later aid stations had medics asking how we were doing - at least I wasn't delusional! JUST STUPID! :)

Again nutrition and hydration were spot on - took 4 roctanes from a 10oz flask, drank mostly gatorade & some extra water with gels to thirst.

What could I do differently. I was baking, the walk/run was all about managing my body temperature at that point - there was no race strategy involved.

I should have been more careful putting on my socks, the left one was a bit bunched, with all the water poured on me it formed a giant blister under the ball of my left foot that really started hurting in the later miles.

Overall RUN: HAHAHA! -> WALK! which actually was pretty good up til those last 2.5 miles. Hey I can walk a half marathon <17/mile. Woot! :)

The BROIL-down involved stepping immediately into the soaking pool. Bliss. Too bad there weren't 100 ice bags in there too! Karin and Mary had two ice-cold cokes waiting! YES! My appetite was non-existent, and beer sounded absolutely foul at that moment so I gave my chits away to Karin and Mary. After soaking for a bit I found the shade tent and immediately parked my butt down and attempted to cool off. Chatted for a while with fellow Nutso Debb, and then we took off for frozen custard and a nice long shower! I passed out almost immediately in the tent to a delicious thunderstorm which thankfully cooled things off during the night.


>100 head index. heat + humidity = unhappy kiri. The training I felt was mostly there aside from a few extra long rides I should have put in... Nothing could have prepared me for the heat.


I FINISHED - WOOHOO! 3rd half iron in the bag! Kudos to everyone who finished or even started this event, dealing with the heat required amazing mental & physical effort.

There really isn't much more to say about the race in particular except that under ideal conditions I feel like this course could have provided an awesome result, it was just challenging enough!

This event was fantastic. The volunteers, the locals, heck - everything was really well done. Amazing support. I would definitely do it again!