This was my OWS with the most people and longest distance to date, resulting in the typical sporadic kicks to the head. Overall, was able to remain calm and keep everything under control.

Swim pace has been consistent during all of my races to date (2 Sprints and 2 Oly tris) and felt good coming out of the water at 42 min. Warm water swim so no wetsuits, but had benefit of increased buoyancy due to salinity of the ocean (vs training on the swimming pool).


Continue to increase a portion of my swim training on improving speed/conditioning vs. heavy focus on improving form.

Since this was a longer bike ride, I took a little more time at T1 making sure I had everything I needed (nutrition, hydration, Garmin) in order to avoid any costly mistakes. I had my Garmin 305 strapped on my bike, so all I had to do was to turn it on as soon as I arrived from the swim.

Practice my transitions and specifically learning to mount with the shoes clipped on the bike.

I started the bike segment at close to 12pm and the heat was already noticeable at 95F according to my bike computer. Overall, I was trying to have a good bike ride that would allow me to save some energy for the run. So I tried to pedal at a constant pace of around 18 mph and keep my HR b/n 155 and 160 bpm, while enjoying it, hydrating well and keeping on a big smile (most of the time). I was carrying two bottles with gatorade mixed with Carbopro and got an aerobar bottle installed to carry water the day before. I focused on staying well hydrated and refilled water and gatorade several times at the replenishment stands. In addition, I had three cliff shot gels in my bento box which I consumed every 45 minutes.
Overall, regardless of the high heat, I felt I had done a good effort in the bike without going too hard and that I had saved enough energy for a good run. By the time I finished the bike, I was 3:55 into my race and I thought I had a good chance of completing it below a total time of 6:00.
However, I was concerned to have seen a training partner, who is way stronger and more experienced than me, along with several others bikers, who bonked during the bike segment and had to be taken to the paramedics.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/106616160

Train harder, especially on improving my endurance and overall speed.

Lost time removing Garmin 305 from the bike to strap on my wrist. Improved a little getting running shoes on by getting elastic lock laces

Practice more my transitions

After getting off my bike, the computer was reading 100F. I though I felt good at that point and that it was feasible to shoot for a 2 hour half marathon.
The big surprise came when I started running and felt the effect of the extreme heat. After starting my run at an easy pace, both ears got clogged all of a sudden, which made me dizzy and had to slow down in order to regain control. After running at what I though was an easy pace (9:45 min. miles) I began getting stomach cramps and started feeling exhausted. So I new it was not going to be a good run anymore and focused on just trying to finish it.
The heat was so intense that even though I stopped at every hydration stand for water and gatorade non-stop throughout the race (drank like a fish) along with the cool sponges, I felt thirsty the whole race. I also went through three cliff shot gels, one every 1/2 hour.
Even though there were moments where I was hit by negative thoughts and doubted if I could finish, I knew from the beginning that it was going to be tough and that not finishing was not an option. So I tried to remain positive and to enjoy the experience of just being able to be competing (at this point I had seen around 5 more people that I knew and who were strong competitors, drop out). So at the end I bumped into a friend who was also hurting and we decided to run together, supporting each other and trying to make it fun, through the remaining part of the run.
I ended up running the 1/2 Marathon in 2:43, 43 min longer than my initial goal and my slowest official time for that distance. However, I really struggled with the heat conditions, and since it was my first 1/2 M tri, I was just happy to finish.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/106616167

Work on increasing my aerobic base and do more/longer bricks (bike/run) to get better at Tri run. Also try to prepare better for extreme heat conditions.

Met with friends at the finisher's tent and had a lot of water/Gatorade and a bowl of fruit to cool down.
After leaving the race to go home and unwind, I really felt weak and got the chills for a while. Probably due to dehydration, sun exposure and consuming to many gels/gatorade, I also could not drink nor eat anything for about 3 hours after the race. Eventually, I was able to drink some fluids and have a light dinner, while feeling a little better.



The extreme heat, b/n 92-100F for most of the race, it really took a toll on me, as well as other competitors.


Overall, the race was well organized. However, I believe it was a big mistake to have scheduled the start time at 11am, which led to competing into the hottest part of the day. This resulted in a good number of people dropping out, due to the extreme heat. For the next one, a good starting time would be 5-6am.