For those interested, I'll try to summarize the race day.

During our pre-race dinner on Saturday, people were not-so-quietly pre-occupied with their cellphones...whispering of a "TSUNAMI headed for Hawaii" was causing a disturbance in the room. Finally the guy on the stage announced that there was a Tsunami warning and a wave was headed straight to Maui at 10:28pm. All due to a 7.7 earthquake off the coast of BC Canada.

We were pretty much in disbelief, on the eve of XTERRA World Championships 2012! After the dinner we all departed to anxiously watch news reports on TV and the web as to what the Tsunami was planning on doing to us. Evacuations, emergency sirens, and mayhem proceeded to disrupt the night. Luckily we weren't in an evacuation zone, and decided we were safe and I faded off to sleep by 10pm.

Waking up around 2am to find out the "All Clear" was given and no danger was present. Race would be on, but how about that ocean swim ? TBD...

XTERRA announced in the AM that the swim would be ON. I was actually very glad, as the alternative was a 4K run as substitute...yuck!  Although the shorebreak was huge due to a big swell that had come in.

Waking at 5am, made our beloved pot of coffee, showered and made a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs and toasted bagel. Got my stuff together, filled the camelbak and bottles, loaded nutrition. Got the sunscreen and trisuit on.

We headed out to ride a mile or so down the road to transition. Beautiful morning, and no sign of the Tsunami activity the night before, as if it never happened. A few weary eyes though!

High up on the hill was the transition, and my spot was at the very top. Quite a long grassy hill run from the beach to the bike. Was not going to be easy.

Stood in a LONG line for body marking, was worried we wouldn't get done in time for the race start. But miracles happen, everyone got body marked.

Had time for a quick swim, and get used to the shorebreak, which had overhead sets coming in. Then a short beach run. Helicopters madly buzzing overhead to get shots of the corral of racers.

Wave starts this year, pros went first..fairly uneventful. And after about 2 minutes, they released the herd of Male AGers...right into a huge wave ! Bodies clashing everywhere, I got nailed in the nose and head. Stuggled to regain balance and head back out, getting pummeled.

Finally out to the crowded mass of triathletes struggling to get through the chop. Headed out to the first buoy. A "M" style course, we rounded the buoy and headed back to shore for a beach run to a second loop. Got totally SMASHED in the shorebreak, exiting to the beach...and then creamed again headed back out.

Total CHAOS with swimmers drifting too far down into HEADON collisions with swimmers going out. Many reported people cutting the course, never good to hear. This needed a tighter control.

The swim finished up with a beach run to grass, up the hill to transition. Got onto the bike pretty fast and out to the dusty hills...

Grinding up the first hill was evil to the quads and calves, a few walking due to steepness.  This was early for that I thought.  Very sandy in many spots, making it hard to negotiate quickly. Bikers getting stuck and clogging up the path. Most of the first half was single track/narrow, and then opened up to wider dirt/jeep roads.

Got very hilly after about 3 miles, and continued the uphill battles till about mile 8 or so. Beautiful views of the ocean and mountains. Too bad I missed the valley view of the new part of the course, guess I was preoccupied by race.

Race got real intense after the climbs, as we screamed downhill in crazy dust clouds, and rutty, rocky jeep roads/cane roads. Abrupt sandy turns caused some wipeouts, and congestion.

The heat wasn't too bad and had a few drizzles of rain hit us here and there. The course was taking it's toll by mile 14 on me, as my right knee started to give out. I had to nurse that though the remainder of up and down sections with some hard hills. Then back to the single track area, for about 3 miles and then out to a fast pavement back to transition. Yay, the bike was done!

Everyone looked like they'd been at war, so dirty and wasted looking.

Fast T2, despite the pains and grueling bike...cruised out for the run. Felt pretty good, as we headed back out to the hills for the 10k.

This course is essentially 3 miles up to a lake, and then back down. It just saps the life out of you.

Now the left knee decided to start killing me by the time I crawled up to the lake, tried to keep up the pace despite the pain. Popped another 2x caffeine gel to work some magic.

The downhill parts were technical at times, leaping over logs and ducking tree branches. Was careful not to "bean" myself like I've done in the past trail runs (wearing a hat).

By mile 5, I was spent...my left hamstring twitched and threatened to lock up in a spasm. I quickly reached for the salt pills and downed one immediately. Just hoped I could hold off the cramps till the finish line. Headed up the last sharp climb (yes not all downhill)

Then the final mile - ocean and hotel in sight ! I was so stoked to know I would be done in less than 10minutes. 

Hit the beach for their little torture sand run, and then onto the hotel grass...to the finish line.

So glad to get that wet cold Gatorade towel they give out. Felt so good to finish.