Good swim...time was right where I expected it to be. Had some tightness in left calf and right hammie, but managed both.

Really struggled with wetsuit (due to swelling of lower legs, actually). Was taking my time, anyway, to avoid aggravating the back injury.

Pushed this about as hard as I was comfortable with.

Very long run out to course. This went fine otherwise.

Aiming for 1:45, but temps in the 80s got to me after 5 miles. Switched to 1 min run/1 min walk from 5.2 to 11.2 miles (~10:20/mi), then 2 min run/0.5 min walk from 11.2 to 12.6 (~9:20/mi), then ran in last 1/2 mile (~8:30/mi). Just ran out of gas around mile 5 and couldn't talk myself out of walking...so went to planned run/walk.

Bagel and mini-muffin. Walked around.


Really the heat and playing it conservative with my lower back.


First time ever Malibu offered a half iron distance. They handled it pretty well. Couple nitpicks: The out-and-back at the start of the swim created a potential for head-on collisions. And the post-race food was pretty much picked over by the larger Oly field. Since it was an "inaugural" event, it might have been nice to anticipate that. Otherwise, apart from the brutal temps on the run course, this is would be a good first 70.3 for someone moving up in distance: Ocean swim could be challenging, but conditions for amazing today and the bike and run are very flat (less than 1300' of climbing on the bike...basically none on the run).