My 7:20 wave got moved up to 7:10 shortly before the race started as the weather report indicated a strong line of thunderstorms were due to move in to the area. They wanted to get everyone out of the water before the storms rolled in. The clouds on the west side of the reservoir that I was facing while I waded in were quite ominous and would unfortunately back up their nasty demeanor. As soon as our wave went off the wind started picking up and the water became extremely choppy making it increasingly difficult to time your breathing correctly to avoid a mouthful of water. The swells were almost to the point of causing some nausea.? I still havent figured out how to draft properly. I took off fast to get out in front of my wave and settled into a comfortable pace, but ended up in a no mans land for most of the swim. I was pretty happy overall considering the conditions.

I took my sweet time in transition as the rain was going to be starting any minute and all of my personal belongings were going to get soaked. The weather forecast the night before called for the storms to hit after 2PM, so I never took any precautions. I burned some time wrapping my cell phone up as much as I could. Im truly shocked that my time is as good as it was right around 2 minutes. Reminder for next time though that I need to plan ahead and bring some plastic bags as part of my kit no matter what.

On to the bike. A 3 hour thunderstorm. Blinding rain, borderline sleet/hail at some points … the only way to tell where you were going was to ride on the white stripe and hope for the best. It was absolutely demoralizing. Add to this I couldnt hold aero for more than 10 minutes the entire time because my butt was hurting so badly. I kept having to get up and stretch and lose speed while I found a position which I could bear for a few minutes. This ride was a true mental torture test, while I rationalized the effects of pain on my body and tried to determine what I was willing to put up with. I never stopped, I never got off, but I thought about it for many many miles. It wasnt until about mile 42 that I decided to drop the hammer and power it home just so I could GET OFF THE BIKE!! I have no clue how I was able to hold an average above 20mph considering the conditions. I had wrote off any hopes of going sub 5 hours and was just going to turn this into a training day.

I was just so happy to be off of the bike, and not real excited about putting wet shoes and socks on so once again I took my sweet time getting out of T2.
After the first mile ticked away and I realized I could hold 8 minute miles I was starting to think this sub 5 hour race might not be out of reach anymore. I decided to just run as fast as my body wanted to and see what pace I could hold. I planned on running 8:15s and being content with that, but turns out my body felt like 7:45′s instead. I took the time for a bio-break at the second mile and hopped right back on the course with a few 7:30 miles just for fun. Around the halfway point I did the math again and figured that after doing 6.55 in 45 minutes I could take up to an hour to do the second 6.55 and still come in sub 5 hours.

Did I mention that I failed out of engineering school because I was bad at math?

Anyways, I didnt figure it out until later on that day, so I ran the whole way back plotting my strategy around the fact I could run well into the 9′s and still make it under 5. I tried to hold the same pace as I went out on, but the rains had stopped, the temps jumped nearly 10 degrees and the humidity started to zap precious energy. The heat, the hills and my faulty mathematics all started to conspire against me. I walked a few of the aid stations after mile 8 and walked a little bit of one of the hills. My nutrition strategy was working well and I was taking in ALOT of calories, but my legs were just starting to seize up and my 5 hour goal started slipping away. I charged home to an eager yet soggy crowd thinking I might have cracked the barrier, only to realize later on that I didnt start the race at 7:20 like I was supposed to. They moved us up to 7:10 so that 4:52 that I thought I had pulled off, was actually a 5:02! DOH! Oh well, it was still 12 minutes faster than my only other half ironman, and considering the elements how in the world could I complain.

The supporters for this race were absolutely amazing. There was a 1:1 ratio of volunteers to participants and you could really feel it. I never passed an aid station that wasnt packed with cheerful staff extremely organized and encouraging you the whole way.