1/2 Ironman Event Report

First, a disclaimer.  I know it's my responsibility to know the course, it's my responsibility to research the race director, etc.

With that out of the way, I will never do a race with this specific director again.  I knew going in that the swim would be in the river, the bike would generally be on the IMKY course and the run would be hilly (IMKY is nearly flat).

But I do expect the course to be measured correctly, aid stations to stay open until all racers are off the course, etc.  None of that happened.  And to top it off, the director seemed to do anything he could to make the course as hard as possible.

On to the race report.  Swim was a two loop course.  Unlike Ironman where the upstream part of the swim is protected with very little current, this one was tough.  I've done 1500 meters in as little as 32 minutes in other open water races and yesterday the clock read 1 hour 4 minutes for 1931 meters.  I can't confirm but I've also heard varying reports that the course was longer than the promised 1.2 miles.  I can confirm that both the bike and run courses were long by my GPS watch.

My goal was to do a 3.5 hour bike split (16 mph) but averaged 15.5 over 3:44 on the couple mile longer than promised 56 mile bike.  This including a couple very difficult sections not on the IMKY course.

Run was terrible.  I didn't run much and had to take a bathroom break in there.  With the wicked hills and aid stations closing early, my 1/2 marathon (plus an extra mile or more) was 3:28.  Pitiful but I persevered.

Grand total:  8:23 on a just brutal course.  As I heard many of my fellow competitors comment.  If you can handle this brutal course, you can certainly do IMKY.  I hope so.