A few people asked for reports on the race, despite the updates that Mellsy and I provided from the interweb caff, and despite half the forum watching the feed. Here's a quick one.
Everybody was worried before the race. Universally we'd been secretly benking on a fast course and good times, but when we arrived the conditions were awful. Very hot, very humid such that i couldn't see properly due to sweat pouring down the lenses of my glasses when i went for a short ride to test that i'd put my bike back together properly, and worst of all, very windy.
The wind made the sea very scary, and the red flags were out all week. One poor guy passed away on the Tuesday when he swam out in it alone, respects to him and his family.
We went out in spite of the danger, just 6 of us, because we'd experienced nothing like it and we didn't want to be 'virgins' to it on race day. It was actually quite good fun getting through the white stuff, and Mike decided that we'd go out another 150 strokes so, as a group, we went out 400m or so. Coming back in, being the weaker swimmer by far, i got separated from them and caught in a riptide. I was swimming hard and making no discernible progress for about 5 or 10 minutes that seemed like an hour. I thought it a real possibility that I might have got myself into serious trouble. But then the surface sweep took me out of it, and i made it home. [i was later told that all you need to do in a riptide is to swim parallel to the shore, so you find your way out of it. riptides are apparently very narrow channels of current flowing out to sea]
On race day, the gods blessed us. Little wind, no humidity, flat sea, hot but not scorching. Well organised, IM North America!
Id let my tires down the day before because i didn't want them blowing in the heat while the bike was racked. So body marking and getting my tires pumped was a bit hectic. Also i wanted a warm up swim, and to get a feel for any sweep tides.
Mellsy was struggling with his tyres, i saw him pushing his girl's bike from one pump volunteer dude to the next, but never mind, i was sorted!
