This was to be my first half Ironman race since Vineman 70.3 in 2010. I've had a good strong year of training and competition, and felt ready for this longer race. Rick Ferrell would be joining me. I did it "unofficial", and used my car as my transition zone, parked just 100 ft from the entrance to the regular transition spot. It lengthened my transitions, but saved me the outrageous costs charged these days to race.

The swim start was at the Boardwalk on the sand. It was the first place I spotted Ferrell, right there just moments before the gun went off. We wished each other a fine race, and at the gun, ran into the surf. Water was warm, in the low 60's, and fairly calm. The rectangular course bouys were out beyond the end of the Santa Cruz wharf. I exited the water at 33:10, and then a 2:30 minute long run to the Depot Park transition and beyond, where my car was. Pulled my bike out, and got on the course

There's Pigeon Pt Lighthouse in the distance, getting the first sunlight as fog clears. It's the turnaround for the bike.

Coming back in, passing Wilder Ranch

Along West Cliff, starting the run

It was getting hot... a grab shot from the hip

Ferrell coming back in, about mile 10. He'd just had a disagreement with some railroad tracks a few hundred yards ago. The railroad tracks won, and he wasn't happy.

The run goes out to Wilder Ranch, along the bluffs

The Tiki marked the turn around, at Wilder.

My times: Start stopwatch at start gun, then there's about 15 seconds of running before swimming began

Swim exit water 33:10

Bike start, hitting chip mat - 45:10 so 12min transition (including hit bathroom and transition at my car)

Bike end 4:10:33 (4 hrs 10min 33sec)

Run start 4:13:33 (so 3:00 transition), this is when I hit the run start timing mat

End race 7:14:54

Now, my unconventional transitions play into this, so if I'd had my typical 3:20 swim transition, and 2:00 run transition, that would have saved me 8:40+1 = 9min40sec and then my total race time would be 7hr05m14sec. My half marathon time was 3hr1min, so I just couldn't quite beat 3 hrs. But I had nothing left - no regrets, I left it ALL out on the course. I was spent, wasted, overheated. I'll make this into a web page soon, but for now, I just wanted to get my stopwatch memory offloaded before I forgot.

My left hip started hurting soon after the end of mile 1 of the run - bummer! So the last 12 miles were painful, and the last 7 miles especially, and the last 3 miles excruciatingly - I walked maybe 30% of those last 3 miles, and when I ran, it wasn't much faster than the walking.