I signed up for the 1/2 IM as a 'B' race. I have 2 more 1/2's coming up and this race was to be a guage for where my fitnes levels are.

Preparations and all went well - until.... I had been getting some very intense burning sensations in my lower back - right side for a few weeks. Finally went to the Dr. He found that I had dangerously high Potassium levels in my blood. Did a CAT scan and all was well there (phew!) - still trying to figure out the elevated levels - Doc said that it was okay to race if I did not take in any potassium. Which means that I could not use my Powergels, sports drink, recovery drinks etc. as they all have potassium. So I had a day to find replacements - which I was able to, but that threw my entire hydration and nutrition strategy out the window.
So I broke the cardinal rule of Tri's and used new products on race day. And that shakes the confience a bit as well.

The race started late - almost a 1/2 an hour. Which is quite annoying. People were arriving late so they delayed the start. No fair...I got up at 2:00 a.m. to get to the race venue on time.

So the race eventually starts and the swim went okay. Still need to get more comfortable with open water swims, or more precisely the thrashing that goes on. It really throws me off of my rhythm
T1 was quick. Started out on the bike. My favorite leg. The night before as I was cleaning up the bike I saw that the magnet came loose from the epoxy. I have HED-3 wheels - tri-spoke - so the magnet needs to be adhered to the wheel. At least the cadence meter worked. The bike leg went well. Had a good steady ride. Still had some issues with the back, but rode through it.
Only problem was with the dismount - I left my shoes on the pedals and ran from the dismount line. One shoe popped loose as the pedal came around an the shoe hit the ground. It was 20 yards before I realized it and went back to retrieve it. ARG!

T2 went pretty quick too. The run was quite hot. Luckily much of it was a trail run through the camp grounds. It also went over some rough rocky areas, which had I known that would have used my trainers rather than the racing flats. The first loop went okay - was on pace. Then on the second loop of the run - This is where the using new products started to rear its ugly head - felt like I had a bowling ball in my stomach - and the body was complaining about that as well. That did slow my pace up a bit.

However, I ended up finishing up with a 5:03:44 77'th out of 948 overall. It was a personal best.