This was a deep water start about 50' off shore in warm water. I had five minutes to tread water and get my breathing under control. The starting area was quite wide so we had lots of space. Started in the middle of the pack and swam OK. My legs were lead from the bike but I had a good rhythm going. Relaxed and swam. No problems sighting or staying on course. The field really stretched out and there was very little traffic at the 2 bouy's (wave included all males under 39). This is the straightest I ever swam in a race. Things were looking good until I was 200m from shore and suddenly got multiple leg cramps. Quads and hammys got very tight. Uh oh. I had to float for a bit, really focus on relaxing, and swam it in. My neck got tight towards the end, probably because I wasn't rolling enough. Disappointed with my time as I expected to be under 15 minutes.

Skip the bike before the race! I suspect the combination of biking 11 miles over rolling hills + full wetsuit + warm water + only 5 hours sleep led to my cramps.

My leg cramps continued into T1 so I moved slow. Due to limited space and separate T1/T2 areas we had all our things in plastic bags, so we all lost time unpacking our helmets & shoes, and packing our wetsuits.

Not have cramps

Started slow to see what would happen with my leg cramps. Made myself ride easy for the first 10 minutes, which seemed to do the trick, so I increased effort to comfortably hard. This proved to be too much as my cramps came back on the steeper climbs. I recovered on the descents and did a good job staying aero. I tried to enjoy the ride and suppress my instinct to go hard. At no time did I ever feel like I was making good power. I am surprised by the 18mph avg speed. It felt slower. I crawled up the later climbs because my legs would cramp if I stood. My lower back got tight towards the end, probably from poor form due to all those cramps. I took the last 5 minutes easy hoping for a miracle.

Not have cramps. My overall effort level was low and my breathing was easy. I was entirely limited by my uncooperative legs.

Walked my bike. Legs were tight but not painful. The transition area was damp and grassy, and I forgot to bring a towel, so changing shoes was an adventure. Laced up my shoes, grabbed my almond snickers bar, and headed out.

Run through transition, get elastic laces for my shoes, remove my biking shoes while on the bike, attach my snickers bar to my fuel belt w/ bib, eat something better than a snickers bar.

I usually get calf cramps at the beginning of my run and was shocked that my legs felt OK. I settled into a comfortable 8:30min/mile pace and was feeling pretty good, until a hill snuck up on me half a mile into the run. I went up too fast and suddenly all my cramps came back with a vengeance. Wow. This was my sixth triathlon and it's by far the worst I have ever felt on the run. I hobbled along to the water station at mile 1, walked through, drank a cup of water and poured the other cup on my quads. Started jogging at 12min/mile. The cramps got even worse. I couldn't stop to walk because my quads would completely lock up. I couldn't squat to stretch them because my hamstrings would lock. Frustrated I continued to run in a half crouch. This felt better than walking. I slowly felt better and better. By the 3 mile mark I was running 7:30min/mile and making back time. Kicked it up to 6:30min/mile at the end, was feeling awesome, then boom, cramps in the finish chute. Hobbled across the timing pad with people yelling "Under 2 hours, go for it!" Made it under 2h by less than a second :-)

Have a good swim and bike so I can run comfortably.

Managed to stay standing. Stretched my legs. Ate some fruit and a cookie. Drank water and an iced latte (awesome, thank you Whidbey Island Coffee). The atmosphere was really good. Lots of smiles.


Lack of sleep + too much biking before the race = crampathon


I will definitely do this race again. The scenery and course are great. Now that I've wrapped my brain around the logistics of a ferry ride and separate T1/T2 I will rock this next year.