Me and my sister got sick with fever and persistent cough the day before the race, which made for the worst raceday morning I've had in 9 years of racing. Slept maybe 30min total the night before, feverchills the whole thing... all I could do was force myself to keep hydrating. Which I guess worked since I finished the race. But 12:37 was about 1.5 hrs slower than I had hoped for. Nice mass start with fireworks and a big hot-air balloon on shore to help you find your way back on a sunny, calm morning. Super-easy swim conditions. Beautiful race course, great people, kids cheering all along the side of the road. Two laps with two not-very-challenging hills but enough to make you work pretty hard for a little bit and to give you some rather hairy downhill passages and a cool downhill decreasing-radius loop at a highway intersection. Confusing traffic cones all over the place but very few accidents from what I could tell. The policia militar was out in force and kept the cars in check. The run-course was rather fast, with a set of little nasty steep repeat hills that you had to do twice on the first long loop, but the second and third loop were shorter and flat, so easy day. All in all a great day with beautiful conditions. Ken Glah and Endurance Sports Travel had a ton of people there, and he runs a very smooth op with all the angles covered and tons of stuff to do for athletes and non-athletes alike. Some guy's bike and all his luggage ended up in O'Hare, but he did the race on Ken's bike, with a borrowed wetsuit/trisuit and bought shoes. I'd recommend Ken's company to anyone wanting to take the guess-work out of an Ironman trip. The NEVERREACH hydration system worked great, again, especially with the quick-fill cap since there were so many aid stations with water and Gatorade. Thanks again, Linda. The athletes' dinner and party was great, but I missed most of it since I got more sick (woke up covered in sweat and walked back and forth in the hotel room with no clue where I was) and had to take care of a sister that kept on passing out in the hotel. I'm never doing another Ironman. But then again, that's what I said after IM Florida a year and a half ago.

Cheers, Pär Lans

Navy Diver Deep Submergence Unit, NASNI, San Diego