We waited until 10AM to start the swim because it has been pretty cold here lately. In fact, the high temperature for the whole day would only be 12.6C (about 55F). I rented a kayak so that I could paddle along while E was swimming. I was in charge of staying on course, running the GPS for distance, and emergency rescue. Those of you that know me and my paddling skills know that E probably would have been SOL if he had needed a rescue, luckily he did not. (Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the swim because I didn't trust myself with a camera in the kayak!)
Water temperature was 14C (57F), which is REALLY cold, but conditions were otherwise perfect for an open water swim. Sunny and absolutely calm. Outside of a few calf cramps at about 1 mile, E had a good swim. He finished the 1.2 mile swim in 52 minutes, then spent about 7 minutes transitioning to the bike. I think the transition would have been faster had the water been a little warmer.
I turned my kayak back towards the marina just as the stupid wind decided to pick up. My paddling skills are pretty much nonexistent, and kayaks scare the crap out of me, so I started to panic about paddling across the open water with chop. It only took me about 23 minutes to make it back across the lake, but the waves were white-capping by then. I was in a stable recreational kayak, but I didn't have a spray skirt and was not a happy camper when the whitecaps started slopping into my cockpit. Anyway, I made it back to the marina without tipping over or having a panic attack, so I guess it was a success or something.
At the marina, I met up with the two German students that are visiting our lab right now. (They came on the trip with us because they wanted to visit the park and were going to canoe the whole day, but the wind/waves turned them off too.) We made out way back to the transition to pick up the wetsuit and other swim stuff. Then, we tracked Eric down to make sure he was ok for nutrition and clothing. We met him at about 19 miles. We then drove further down the bike route where I dropped the German girls at a trail head for a hike and set up an aid station right at the trail head.
From that point on, I basically leap-frogged him and set up aid stations so that he could get more sports drink, gels, or Clif bars when he needed them. At the 56 mile point, I set up a transition to the run. E came in at 3 hours, 27 minutes. He was only in transition for 3 minutes before he set off for the half marathon.
The run route was part of the bike route backwards, so I leap-frogged E back up the road offering aid every 3-4 miles. I picked up the German girls about 4 miles from the finish, and we all went to the 13.1 mile mark to wait for E to come in. I actually undershot the distance by about 0.05 miles, so E had to run by us to actually finish, but I guess it's the thought that counts. Run time was 1 hour, 59 minutes. As an aside, I would LOVE to be able to run a half sub-2 hours, and here E does it after swimming 1.2 miles and biking 56 miles. Not fair.
Total time: 6 hours, 27 minutes, 10 seconds, which was under his goal time of 6.5 hours by 3 minutes. Great job E!
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