Half-Ironman race with 1200 participants. Swim 70 degrees and calm. Bike 56 miles of the toughest hills I've ever raced, but thankfully not any wind (didn't need any). Run 13.1 miles by far the toughest Half-M I've ever seen. Unbelievable course. Nobody can fake it through that race. If you're not in good shape, you are toast. Race temp reached 90 on the run. I swam very strong, rode very well, and though I ran slow (for me) I spend the run passing the many casualties. Got lucky and ate and drank proper amounts all the way through. Most brutal race I've done, and the only thing making Ironman tougher is the time you spend out there. This course is the toughest. All the top stud amateurs and pros were there. I finished about 60th counting pros, 40th amateur, 11th in my age group out of 240 with a 4:46. Haven't seen the splits so don't know how I did relative to others in the race, but was happy with all my splits. Raced in the elite division (where I finished 25th out of 47 finishers, don't know how many DNF), so we got our own start after the pro wave and before the amateurs. It was so cool and I was right in the thick of things the whole way. Lots of fun. Tons of northwest people came down to race and did real well. Conrad Steffens was top amateur, just like he was at Hawaii last year. He's the man now. In the pro race, Paula Newby won for the women, and Pete Reid (Canada) for the men (with Cameron Wideoff 2nd, Wolfgang 3rd, Pauli 4th). 13 hours of driving eacy way. Ick. W.G.