Ironman 70.3 World Championships

It has been just over a week since I have returned from the Ironman 70.3 WC held in Clearwater Florida. First of all let me clear up one misconception I had and probably many others still hav. There was bo oil on Clearwater beach and I saw no evidence that there ever was. The beaches are clean. Back to the race. Devon and i arrived 6 dats prior to the race and had a chance to check out the bike course and ride it, It is very flat and we new it would be a fast course. The weather leading up yo race day wa not as warm as I thought it would be in Florida but still very nice, about 72 degrees. The forecast for race day was for the tamperature to be about 80. As predicted, it was a beautiful mornibg when we arose at 4:30 am November 13th, race day. The water was much calmer than it had been during our 2 training swims earlier in the week. Rhe swim went ok, sighting proved to be a bit of a problem for Devo but he was not the only one as we found out late. We got through trabsition and started the bike. As we had thought ther were a lot of competitors ahead of us and we were constantly passing others. One of the problrms with such a flat, mon selective course is drafting. We passed packs of riders numbering as manyb as 40. As w hought the bike course was fast. we had hoped to go under 2 hours but we failed and did a 2:08 for the 90 km. The run was faitly flat also excep for the bridge we had to cross twice. TYou don't really think os a bridge as being much of a hill until you have to run over it after a 1.9 km swim and a 90 km bike. The run was slow. Over the past 13 months I have done 2 full Itonman races and the Ironman 70.3 WC on experience and not near enough training. I took these events for granted, relying on my past knowledgeand knowing I could do the distance. Having done these distances several timea before I was more mentally prepared than phsically. I think it is disrespectful to the Ironman to take these races for granted. It won't happen again.