Excellent write-up!

I would add - walking out of the transition down the GD boat ramp in bare feet was torture! In the past I think it was better cleared and at times there were even mats down.

The swim was awesome and it was cool that they had buoys at every 200 yards; made it easy to mentally pick things off; ended up with a PR swim after 13 attempts.

And you are spot on about mile 28. I had foolishly thought I was fit enough to do "the double" and maybe even break 5 hours. Those thoughts evaporated when my glutes started screaming "on the cobbles". I clearly didn't have enough base training in the aero bars. Went about 5 mins slower than average.
This meant that the run suffered as the glutes were shredded as the heat came on. But the aid stations were awesome (even w/o ice) and loved the oranges and bananas as well.

WF is just a reminder that you have to be *really* fit to race it well. Otherwise it becomes more about finishing than racing - and that's ok.
Pretty much the triathlon highlight of the year, every year.

My only gripe with the race organization is you can't easily download race results w/splits by age group.