I'm sure that there have been plenty of IM races that have been held in much worse conditions than Boulder on Sunday and I have no real interest in comparing it to other races, but the temperature readout of 93* in Boulder undersells the conditions a bit. Almost all of the bike course was north of Boulder proper - and the weather station at 63rd and Jay - and a more appropriate gauge might be the 99.5* or so that the Longmont/Hygiene area started hitting by shortly after noon and hovered near until around 7pm. It was a record for the day by nearly 4*. Combine that with the increased strength of the sun at 5400' above sea level, and it was incredibly brutal. I live and "race" (very badly...) in the area, and the conditions were truly worse than you'd reasonably expect to encounter.

Personally, I couldn't stay anywhere near hydrated no matter what I consumed. I'm grateful to simply have finished without finding myself in a med tent, and am in awe of anyone who could come close to following their race plan on Sunday. Also, the volunteers should all be up for sainthood.