TEMPE — The swim portion of the Ironman race set to begin Sunday morning was canceled after heavy rain fell throughout the Valley Saturday.
RELATED: Heavy storm hitting the Valley this weekend
Race officials were keeping a close eye on the weather conditions Friday as weekend forecasts called for rain. As little as 0.20" of rain was going to be enough to cut the 1.2 mile swim.
When Tempe received 0.35" of rain, organizers were forced to cancel that leg of the race.
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Athletes ABC15 spoke with prior to the decision said they were on edge waiting for the announcement as rain moved throughout the Valley.
"It adds kind of another level of anxiety, but we'll just go with the flow and see what happens," said Jeff Chambers, who came from Salt Lake City to participate.
Other athletes were also disappointed with the cancellation of the swim portion.
"Because you train mentally for every transition and every course," said Clint Walker, who has done three other Ironman triathlons.
The city of Tempe said it received too much rain at Tempe Town Lake to allow swimmers in the water for their health and safety. The city said when it rains significantly, storm runoff could possibly impact the lake's water quality and they could not test the water in time for Sunday's event.
The race is going on with a later start time and now with one less leg.
"We go to a timed trial bike start and so we will start all our athletes on the bike portion of the event, and they will still do the full bike and run course as planned," said Judy Stowers, Ironman's southwest regional director.
"I'm not necessarily thrilled about it, but I'm going to come and compete and do the best I can," added Walt Megura, another race participant.
