This was not the swim I wanted. It was pretty windy and I could tell that the final part of the swim was going to be the toughest as we’d be swimming back to shore into the chop. But I hadn’t expected to get thrown about as much as I was for the first couple of hundred meters. I think I lined myself up a little too much inside, and there was more congestion that I anticipated. Even still, the swim wasn’t going badly for the first half, and I was trying to draft with some success, but the second part of the swim things fell apart. My stroke got sloppy, my sighting disappeared, I swallowed part of the lake unexpectedly, etc. – I just knew it wasn’t going great, and was happy to get to shore.

Not sure. Had a couple of open water swims before the race, including one with a decent sized group, so I felt confident going into the race, and I’ve spent enough time in the pool to expect to do well. I just continue to struggle on the swim come race day.

Happy with this transition. I’ve never been super quick in transition, but last season was a disaster. I struggled in my practice swims to get the wetsuit off, so I used body glide on both me and the suit this time and that seemed to help. I chose to put my shoes on in transition because the surface in transition is unforgiving and I ran slower in bare feet previously. 5th fastest transition for my AG, but how the elites do it in less than 40sec is beyond me.

For a change – nothing.

This is a bit of a tough course, with the big 6th line hill being the memorable piece. I started the bike by passing a guy in my AG who crushed me by 5min during the bike section of an Olympic race last year where he finished second in the AG. He was trying to get into his shoes as I sped off down the road, only to have him pass me back within the first km. I figured if I could keep him in sight, then I had a chance of doing well on the day. I tried to keep aero as much as possible, and with the wind, this was extra important. I got passed by one duathlete going up the 6th line hill, but other than that no-one passed me, although I kept waiting for the stronger bikers in my AG to come by at any point – I didn’t realize many were already up the road. I spent almost the entire first half of the ride trying to close the gap on a rider in the 35-39 group, but we were too evenly paced and he stayed a couple of hundred meters ahead of me. Motivating and frustrating at the same time.

I could see the sky getting darker and darker as we got close to the half way point, and when we made the turn we were hit with a wall of rain, but luckily we were far enough ahead of it that we rode back out quickly. Those behind us weren’t as lucky and got a little bit more wet. I wasn’t pushing the watts I wanted to on the bike, but settled for the fact that no-one was coming by me, and my speed looked decent. But this is something I need to work on – I need to push harder and be willing to suffer a bit more during shorter rides. And then I got passed – by a guy in my AG. So now I had to chase someone else, and this forced me to work a little harder and after a few km I managed to pass him and the guy I’d been chasing earlier. But it was short lived and they passed me back within the last 5km. I was getting really thirsty during the ride, and the Gatorade I had was making my mouth feel pasty – I’ll stick to water for Sprints in the future.

Coming into transition I saw my wife and kids on the side of the road as they were leaving the park to try and avoid the rain. This gave me a boost in the last few hundred meters as I struggled just a bit against the wind for that last km.

Got my feet out of my shoes and got ready to run.


Push more watts. I can do it, I just don’t dig deep enough sometimes, especially knowing a tough run is coming. I did find it interesting that I was only 10th on the bike in my AG, but 37th overall, which seems to show some strong cyclists in my AG this year.

Another good transition, and was 4th in the AG for this one. The only issue, I was so quick I forgot my Garmin on the bike.

Don’t forget the Garmin!!

I live by my Garmin for pacing so realizing I’d left it in transition was a big letdown right at the start of the run. The run is mostly on trails and has a tough start with a hill immediately after transition, followed by another one a couple of hundred meters later. We then ran through muddy, puddle filled trails and I grabbed water at the first aid station – right when the skies opened up and dropped buckets of water on us. It rained off and on throughout the rest of the run.

My legs felt decent, and I was not suffering any back pain or stitches, I just didn’t seem to have another gear to move faster. There was a guy in my AG not too far ahead of me, and when we turned onto the road I could see the strong cyclist about 1/2km up the road. I passed the guy in front of me right before we hit the next section of trails, and then struggled up a steep, slippery rock section of trail. My left quad was on the verge of seizing at that point, and the legs suddenly felt like they had no more juice. I was waiting for the guy I passed to come around me, but it didn’t happen, and after a couple of minutes we hit a down slope and the legs started to feel better and pick up the pace. I also passed the strong cyclist. At this point we had about 3km left to go, and I just went for it. I pushed as hard as I could , with no idea how fast or slow I may be going. There were a few runners in front of me, and I caught some of them, but others were too far ahead – I had no idea if any were in my AG. When I got to the finish line I didn’t have anything left and had to lie in the grass for a few minutes to catch my breath.
What would you do differently?

The legs were pretty sore the next day, which doesn’t normally happen after a Sprint race, so I take this as a sign I was pushing as hard as I could.

I wanted a podium spot in this race. Last year I missed it my 14sec, and this time I was determined to go home with a medal. But as I lay on the grass, I saw the ages of some guys sitting next to me and counted at least three in my AG. Crap….When I got down to the results tent, I saw I’d missed the podium again – 24sec this year.


The swim was a big disappointment. Lots of time in the pool (for a triathlete), and nothing to show for it speed/time wise. I also need to push the bike harder, and I’ll get a chance to do that in a couple of weeks at the next race.


The weather was miserable, and the run course is tough, but the event is well run, and I’ll be back again in search of that elusive podium spot.