My swim sucked. I had swam once prior to this race - 1500m done about 200-300 meters at a time, so this continual distance was a little unknown.

I started off on the outside of the pack, and was quickly with the last few people in my wave. I started The swim with FS but then switched to a combination of FS, back and breast. I could have gone longer in my FS, but switched to back probably our of comfort. 1st open water swim, and first time swimming in a wetsuit. I squeezed into Nic's QR sleeveless.

Although I was among the last few from my wave, I didn't get caught by too many people from the wave behind me.


Swim more, and trust my ability to swim FS. I need to just get in the pool and put in some mileage, then bring this mileage outside in the spring.

I was one of the only bikes left in transition at the end of the swim, and let's just say that T1 wasn't the best debut. I could not get the freaking wetsuit off to save my live!!! It took a couple minutes of sitting on the ground and swearing at it before it finally came off the ankles.

Once the suit was done, I jogged out to the mount line and did a flying leap onto the bike. That part was good.

Hopefully I'll have a new wetsuit before the next event, and will have lots of proactice getting out of it. The legs on Nic's suit gave me huge problems...too tight to get over the ankles.

The bike is definitely my strong point, and I wish this course was a lot longer. I passed people the entire race, and was able to come out of corners with more speed than most others. I've figured out that mountain bikers have far better bike handling skills than roadies or triathletes.

Nutrition was good, and I was able to drink and fill the aero bottle with minimal interruption. I stayed in the aero bars for the majority of the race, coming out only for the hills. I took the hills easy, not wanting to expend too much energy. Overall, I rode well, but not as fast as I could have - thinking of Brandon Parker and his reputation for pushing too hard on the bike then blowing up one the run. I didn't want to embarass myself for the run by having nothing left.

I gave the bike and run too much respect. I thought that at some point in the race I would run out of energy if I pushed the bike too hard, so rode strong but not nearly as hard as I could have.
I also took it easy for the last half km into the transition, spinning easily in preparation for the run. I should have gone all out on the bike!

Great entry into transition. I flew off my bike and hit the ground running, and got some "wow's" out of the spectators. Again, the mountain biker bike handling skills came in handy.

Unfortunately, they had moved the dismount line back and I unknowingly had entered into the wrong section of the transition zone. I slowed down to look around a bit, then realized that my bike stand was one section over, and casually jogged for it. It looked like I had made up good ground, as the rack was only partly full.

I made a pretty quick change, and exited the transition for the run. The transition time includes a 100m run over the sand to get to the timing mats, so it's a little bit of a false time.

I would do a walk through of the transition zone prior to my event, so that I know exactly where I'll be coming in from and where my rack is from that location. I have to mention that there were NO signage in the transition...poorly run race.

It was my first time runnign off a bike, so I didn't really know what to expect. I thought that, like the bike, it would take a while for me to get my legs and I was right.

I started off with short paces, and a high cadence. It didn't feel fast, but I think I got faster throughout the 5km's. I walked for about 15sec through the first three aid stations, but decided to skip the 4th and head straight to the finish.

I watched my pace throughout the run, and decided I was conserving too much once my legs had warmed up. It became apparent that I could finish in under a 5:30 km, so that gave me a bit of a goal for the last few km's.

The final stretch was back along the boardwalk. I had been pacing right behind the same guy most of the run, and when I decided to crank up the pace I went by him no problem. I should have run a faster pace as soon as my legs felt ok. I finished a lot faster than I started, and recovered right away in the finish. I actually had lots left.

Today I watched my HR throughout the race, and noticed that when it was under 180bpm I got into a zone that I could have maintained for a lot longer than jut 5km.

As with the bike, I gave this event too much respect. I thought that if I pushed myself too hard on the bike or on the run, that I would have nothing left at the end. By the time I crossed the finish line, I still had a lot left. I definitely should have gone for it a bit more on the bike, and picked up the pace earlier on the run.

None. I crossed the finish, and felt good right away. I met Nic and some of the others from the Tri Club, and talked then cheered for the rest. When we were down to the last few people on course, I ran out to meet Julian and ran with him for the last 1/2km to the finish.


Obviously the swim played a major part of the race, because it sucked. T1 could have been a couple of minutes faster too, if I had been able to get that wetsuit off quickly.

The thing that I learned the most was that triathlon is all about tactics...I didn't go hard enough on the bike or the run, thinking that it would eventually catch up with me. It didn't, and when I crossed the finish line I still had a fair amount of energy left.

Next time, push the bike harder, and go for it on the run!


A poorly organized event overall. It started almost a half hour late, had little to no signage (especially in the transition area), and very few volunteers in transition, and on the run portion. There were a few times that I had to wonder a bit which way to go. The transition area had no fencing, so it was difficult to make out the run exits. Recovery food was also fairly lame.

Overall, this event was not nearly as well run as the Subaru Series events are. They have the whole event look and feel, where this is a bit of a scaled down, budget version. Considerring that it is one of two major series' in Ontario, it was pretty disappointing.