This was my first attempt at an open water swim. Oh boy, did it all go Pete Tong.
This is where I failed drastically:
1. Problems started when I first put my head under water. I couldn't see more than 2 inches in front of me. Therefore, when I tried swimming front crawl I kept on swimming up over the top of people. Ended up swimming most of the swim doing breast stroke.

2. I moved over to the right hand side of the pack. Unfortunately the water was only about 3 ft deep here, therefore ended up scraping the bottom with my hands/arms when front crawling, making me revert to breast stroke.

3. Had a magor panic attack about 250 m in. Think it was because my breathing was all over the place due to switching all the time between FC and BS.

4. Was slowing massively, so about midway, after I had calmed again, I decided to have another go at FC. Found that I was swimming a lot faster than the people around me and ended up swimming up over the top of them again. Reverted back to BS. My sense of direction is all over the shop when I can't see the bottom of the pool (lines), Really need to practice swimming blind.


On reflection, the two things I was most worried about in OWS didn't materialize. Namely, the shock of the cold water and the washing machine. These didn't worry me at all on the swim.

Swimming blind did affect me massively and it is this that I need to practice the most.

I'm putting Below Average for the swim overall, but to be fair, it was probably better due to the experience I gained from it. It can only get better from here on in.

Wear ear plugs. Cold water got into one ear, which may be the reason for the giddiness. also have had earache since.

Felt giddy after swim. Hadn't done any swim/bike transition brick training so it felt weird. Can take at least 1 - 1:30 off this time with practice.

Out of water. cap goggles off, arms out, cap/goggles in arms of suit. Ran to bike. Ran wrong side of bike and had to dip under bar to reach all my kit that I had neatly laid out. Sat down to get feet out of suit (giddy). Helmet on, race belt on, socks on, shoes on, grab bike, exit transition, sit on bike, pedal, fail miserably to get clipped in (30 secs). Started Garmin.

Loads of room for improvement.

Calm down, remember where bike is.
Don't need half the crap I had with me, clogged up my transition.
Have race belt on under suit already.
Learn to go sock-less on bike.
Buy tri specific shoes with one velcro strap that are attached to bike already.
Have garmin started already before swim.

Felt strange on the bike. Felt like I was out for a daily ride, not in a race. I had to keep telling myself to concentrate. I'm fairly happy with my average cadence for the ride. I past a fair few riders, but also got passed by a lot of wave two bikers. And when I say passed, I mean passed as in it made me look I was stationary. Mostly TT bikes, but the occasional roadies. One guy on a roadie passed me that must of had an average cadence of about 30 rpm and he was still flying passed me. Mind you, his calf muscles were about the same size as my waist.

One thing I noticed with all the people passing me, I got a very peculiar view of their behind. And when that behind is clad in a cheap black lycra tri suit, then said tri suit is totally transparent. I don't think I've seen so many squished up butts in one day. Note to self, get wife to check bike shorts.

As I said, I passed a fair few people on the bike, mostly on the small inclines. I managed to power on up them whilst people slowed. It's a nice feeling, must remember that feeling and do it more often.

Made the mistake of fitting my new saddle and not trialing it on a ride before the race. Schoolboy error. Felt it after 7-8 km. Tightening in the hip flexors, seat probably too high???

Need to practice speed sessions (time trials). Want to get my average speed for an hour up to around 25 mph mark.

Need to remember it's a race, and to leave it on the course. I feel I could have gone harder.

Ref seat.....Nothing new on race day, FFS.

Slow in transition. Faffing about with laces.
Also wasted loads of time taking garmin off bike and putting it on wrist.
'Nuff said.

Leave shoes clipped and run bare foot through transition instead of in cycle shoes. Need to have no socks on as grass may be wet.

Get elasticated laces.

Figure out a better way of using garmin.

Think I can knock another 30 secs off this.

I'm quite surprised with how the run went. I was only 1:36 slower than my stand alone 5 km pb, which means that I should be able to either get a better PB for that, or/and get a better tri 5km time :)
It felt weird, it didn't feel like I was going at the pace I was. It felt a lot slower.
Similar to the bike (and the tri overall) I didn't feel like I was racing. More like it was a training run. I really need to learn to concentrate and dig deep. I believe with a bit of work over the next month I can knock a couple of minutes off this time. I really want to break sub 20 min before the year is out.

I know I had a lot left in me and I could have dug deeper. But it is something I can carry on to the next race.

Zip up the man suit and dig deep. Remember it's a race and HTFU.

Went to transition, got changed, packed my crap up, loaded the car then went back to watch the other people coming in. Had a banana and some water, a nice lie down on the grass in the sun, watched the awards ceremony then went home to get ready for work. Received tech shirt.


Experience.
Sheer guts and determination.
Piss poor planning and preparation.


At the end of the day, this was my first tri, so it was never going to go super smooth. It was invaluable in enabling me to see how I perform under those conditions and which parts need the most work. It is also encouraging to see that with a little bit of tweaking and some concentration I should see some pretty good gains and jump a few places up the pack in the future.

Bit gutted that all the photos for the event that have been put up and I'm not in one of them :( Must remember to take support (DW) with me next time to take pics and cheer :)

Onward and upwards.