Milton Triathlon - Triathlon

What a great swim. I had some fears about my wetsuit as I have only used it once or twice. And in warm up I felt some rib tightness and really worried about feeling tight. However the suit is a serious peice of kit and the swim went like a dream.
The start had a lot of contact. Bodies together, Lots of arms and leg knocks but nothing too rough. I got into a good stroke and was following a large group. I overtook two swimmers but allways found the feet of anouther to draft from. I knew there were two bouys on the way out to the first turn. When I looked up to see the first bouy I noticed everyone truning. It was the second bouy!! The first 200 m had gone very quickly and this gave me confidence.
Things thinned out in the next short leg but the turn at the next bouy was more congested as we started to meet stragglers from the wave in front of us. Seeing the red and blue caps from the waves ahead gave me confidence. In the next short stint I both gulped a big lungful of water but coughed it up nicely :-) Also then my swim cap rolled up and was left way behind. Bye bye cap. On the swim up to the beach I took one massive zag and must have lost a few seconds.

Nothing. This was as good as I could expect

Timing mats were very slippery coming out of the swim. Almost stacked but the slip made me slow down. Little effort seemd to be made to sweep transition and I did not like the layout. The racks all had dead ends so unless you had got to the event super early you had an extra long run to your gear.
Wetsuit came off nicely until my heals.
I almost fell but steadied myself on my bike, Then realised I should not have touched it without my helmet on. No harm no foul.
Due to being a softie I put on socks in T1 but the powder made that easy.

Need a plan for getting my wetsuit over my feet.

I found this tough. I had done some good hill work in training but after the swim my legs felt like lead.
Out of T1 I worried about my front wheel. It was not rubbing but I thought it was in badly so I stopped to reclose the quick release. No reason to do this in the end but it put my mind at rest.
The hill is after about 2.5km and my legs were nowhere. I barely crested the top and felt beat. Then it took me a long while to recover. At this point my thinking got very negative and I was sure I would need to slow pedal the rest of the ride.
In reality my legs just needed a minute to wake up and after this I got into a good rythym.
Plenty of riders overtook me. Which is fine. I got a few esp. as I was willing to corner and downhill more agressively than others.
Fun seeing the elites going the other way and great to have the road closed for a long segment of the ride. One of the rural routes we rode on was pretty rough but most conditions were good.
Plenty of drafting going on but balls to them.
Dismounted very well and right in front of me a guy blew through the dismount line to find space. The marshals got him straight away.

Looks like I need to keep losing weight and double my hill training. Climbing is my weakness.

Elastic laces in my Hoka's work well. Was out on the run with no delay. The course has a huge 'Run Course' arch but the run sends you out the other way?!?!? Almost every runner was being redirected.

Get there mega early to rack in a better spot.

This was where I worred. As at Binbrook last year my calfs blew up in a massive cramp, tear combo that lead to a painful run and time off training. By comparison this went very well. I kept running through all the hills and while my legs felt tired I kept a good pace. Considering how challenging the course was I was very happy.
Met a guy with 200m to go and we could not work out if we were in the same AG and so had a sprint race to the line. This now shows as big smiles in the finisher pics.

If I run like that everytime I will be happy.

Got my near beer and walked around waiting for T to open. After collecting my gear and the long walk to the car I met my family at the other Lake Kelso beach. Ate my lunch and had a wade swim in the water. I think the cold water on my legs realy helped with recovery.


The course offers a great challenge in an attractive setting. Compared to my last outing at the sprint distance this was a dream. I have done this distance on a much easier course and only just avoided dead last in AG. So much nicer to be racing with the pack than on your own at the end. Some minor organisational weaknesses but nothing too bad.