There was a long run from exiting the water to hitting the timing mat (all transition times were included in the swim and bike), I reckon about 2 mins all in which makes the swim OKish. Think I might have inadvertantly held back making sure I would finish, or it might just have been that I wasn't used to the suit. It all felt comfortable though, so who knows?

Practice more ocean swimming in a wetsuit.

Would have hoped for more, especially as I only came out of the water 7 seconds in front of David, when I was expecting a minute plus. Lost all that advantage, and more when the wettie got stuck on my timing chip on my ankle so ended up about 300m behind on the bike which I never got back.

Learn to take wetsuits off correctly.

Very pretty course but the hills and wind hurt, especially as I haven't been putting in the kms this last couple of weeks as I've had family visiting. Set off as an easterly but that soon turned a bit to make the last part of each lap a nasty uphill into the wind part which hurt!
After the wetsuit fiasco I was conviced I'd seen David about 1km in front of me after one of the turns which really gave me a kick and demoralised me a bit, but in reality he stayed about 300m in front the whole time. Oh well, experience I guess.

Race my own race and not worry about other people.

Newbie mistake 2. Forget to press the Lap button ont he Garmin at the end of the bike leg.
Newbie mistake 3. Forget to take the Garmin from the bike and put it on my wrist.
Other than that, was a good T2!

Take Garmin!

It hurt! I'm not a runner, and even though I'd had a good week leading up to this with my run times & distances, this really really hurt. Took the first km to get my legs back, then with not having the garmin couldn't pace myself at all which I was mad at myself for. Coming back was a bit easier but did end up walking about 50m uphill while having a drink at the water station. A girl I'd set out at the same time on the run gave me a 'Don't give in now' boost which really helped, but little did she know that I'd helped her by letting her look at my butt for 4km, it was now my turn to follow her...... as if! I was gone!! But I did get running again, and finished strongly, with nothing left in the tank so that was good. Pleasantly surprised with a sub 30 minute run with the way I was feeling. Just shows that I really need to build strength and speed if I want to do more sprint tri's.

Take the garmin from the bike!

Water, gatorade and a chat with David, my wife, and my family visitors.
In the end David beat me by by 2:20 but as I beat him in the BRW I can live with it.



More training, but I have only been running since October 08, biking since Jan 09 and swimming for the first time in 20 years since Jan 09. It does help I used to swim before I left uni but that was 20+ years ago..... Still, 9kgs lost since Oct is good for me at least!
My only regret is finishing last in my age group - really didn't want that - can cope with the BOP overall finish, but last in age group hurts a bit.


A really good race, and the fact it was only 20 minutes from home really helped.
This was my first sprint tri - the only other one was the BRW corporate one a few weeks back, but that was more of a bit of fun than this. This felt more serious, and I just wish I can get my fitness up a bit to be more competitive next season.

Did have a goal of doing the HIM next year, especially as I'm doing the swim in a team next month, but I'm not sure my fitness & speed will be there. Sometihng to think about over the winter months.