This was my first ever event so I positioned myself in the back third of the crowd. This turned out to be an error as spent most of the race passing people as I had misjudged what my pace would be in comparison with others at the BOP. Because I seemed to be running faster than my peers I backed off a little as I was concerned that I would make the rookie error of going off too fast and then blow up on the bike and second run.
My split is considerably slower than my normal long (8-10 mile) training pace, plus I had run the course the previous morning and split 7.00. I guess I just need to get more experience of understanding what my pace is when I'm in a large group.

Just go out a lot harder. Have a bit more confidence and start a bit further up the pack. Maybe get an HRM with a coded belt so that I can at least see what my HR is to know if I'm going too hard.

Transition area was really tightly packed (although as this was my first event I don't have a lot to compare to). I had not practised transitions, but shoe / headgear change went relatively smoothly. Only issue is by bike shoes which are a combination of lace up and velcro and the laces wasted the most time, particularly given cold fingers.

Get new bike shoes or try using elastic laces in bike shoes to help speed things up

Remember that it is a lot less effort to gain 10 seconds in the transition than on the run!

I'm riding my 16 year old mountain bike with semi-slick 1.5 inch tyres so was really pleased with my pace. Like many, I would really like to get a cool time trial / road bike but didn't think I really had he fitness to do it justice yet. The fact that I lost count of the number of exotic carbon bikes that I passed gave me massive enjoyment. I think I'll just get some faster tyres for my mountain bike and use this for my first Tris this summer and look to upgrade next Spring

Like the first run, I was concerned given the amount of passing I was doing, and that this was my first event, that I should conserve some energy. I think I could have gone a bit faster and not jeopardised the final leg.

T2 was better than T1, primarily as I didn't need to lace up any shoes.

This was the first time I had actually done a BRIC and although my legs felt like someone else's and I could only move slowly it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.

Practice BRICs and dismounts, etc before next events

As mentioned, I had foolishly not practised BRICs so I'm sure this hampered my running, particularly as the first couple of minutes of the run are uphill and I was VERY slow. Despite this, my pace, although poor, was actually an improvement on the first run leg.


BRICs and just not be afraid to run harder earlier

Gave my wife a hug!


1) Too far back in starting pack
2) Concerned with blowing up so didn't really do any leg at maximum effort
3) Need to practice whole transition process as not as slick or as urgent as it could have been