This is an area that will continue to need diligent focus. I'm actually happy with the time because it was not that far off my pool times, and when we rounded the last bouy I felt like I was going nowhere into the current. I also managed to swim under a buoy rather than around it which gave me a fright for a moment as I had a giant orange thing on top of me while I was submerged.

Warmup a little bit. Really glad about having read the baby shampoo in googles on BT, cause I avoided fogging which had become a recent problem.

This was slow - much slower than most of the field. I put on a vest over my tritop, and I'm glad I did cause I think I would have really shivered on the first 15K of the ride as it was into a decent wind. Had a bit of trouble with my road shoes, and had to take an extra few seconds to turn on my Garmin.

Be better prepared in T1. Garmin should have been on, and should have just dropped the wetsuit rather than trying to find a spot for it.

This was a real eyeopener - cause I got smoked on the bike. I passed a handful of people, while the remainder of the field blew by me. The goal had been to keep the HR in the low 160's and conserve some energy, and that's exactly what I did - but I was just slow in comparison to everyone else. I thought I'd have done a bit better than this. Happy with the hills cause I passed people, but as soon as we were ont he flats they just belew by me again.
In trying to keep the HR under control and the exertion a bit lower I was hoping to avoid the dreaded stitch - but it kicked in a at the 10km mark. It was fine for the bike, but I knew I'd apy on the run.

Push a bit harder on the bike. I held back a little for two reasons: 1) To try and avoid a stitch, which didn't help 2) To keep something for the run. Which I did manage.

Screwed this transition up as well. Had some trouble getting my running shoes on, tried to change my Garmin over to run mode, and then realized I couldn't find the watch strap for my Garmin (which I still didn't find after the race). After fumbling around I just threw the computer in the bag and went off.

Be prepared - so easy, but I didn't do it.

Stitch, stitch, stitch. I was forced to walk after about 1km to try and get this worked out. Didn't happen so I just plodded along, and then by 3km it had become manageable. At that point I was able to start running better. Only got passed once for the whole run, and made up 4-5 AG spots in the last 3km. Really happy with how I finished the race, and missed my race goal by just 26 seconds..

Figure out what I need to do to avoid getting the gut wrenching pain of a stitch all the time.

None - just walked around a bit.


Stitch on the run, and willingness to go harder on the bike.


Good race - tough one to have as my first full Tri. But very happy with the venue.