I made my way to the front of pack at the start line. I got passed by a few people at the start but this is a better strategy then starting at the back of the pack and trying to swim past other slower swimmers. My swim felt good most of the way around the course but towards the end I stared to get tired and lost my way a bit, ending up swimming off course.

Try and stay focused towards the end of the swim and sight those swim makers correctly and of course, train more (that goes without saying).

T1 went without incident. I had seen a few large black ants wandering around my stuff when I had laid it out and was a bit worried that they may end up in my singlet or bike shoes but they stayed away. Oh.. by the way, it was pouring rain at this stage so I jumped onto my bike with caution.

Nothing really, it went fairly well.

As I mentioned the heavens opened up just I got to T1 so I was a bit worried about the bike ride as I had fallen of my bike the last time I was out riding in the rain, nothing too serious through, just a few scratches and bruises. Anyway, I took it fairly carefully rounding the corners and made it around the course in one piece. Water kept on spraying into my face and pouring into my left shoe, strangely enough but I was glad that at the front of my shoe there is a hole (obviously to drain water out of your shoe when your riding in the rain). I was passed by a hundred and one people which was a bit demoralising and tells me that I don't spend enough time training on my bike.

If I'm serious about achieving my long term goal of finishing in the top half of my age group for a tri race, I'll need to spend more time training on my bike.

I jumped off my bike and racked it in the correct position next to my running shoes, put on my shoes and headed off for the run. It must have been a second or two but as I heard somebody laughing about if a runner fell over at least they wouldn't hurt their head because they still had their helmet on, i realised that they were in fact laughing at me. Embarrassed and glad to be running away from the laughter I quickly ripped off my helmet and turned back smiling dumbly.

Well...taking my helmet off would be a good start.

After I removed my helmet and settled into my pace for the run, the rain stopped, the wind disappeared and the sun came out making for a nice hot and muggy run. The run seemed to drag on and on and on forever and then thoughts started running through my head like "maybe I could stop running and walk" or even worse "I could just stop and have a little rest for a minute or two". As much as I wanted to stop running and take it easy, there was no way that was going to happen. In the end I ran all the way and was so glad to have finished another race.


Wear a different singlet as the one I wore (in the rain) weighed a ton when it got wet and gave me nipple rash and it hurts like hell!!!

I found a bit of shade and downed a couple of Gatorade's, bananas and some orange segments. Chatted with a couple of mates who I race with and relived my helmet moment.


Lack of time spent doing quality training.


With all my races my goal is to have fun, improve my fitness and hopefully improve my ability as a triathele. With today's race, I certainly achieved all three, even if I only improved my ability as a triathlete by a tiny bit.