I was racing against Craig for this event, so I knew I wanted to have a good swim since he always leaves me behind and I can't catch up. I started off strong and felt really good. I had hiked the sleeves of my suit quite a bit up my arm and the shoulders thanked me for it. I got out to the first bouy without incident and started to head for the second one. Didn't have too many people around but didn't think about it too much, just kept looking for that big ornage ball in the water (the sun was directly in our eyes). When I was just about there I got stopped - by a lifeguard on a kayak. She told me I swam to the wrong one, I looked left and there was the rest of my wave rounding the second bouy while I was treading water over at the third bouy. S**t - off I went back to the second bouy and reintegrated myself in the wave, and was then promptly caught by the next wave. The rest of the swim was uneventful, and I made it too shore feeling pretty good.

Don't add 100-150M of swim time. Dumb, dumb, dumb. This would most likely have been my best swim of the year. Lesson learned the hard way.

T1 went fairly smoothly. The suit came off without any issues, although I struggled to get into my road shoes a bit.

Purchase Tri shoes for next year.

My performance here is why I'm buying a used i-Magic. I need to work on the bike. I expect to be dropped on the swim, but I can't afford to lose time on the bike. I wasn't even middle of the pack, so I'll be working to change that by next summer.
Overall I pushed as hard as I think I could. Got passed quite a bit (especially by the duathletes - those guys are monsters), but came off the bike feeling tierd but that I had something for the run.

Train more on the bike - I rode as well as I could for the race.

Took a few extra econds this race to put on the wrist strap for my garmin so I could see my run pace.

Not much.

Once again, the run saved me. I amde up quite a few spots over the course of the run, and didn't have any real stomach stitch, but once again needed to pee really badly.
I got a guy right near the end and I was already going hard at that point, we both kicked for the finish but I didn't have enough left and he easily outpaced me over the last 50M. I took at look at my lap time though and I ran the last 800M in a 3:51 pace (could not believe it). Fastest run of the year for the races (even though I think there distance was off a couple of hundred meters).

Maybe push just a little bit more??

Just walked around and found my cheering section 0 wife, son and in laws. Hung out with Craig and his brother - even though Craig beat me once again.


Big mistake on the swim, but looking at the overall stats, I would have only advanced a couple of spots in my AG if I hadn't made the mistake. I need to find some speed on the bike for next year.


Highly recommend. Even if you don't have in laws to crash with, this race is worth the drive if you're in TO.