I totally rocked the swim! I usually start at the back of the pack whenever there's a mass start involved but I chose to put myself in the middle where I could eventually draft off some people's feet. I decided to start the swim further right but that was a bad idea, there were little rocks all over the place. Once passed the rocky start (litteraly), the weed came into play but that didn't bother me too much even though my hands were catching quite a lot of it.

I altered my breathing and sighting patterns, breathing on one side for a six stroke count, sight while switching to the other side, and breath on the other side for another six stroke count. That worked very well and I will keep these patterns going on my next races.

As for the buoys, there was a lot of congestion on both turns. I got stuck in one on the first loop and lost quite a few seconds trying to get out of there but that did not happen on the second one as I rounded them further away.

I was aiming for a 40 minute swim excluding the run to T1 but was pleasantly surprised when I saw 37 once I crossed the T1 mat.

If I compare the swim time with the other ladies in my age group who participated in the half-ironman and half swim-cycle combined, I would have been 11th out of 53.


Start at the left and avoid rounding the buoys too closely.

I got out of the water, unzipped the wetsuit, removed the cap, earplugs and goggles during the run to T1. I chose deliberately to struggle with the damn wetsuit once at my transition space in order to avoid losing time during the run to T1. Once there, I got into a fierce battle with my second skin... The thing just wouldn't let go and kept holding on to my upper arms! Once the battle was over, I quickly put my glasses and helmet on, slipped into my bike shoes and off I went!

Not much more I can do about that second skin of mine. I keep putting more and more Body Glide on the troublesome areas but this thing just loves me too much!

I lost about half of my liquid nutrition from the aero bottle on the first 5 km because of the bumps and lost the yellow mesh thing as well. Good thing I had some left and carried a bottle of water in my frame. The GU Chomps did the work all right and I had my timer set to fuel at every 15 minutes intervals. I did not fuel on the last two intervals and that was a poor decision because I got worried about bonking on the last 10 km, thus causing me to slow down. I should have had that gel on at least one of those intervals.

The cross-winds didn't help on the course and we didn't have much of a tailwind to assist. The climb between Millbrook and Pontypool didn't go as well as I had planned: it was a long one and I kept losing momentum when attempting to climb off the saddle. As for the rest of the course, I was playing upbeat songs in my head to keep me going.

Once again, if I compare the bike time with the other ladies in my age group who participated in the half-ironman and half swim-cycle combined, I would have been 31st out of 53.


Not skip fuelling when scheduled and climb more.

I hung out with Laura, Kirsten and Andrew after the race and waited for Kelly to complete her swim-bike. I finished my .5 liter of chocolate milk and we all went for a dip in the lake after. We had post-race food and then went to check on a few other fellow tri club members who were doing the half-ironman. I also chatted with latestarter and her husband about their race. Since Laura and I both had top 3 finishes in our respective age groups, we waited around for the awards only to find out that swim-cycle participants were not eligible for one. We parted ways afterwards. The drive home was very long, took me more than two hours to get back home due to traffic on the 401 from HWY 115 all the way to Ajax. I treated myself to a Swiss Chalet chicken wrap, poutine (yiiikes!) and a Coronita for dinner after I got home.

I spent a total of 3277 calories on that race and took in roughly 700 from 15 minutes before the race to the end of it.


Getting into the water on a bed of little rocks, congestion at the buoys, skipping the last two fuel intervals and not enough climbs.


I have to rate this race as average because of the way it ended. Our finish line was the T2 mat. That was it. Kind of a downer and anticlimatic if you ask me... Furthermore, no hardware, awards or finish pictures for the swim-bike competitors... Another downer. The Somersault Series swim-bike events end at the finish chute and the organization acknowledges the effort of the swim-bike participants the same way as the tri or du athletes by handing hardware. Like fellow BT'er latestarter, I plan on writing Trisport about this. We paid a significant amount of money for this race and I feel we got robbed a little.