Extremely cold! (Some swimmers pulled out of water with hypothermia.) Uncomfortable swim (because of cold and because bike injuries), and difficult to manouevre around buoys (and second wave of swimmers).

Rub in some kind of warming cream/balm on feet, face and hands.

T1 time included in swim split (but about 10 minutes). Too cold after swim to do anything properly (though race too long to worry too much about transition time). Laces a particular problem. First use of race belt and that worked perfectly well.

Keep hot water bottle ready in transition! Make sure things left in transtion are under plastic sheeting or otherwise under cover (see comments on T2). Make cut in energy bar wrapper so it can be torn open more easily.

Not a pleasant ride. Very cold from the swim so had put lots of clothes on in T1 but still too cold. Conditions were windy for first 90 minutes, then started to rain and temperature dropped even further. Pain in right knee from quite early on, which gradually spread to include thigh. (Also some mild discomfort in elbow and ribs from bike injuries of 2 weeks earlier.) Worst aspect was difficulty in keeping focus and boredom. Generally pretty miserable but on positive side I did manage to climb the longest steady climb reasonably well.

Put on more clothing in T1 if it had been available. Possibly make more effort to go faster or otherwise counteract boredom and assist in keeping focus on race. Need to work more on technical bike skills and bike strength.

T2 time included in bike split (but about 12 minutes). Still incredibly cold so again very slow. Found running shoes wet from 2 hours in heavy rain. Had dry arm warmers in bag, put those and dry socks on, then shoes. Had enery bar, sorted out race belt, put on cap and set off.

Have another hot water bottle waiting!

Started off very cold and quite slow but found that the leg pain I had had on the bike hadn't transferred to run. Finished energy bar, began to warm up after about 5 miles and started singing show tunes. Perked up immensely at that point and started increasing pace. Found that I felt so much better when smiling so ignored the fact that I was soaking wet and, although still chilly, sang anything which came into my head. Knew from that point that, accident excepted, I would finish and enjoyed the rest of the race.

Start singing earlier.

Big hug from b/f, stretched hamstrings, collected stuff from transition and walked back to B&B to get hot shower.


The weather (it was cold, windy and wet) and having come off my bike 2 weeks earlier. My weakness on bike (compared to swim and run) demonstrates where I need to focus my training for Ironman.


There were some unpleasant, mentally gruelling times during the race, but I feel good about continuing to the finish despite the poor conditions (and very pleased to break 6 hours on first race at this distance). The race was very helpful in mental preparation for Ironman and in learning which aspects I need to focus on. The organisation of the race itself wasn't great but it was a friendly event and there was good camaraderie.