I started fairly fast and tried to stay with the two woman leaders early on. After a while I realized that they were too fast and I let them go a bit. I felt pretty strong overall so I said see you on the bike. When we hit the turnaround, I was already in my zone and things were doing fine. I usually have a hard time getting that kind of focus early in the race so I'm satisfied about that. The way back to transition was fairly uneventful. A small pack joined me and I stayed with them.

Push a little more.

Excellent transition, very efficient despite the fact that I went to the wrong rack but with little consequence in terms of time, 5 seconds max. Apparently everybody did the same. I got out of transition ahead of everybody that was in the little pack with me.

Go straight to my bike.

Ok, that was a fun part. We were doing 4x 5k loops on a boulevard with 2 tight U turns each loop. For the first 3/4 of the first loop, I really felt alone. There was nobody in front and, as far as I could tell, no one close behind. I had a surprise went I hit the 2nd turnaround of the first loop, they were 4 or 5 right behind me. I told myself that I had to push and make some time on them because I'm not a real strong runner. So I pushed without looking back. At the same 2nd turnaround I had a good view of them again. I had pushed, and not gained a single second on any of them. On the third loop we started to play pass-me/pass-you but I was still mostly in front pushing it hard, mostly because I was afraid to get caught drafting when I was behind. So we kept on playing and pushing on the fourth loop, the pack was still intact. For the last half loop I decided to take it a little bit easier to get my running legs back ASAP.

Not much.

Again, pretty good transition. I could be a little faster at tightening the Yankz though.

Not much.

Again, my transition was fast enough so that I was in front of the fellows I was riding with. For the first 800m or so I was by myself, then 2 guy joined me and we stayed together. When we hit the turnaround I saw that two other guys were dawn close while a girl was slowly falling behind. My legs still felt surprisingly strong and I was happy with that but the breathing was all over the place.

About 400m after the turnaround, so 800m from the finish, one of the guys that was with me put it in full turbocharged mode. I wasn't surprised by someone surging but but the power in it was quite something so he opened a gap of ~15m. Soon after, the guy that was left with said something, I don't remember what, but I sensed some weakness in that comment and opened up the engine immediately to secure my place and try to get the guy in front. That surge worked to secure the place but as I accelerated, the guy in front did the same so I wasn't able to get to him. I finished happy anyways. A good race, good time, an epic battle and a lot of fun. What's not to like?

Make it hurt some more. That was a good effort but I think there was a bit left in the tank.

None. The guy that finished behind me (by 2 seconds) has a nice ritual though. A big can of cold Heineken a few minutes after finishing! :)

I met marcag from BT after the race... always nice to meet fellow BTers.


Training specificity mostly. Training long and racing short does not provide optimal results.