They promised strong tail current! And this is what I get: Freezing cold wind and a very slack tide!
I kicked a few few and took a few in the head. The water was warm but with every stroke I had my arms up in the freezing wind, the fingers turned numb halfway into it and I could not keep them together, not a very efficient way unless you have webbed gloves on.

Train, train train more, and gloves!!!!

21 minutes!!!
Looked like a crazy drunk guy trying to get his inner ear gyroscope back on-line. At least I did not crash into the showers like some other poor soul did. I did skip the showers though (important for later event)

half of those 21 spent trying to fix the connection between my brain and the fingers. Eventually I got it all together and put on arm/leg warmers and jacket, had thick wool socks on and caps on the shoes.

Gloves, gloves gloves!!!!

One reason for picking this race was to try something flat, last years Norseman had almost 10,000 feet of uphill on the bike part alone.

I was very cold still from the swim until we got to the interstate, I loved that part, downwind and sun was starting to provide some heat. Felt the warmth coming back and the connection between my brain and the fingers and toes were back. After the interstate my groin area started feeling like a piece of feta in brine, damn I should have done that shower in T1. A handful of butt-cream took care of that. The wind was annoying and always there, I started missing hills, I had not trained well with aero position for prolonged times so I had to sit up a lot. At the special needs stop I got rid of all my extra clothing. Also started to worry about my intake of fluids, normally I should have taken a leak by now, so I start drinking with gusto. Went to the porta-potty or the side of the road 4 times before T2. Diabetes Insipidus coming my way? Anyways, pulled into T2 way behind my schedule.

Train, Train, Train!!!!

Did it all nice and slow. Got a bit lost in the transition area but otherwise OK T2

OK! Swim and bike done! Now I only have to get through the run. Started of very slowly, no running if there where more than 0,01% incline. Had to pee even more, 3 times on the way out on the first loop. Bloody hell I was spending more time peeing on this race than racing. I slowed down my fluid intake and from there and in thing just got better and better. At the half way mark I got my special needs bag, hey I put sunscreen in that bag, next time I will put a flashlight in instead!
I probably had my first negative split for a marathon. Got to the finish line in much better shape than after the bike part.

Not much

Felt great, took the ferry back with all my stuff to the car, had a big mac and went to sleep. Next morning up early and drove back to Toronto 15 Hrs straight.


The race organizers pulled off a great event, I could have trained better myself but I cannot see how the organizers can get this event done better.