What can I say? Underprepared probably sums up my swim best. I felt fine in the water, I had my breathing settled I was spot on with navigation I just had no speed whatsoever. I drafted at every opportunity, but there weren't that many. I was kind of out in the ocean wilderness for a lot of the swim (as per usual) while I managed to catch quite a few girls from the wave in front, a lot of guys from all three waves behind caught me and I just couldn't keep up with the pace of the girls in my age group.

Swimming twice in the lead up week to the race and not much or consistently beforehand, really doesn't cut it.

Numbness in my feet definitely made this transition harder than usual. I got to my bike ok, but as I was taking off my wetsuit, the girl next to me fumbled taking her bike off the rack, giving it a decent shake, sending my helmet and glasses flying off my tri bars. So I had to run around my bike to get them. It was a long run to the mount line and when ones feet feel like planks its not a good thing. Its hard to run fast with no feeling. Its also hard to get your feet in which was imperetive as there are hills almost straight away.

I usually rack my bike handlebars first. I think I will seriously consider mounting it by the seatpost to see if this aids in stability of the helmet between the tri bars.

There's little I can do about numb feet and I'm sure the majority were in the same boat.

I got my left foot into my shoe easily, the right was a little tricky I just couldn't even feel if it was going in at all. As a result I rode up the first hill with it partially in. Not ideal. At the first opportunity I corrected it and all was good.

Long and lonely was probably the best way to describe the course. For the most past the road was rough making it difficult to go really fast and also noisy, I wouldn't have been surprised if stuff started falling off my bike! It was a little hilly in some parts, but nothing that killed my legs. I managed to pick off a few girls, but was passed by many a bloke. I tried to stay aero as much as possible but the condiditon of the road in some parts made it difficult. The aim was to just keep spinning.

It wasn't as cold on the bike as it could have been. Still it made it hard to drink all my Gatorade. I did manage to get my Gu down very easily, for which I was happy.

Bike more, find some more hills. Force myself into aero position.

I think I was a little conservative on the first lap. I just wasn't sure what kinds of hills were going to come and bite me and what I'd have left in the tank. At 3km I had some pins and needles in my feet and by 5km I had full feeling (at which point my boy yells out "only 5km to go" - it made me laugh). As per usual, my running was my limiting factor, girls I'd passed convincingly on the bike passed me. I lost it for a bit when I saw guys making fun of the girl running in front of me and then did the same to me. I was furious that they had the audacity to take the piss out of something I can safely say they have never done. I know violence solves nothing, but I really wanted to hit the guy. My breathing went haywire. I managed to calm down and pick it up at 8km and even managed a sprint down to the finish line.

What can I say, I really don't have that abailty to run fast as everybody who competes in triathlon appears to have. I guess also I wasn't too sure how I was going to hold up, how hard I could push and how much was left in the tank. My HR was ~173 for the entire run, which is pretty high for me. I'm not sure I could have done anything differently, perhaps stayed positive the entire way, but external factors added to the issue.

Knowing the course or running/walking the course the day before could have helped.

Warm down involved putting clothes on. I headed straight for Gatorade and downed two cups. My boy found me and we laughed at my slowness. Still he said he was proud, for which I am happy.


Inconsistent training, lack of swim training. Missing the gene for speed.
T-A-L-E-N-T.

Unknown entity in terms of distance making it difficult to know how hard to push - more bricks could have helped. It'll be interesting to see how I go in my next Oly distance race - whenever that may be!


The Elites raced after the Age Groupers. It would have been amazing to watch, sadly Christine and I were exhausted and shelter, shower and food seemed like the better option. After dissecting each others race we ate & slept most of the afternoon away.

Comments to come out of the race included; our wave was about 3 minutes behind the expected time for our/the swim.

People were pulled out of the swim with hypothermia.

The bike course was tough, in that it was a long way out & lonely. Two 20km laps would have been preferable. There were very few motorbikes out checking for drafting.

All in all if this race is on next Easter I'd almost certainly not do it again. Its a big ask of our partners to give up a four day weekend in the name of triathlon, but I can't thank them enough for their support. I did enjoy the Olympic distance and when starting out never saw this distance as anything more than a race that Olympians do!

Sadly issues with timing bands see no times for each event or transition. This is frustrating. I looked at my watch just as I was getting out of the water and I saw 35 min, roughly I recall seeing 1:24-26 something for the bike & run no idea, based on above perhaps an hour, with a couple of minutes for transition. I might have done a pb on the run, but I'll never know!!