I think when I put my predicted time in I forgot to take into account that it was going to be done in a 50m pool. Seems like half the field had a predicted time of 12min. For some reason I found myself in the first wave of the 12min guys so I was going off in the 4th wave. Scary.
The first length was very interesting, all four of us going at it stroke for stroke, I was wondering what the hell was going to happen when we reached the wall. Mighty impressed with the guy on my LHS, about 5m from the wall he put in a wee burst to get to the wall first. I just sat back and took up position at the tail.
At the 150m mark I made a complete mess of my turn, powder puff push off the wall, coliding with the lane rope. As a result I lost my tow, I made an effort to catch up but man these guys were good. I was now going solo until indignity of indignities, I got caught by a couple of guys from the wave behind me, they must have been flying. I let them pass and tried to hang onto them but they were too fast. The rest of the swim was uneventfull other than my worried glances back at each turn to make sure nobody else was catching me.

It was just too scary being that near the front. I spent a lot of time worried that I might get in the way. Next time remember it's a 50m pool and put down 12m15.
BTW I probably did still get somewhere near the 12m mark as the time above includes the longest run to transition ever. Out the pool, run past the baby pool to the outside, up a flight of stairs, through the front car park then back towards the main entrance and hey you've reached the start of T1.

All went pretty smooth.

I put cycle gloves on, can't quite decide if it was wise or not.

Pretty fast downhill start. The wind is hard against on one of the downhill stretches, that can only be a good thing.Finally reach the RH turn for the dreaded climb.What can I say, it's a complete slog. I had been speaking to a guy earlier who nearly had me convinced that it's not that bad, hah, wrong.
I would guess that I was probably the earliest person to break on the sharp descent, I'm just a big chicken.
Second time up the big hill was just as bad but at least you could relax a bit once it was out of the way.
Failed to pass any guys on the cycle - no surprise their.

I've still got pedals with clips on my bike. Next time I race I will hopefully have made the change to some form of clipless pedal.

Only slight problem was needing to adjust the bike next to mine so that I could get the bike back in the box.

Nothing, lets face it if you've already got your running shoes on it should be a smooth transition.

Nice downhill run to get you started. Once I came through the long tunnel I was joined by the front runners in the Duathlon race that was taking place at the same time. Fairly sole destroying as for the remainder of the race masses of people passed me, initially at an incredible pace. About a mile from the end a guy from my club (doing the duathlon) passed me and told me that I was getting caught by another club guy. I had nothing extra left to give and just kept on plodding towards the end.
As with the bike and the swim, I failed to pass a single guy.

Nothing.

This is a bit of a problem. Yet again I forgot to do any kind of a warm-down. Feeling the effects now as my left calf is seriously tight. One day I will remember to do some stretching.


Very tough cycle for me but enjoyed it now that its down. It's hard to stay positive when you are being passed all the time but I'm starting to get used to it.