The start was a bit rough. Got hit several times but after the first turn things smoothened out. I swam very relaxed, felt good and came out of the water relatively fresh.

I wanted to swim an easy 25' so put my watch to buzz at 12.5 and sure enough it was right at the end of the first lap. So I stayed relaxed.

Not much. I am probably good for 30seconds faster but it's not worth the effort.

Wetsuit came off well, but futzed to put watch back on wrist since it was in bathing cap. Ran with shoes on pedals and did already clipping in



Not futz with watch

The guy I had to watch out for is a slower swimmer, slower runner, faster biker. I was expecting to get at least a minute on the swim. Maybe my T1 problems allowed him to catch me, but he passed me within 1 minute on the bike. Not good. And he was pulling away.

I figured I needed to lose as little as possible on the bike to him since I knew I could run faster. So I went after him. I could hold his pace comfortably so I would pass him to show him I was there, he would pass me...and we played that game for 30km.

With 10km to go, I knew I was close enough to him to run him down so I backed off to get my legs ready for the run. But I didn't lose any time to him as I think he backed off as well.

I hydrated, picked up the cadence and was praying for the run

I was below my watts target but it was more important for me to race this guy smart. Knowing I could outrun him I figured I would take the lower watts and just pace it

All very fast. We came out of T2 5 seconds apart.

nothing

We left T2 together. I wondered about running 1 loop with him but the idea is to put as much distance between us so others could fill it and get a bigger point delta. So I just pushed it.

Within 100m I was pulling away. I knew I was normally faster but maybe he backed off a lot on the bike and was going to push the run.

When I got to the first turn around, I pressed reset on my watch and counted how much of a lead I had on him. 40 seconds. Cool. I did that every lap and I saw I was pulling 15 seconds further ahead.

But the idea is not just beating him, I had to put as much distance between me and him and hope other people finished in between so he would score less points. It's the sum for the season that counts. You get 1000-your overral rank. So I got 980. A younger guy finished after me, he got 979......then they add up the points and group by age. So a 20 year old that comes between me and him helps me.

I focused on trying to catch someone ahead but by then we had lapped people, people from the sprint were on the course, it was impossible to know who the competition was. I just tried upping my HR, but that last 1.25km segment was brutal

Not much. Maybe drink ? I didn't drink at all on the run and the race finished at 28deg C.

Nothing. Just grabbed some water and sat on the grass.

When I saw the other guy finished I went to see him, shook his hand and told him I appreciated the race.

I made a point of telling him I never got into his draft which I know I didn't. However, even at legal draft limits I believe there is a benefit.I didn't know the guy very well so I chatted with him a bit. Turned out to be really nice.




I wasn't trying to go for time, I was trying to place the best I could. I believe having someone to race on the bike and run made the race a lot more fun. Both went by really quickly


Medal ceremony was way too late