My sighting was horrible on the first buoy and the turn into the second, which added a good 200 meters to the swim according to the watch. I was swimming really well actually, and when I finally got back to the group I was easily passing people from the waves ahead of me. Granted, those were the BOP swimmers from the waves in front. Tough to practice sighting in these conditions as it's not safe to swim alone with a current like that.

As much as I dislike it, I think the solution to sighting is to swim closer to the group. On the occasions when I do, I naturally slip to the FOP in the first 200 meters, so I don't know what my issue is. I've become a solid FOMOP swimmer, which is all I really aspire to right now. As the season draws to a close, I'm enormously happy with my swimming results.

Since I forgot my shoes, I took the extra time to make sure I had all the sand off and my socks were nice and comfy. Forgot to turn on the Garmin.

I think it's obvious, not forget my shoes.

Man, not having the ability to use the back of my pedal stroke, to stand up and hammer on corners, and to get super low during gusts was evident. I've only had one A-ride race this year which considering how strong I can be on the bike is disappointing. 60/300 is pretty good considering I didn't have shoes, but I really wish I had them on so I could go crush it. Hard to be too disappointed though.

wear bike shoes

I took a little time here to put some extra water and nutrition drink on. I was determined to have a comfortable run.

nothing

My goal was to have a pain free transition and to hold a steady aerobic pace the whole time, which is exactly what I did. I wanted this experience in my back pocket as a base line, and I think it was a smart move. I have another race in 2 weeks that I can push harder on because I know exactly where I'll be on a comfortable, 70% effort. I'm very happy with the gains I've made running, and although 8:30s is slow to a lot of people, 6.2 miles of it is good for me. I can and have done better, but not in an Oly.

Nothing. This was exactly how I wanted to run it, and I felt great.

They gave us cold towels (nice!) and had a couple of delicious fresh plums as I waited for my buddies to finish.


The bike shoes, but that's it. Very happy with the result. My target time was 2:30, and that was WITH shoes, so to hit 2:32 was a victory.


Hard to do things much better than Team Mossman does them in terms of venue choice, organization, and course support. It's not flashy, there's no post race hoopla, but that's what the TriRock and Rev3s are for if you want that sort of thing. This is pure and simple triathlon, the best kind.