The waves allow for 4 people at a time in each lane, but there were only 3 in my lane. I went off first, with the others at 5sec intervals. The first guy tapped my toes after 4 lengths and I stopped to let him past. The next guy tapped me after another 2 lengths, so I let him past but then got stuck on his feet. After about 300m I finally found my flow and passed the 2nd guy again. I caught up with guy #1 just as we got to the end of the swim.

It took me longer than ideal to get into my stroke. I could have done with a bit of time in the water before the race started, but the waves didn't allow for that. Once we were in the pool we had about 30sec till the whistle blew. I guess I need to think a little more about my swimming position and get it right from the start. But I can't really complain. Overall swim time is about what I'd hoped for.

Pleased with this. Kept it simple. Put my socks on as usual, but I roll them and fill them with talc, so it only takes a couple of seconds. Shoes on in transition because I'm not confident doing it on the bike.

If I can get T1 below a minute I'll be happy, but I'm not complaining. Don't think I could have improved it by much.

This is my first race on the new tri bike. Headed out of transition and got onto the aero bars as early as I could. Managed all of the early corners on the aero bars, which I was really pleased with. Only got onto the bull horns when I was approaching junctions where I might have needed to brake.

Concentrated on the outward straight on getting a comfortable cadence and pushing as hard as I could. Managed to overtake a girl from my wave and make progress on a guy ahead of me.

First time down the hill in Bothal I was a complete wuss and did the whole thing on the bullhorns. Turned out I didn't need to brake at all on the way down until the very bottom for the sharp turn. Had to work hard on the steep corner on the way back up, but got back on the aero bars as fast as possible and managed to overtake the guy ahead of me just after the hill.

On lap 2 the guys with the aero helmets and deep section wheels started coming past, but I was passed by a lot less people than previous years.

On the 2nd lap I stayed on the aero bars most of the way down the hill including all the bends, which I was really pleased about. The hill killed me again 2nd time, but then I knew it was pretty flat all the way back. Just pushed it as hard as I could. It got fun when I had the tailwind on the way back in and I managed to get up some good speed.

This is the first year I haven't done a practice run on the course. It didn't seem necessary because I've done it twice before, but of course I'm on a new bike, and knowing where I needed to be off the aero bars and when I didn't would have been useful. But this is faster than both previous years (probably just the bike), so I'm happy with it.

Again, kept it simple. As usual the bikes had all bunched up on either side of my spot, so I had to rack it right on top of my towel, but otherwise it went pretty smoothly.

Put my running shoes a little further forward. They were slightly hard to reach. Otherwise not much to be done.

Headed out of transition and just ran. First lap was ok, trying to find my rhythm. 2nd lap really hurt. Right shin felt tight and I just felt tired. I had a desperate urge to stop. It was quite hot and there were no drink stations. 3rd lap I found my flow and relaxed into it. Started feeling a lot better and managed to finish strong.

Not much I could do differently. I possibly went off a little hard, but I think if I'd taken it easier at the start I'd have been just as slow at the finish, so not much point doing that. Overall a good run, and again faster than previous years.

Had a load of water, a protein shake, some orange segments and half a banana at the finish. Caught up with all my friends and how their races had gone. Didn't do much to actually cool down, but felt pretty good and didn't stiffen up afterwards.


Fitness, leg strength, the usual.


This is the race I've started my season with for the last 3 years. It's really friendly and I know a lot of the people who do the marshalling. The organisers do their own timing, which means it can take a while to get the official results, which is a pain, but otherwise it's a fun race and good for both beginners and experienced athletes.