It was an in water start so everyone walked from the shore into the lake to the first buoy and even at the buoy we could still stand stand. Water went just to about the waist. Water temperature was probably about 14-16C ( estimate), it was definitely warmer than the ocean but not warm-warm. I triedto stay afloat as I did not want to put my feet down in the muddy ground but that did not work for long so I was brave and lut them down. When then gun went off I started quite easy and found some feet to draft right away. It was a three laps course around 3 buoys. The water was not warm but not nearly as cold as the ocean so I had no problems with that. Some places were also bit warmer than others. I tried to draft the person in front of me for the whole first lap but it got quite frustrating and she was not swimming straight. Several times I though if it might make sense to just overtake her and then maybe gain 10 secs but loose the energy and not drafting so for that point I decided to stay behind her or to her side. She acually swam into me several times as well when I was a bit in front of her, thats how much she was zickzacking... After two laps her pace dropped a bit and I also had enough so I overtook her and made it all the way to the person which was 20m in front of her and then I drafted him for the rest of the time. The pace felt comfortable the entire time and I did not feel my shoulder once which really surprised me.
At the end I tried to swim as long as possible as the lake exit was really stony and hard to get out. When I finally stood up the water was only to my mid calves lol
Swim turned out to be a lot longer as the buyos moved over night. Estimate is 1700-1800m which explains the swim time.

It took a bit to get out of the lake and then it was a run up on grass to get to transition. Took my wetsuit half off while running up. Once in transition it took me a bit to get it off completely. Glasses on, helmet on, shoes on (decided not to have them on the bike as it was only about 100m after transition before an uphill started and I was not sure if I had enough time to get in them before the hill) and off I went....jumped on the bike and went up the hill with a weird feeling and suddenly once almost up it hit me that I forgot my number....its usually always the first thing that I put on in transition and I had put it on top of my helmet but it had blown/fallen off durinf the swim so I did not see it....so I went down the hill again, got off my bike, got the number and up the hill once again. I was not even mad at myself about it as I just simply was not in a rush and I was just thankful that I found it out so early and was able to go back and get it.....

Once up the hill I was finally on the road and could pick up the speed. During transition someone said I was the second woman out of the water ( and one passed me in transition then) which surprised me as there was one girl that swims a lot faster and also bikes faster. So knowing she was behind me I kept expecting her to overtake me any minute...it was still raining at the start of the bike for wind was almost nin existant which is very race for Iceland I definitely enjoyed it. I was just in my Tri-Pants and Tri-Top but grabbed arm warmers in transition which was good as I was freezing on the bike pretty much the entire time. The first turnaround came after 7km and the other girl had still not passed me and I wondered if she stopped as I had swim in the ocean with er 2 days earlier and she had a tough time with the cold and got something like an asthma attack. I know that after the turnaround I would know if she stopped or not if I did not see her. I did not see her and at that time I knew i was solid in Third and no one could take that from me....I think I probably slowed down a bit after and not pushing as hard on the bike as I could...but after all I also still had 10km to run afterwards and it has been a while at I did that due to the 6 weeks break! After 14 km I got back into town and then had another 13 km out and back left. I did not know the course so did not know what to expect. I only knew I had a slight headwind going out and would have tailwind for the last 13km which was a nice thought but as mentioned the wind was almost non existing....maybe 5-8mph or so.
The outcourse had some rolling hills and I made sure I drank something on the uphills and also had some squeezy chews to get some energy in as I knew my race time would be close to 3 hours and that is even too much for me to go without any nutrition. Had only one water bottle on the bike though and I did not even finish that. I was never really thirsty as it was so cold.
After about 26km I started to get seriously worried about my toes as they were completely numb and frozen...I always bike without socks so of course that did not help with the cold. I tried to wiggle them but I could not....not a good feeling! The last turnaround came and from then on it was just 13km back.
I was surprised how much I was able to stay aero without much training on that part. Was aero probably 95% of the time! Just went on the hood for a few seconds here and there to stretch out and of course during the turns.
Came into town again and down the hill and opened my shoes on the downhill but I just simply could not get my feet out....there were like frozen in there. So I got off the bike with open bike shoes....

Ran or rather stumbled into T2 as my toes were completely frohen and my feet were numb. It took forever to get my socks on but I knew I needed them for a 10K run. Looking at the times I had the slowest T2 time of all and it was far more than the second slowest. Not really sure what I did...

I started running and the feet were numb as usual. Started up the first short uphill and tried to find a rythm and realised at the same time that I really had to pee. There were some bushes after around 500m so I stopped and peed. Felt a lot better after that. It was a three laps course and the first part of the lap started with an uphill section, then a long slight incline followed by a downhill and then the last part was not paved over gravel where I kept thinking: " Don't fall, don't fall" ;). Then the first lap was over and we ran by the transition area and all the people were cheering which was nice. My husband had just finished when I came by after my first lap so I got a smile and cheer from him too and he reminded me to smile which I did. Second lap I knew what to expect. I took it easy up the hill and increased the speed a bit downhill and on the straight. At some point I looked at my Garmin to see my HR as I was wearing a HRM for the first time and was surprised to see numbers in the low 150 range only. I guess I was not working as hard as I thought but as it was a long run and I had only been back in training I decided to just keep running by feel. In the third lap the hill got a little tough and I slowed down quite a bit but I knew once up I only had a bit left and I would be done. 1,5km before the finish I started to think about the fact of why I was able to do this race today and I started to tear up and had a tough time breathing so I tried to force the though out of my head and thought about London instead which helped! The last km I increased the pace and could not believe that I really finished this race without too much effort and only on 2 weeks of solid training!

Once I finished I found out that I got third because from the 5 women that started only three finished so I got third OA in the Icelandic Championships and 2nd in my AG. Pretty cool somehow.
Had a small meltdown after the finished and cried for a few minutes but then everything was OK again and I got to enjoy the after food and the medal ceremony followed by a Hot Pot session in the nearby pool which was much needed as I was sooo cold!

All in all a good race considering the circumstances and I finished in 2:5xxxx which is only xx minutes from my PB so not too bad...


6 weeks of forced rest and only 2 weeks of training before this race.