The swim had a rolling start. The swim course markers started moving before entered the water and continued to change. I don't know if I swam the full course (very few did) but I am sure I did more than 1900m. I am usually in the top 10% in the swim but by the time I got to my bike it was one of only a few hundred left out of more than 1700.

The swim time was not included in the final result.

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The transition area was very small and crowded. It was the worst I've seen so far.

This was a tough ride with a solid gusting headwind for almost the whole loop. The final 5+ kilometres were downhill from 311m to sea level but it was necessary to work downhill to get over 30km/h.

The roads were better than Vichy but the wind was much stronger. It was by far the toughest ride I've done.

My ITB injury that I acquired in the run at Vichy started playing up around 30k into the bike and kept hurting. Especially when I started peddling after coasting for any distance.

I missed the cut off at aid station 2 at 55km and finished the ride on open roads and was considering not doing the run.

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I took my time in T2. I was considering not starting the run but after taking my time I decided to see how my knee would go anyway.

I walked for 8 minutes before attempting my 1/1 jog/walk. It was mostly pain free so I kept going.

During the 3rd lap I couldn't jog without pain any more so I walked for about 4km before trying again and it was OK after that but I was very slow. I needed to average 7km/h to make cut off and get a medal and I did exactly that.

I ended up dong a PB half marathon on a busted knee so I am quite happy with the run. When this problem is sorted I think I can get my half time down to about 2h 3om.

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Grossly inadequate training


Aid stations on the run were plentiful (every 2km) but there were only 2 on the bike at 21km and 55km. That was not adequate at all. This race has a great deal of potential but there are some serious problems that need to be dealt with.