The pool swim was pretty straight forward. You just started swimming and worked your way across the pool. The surface was choppy due to the succession of swimmers working back and forth.
The walls were high and there was nothing to touch or hold onto in order to get a good kick off so without flip turns I lost a fair bit of momentum at each turn.
At the end of the swim I hit the wall and then had to go back to the ladder or climb out of the pool. I felt it would take too long to go back to the ladder so I climbed out and was able to get out fairly quickly.
Once out of the water I moved quickly without running to the door and outside the pool into the cold!!! Moved down the stairs quickly and carefully then over to Transition.

I've never swum in a 50 m pool nor in this particular pool. If I do this race again next year I will make a point in swimming in the pool and learning how to turn at these walls.

I wasted time here being a bit disorganized. I need to practice transitions.

Practice transitions.

I came out of transition to the mount line and jumped on and took off. The bike route was a 7.2 km loop repeated 3 times with one fair hill to climb in the route. Lots of flats and some fast downhills to make it fun.
I thought I was pushing myself but I should have pushed harder. Hopefully, experience and practice will bring up my speed.
When I reached the dismount line I got off the bike okay but I also felt intense pain at my right ischial tuberosity (sit bone). I moved as quickly as I could to transition but I had a heavy limp and was very concerned I wouldn't be able to run at all.





Ride faster/ harder.

I limped in to transition and put the pain out of my mind. I got changed and started to run to the exit for the start of the run.

Practice transitions. There is time to be saved here.

I was limping but the pain was minimal and as I headed out of transition I was still limping but there was no appreciable discomfort.
In fact I was moving slowly but fairly fast for me. Within a half kilometre I realized my legs were fine and I decided my legs were going to keep going. My biggest challenge was to get my HR under control.
A little further on I ran up to a portapotty for a pit stop which cost me some time but really energized me. My HR calmed down and I was able to run again.
For the first time ever I was running and keeping pace with other runners ahead of me. People were still passing me but not as fast or as often as usual.
In the last kilometre I realized I was cruising along comfortably fast and looked at my watch to see I was running at 5:54/km which is really fast for me.
I came around the last corner and ran easily to the finish line. I was tired at the finish but my wife and a group of people I train with were there to greet me and within seconds I was breathing easier and feeling pretty good.
My time wasn't great but I felt stronger - and faster - than I ever have running off the bike before. I'm hoping this run bodes well for future runs and getting stronger in general.

For the running I just want to keep doing what I've been doing and to keep getting faster.

High fives with my training partners and hugs from my wife. Got a water at the finish line and a Jugo Juice (really yummy). Drank my recoverite and got my gear out of transition then waited for the last athlete to finish.
Being slow myself I didn't have to wait long and she came around the last turn looking pretty good. Everyone there cheered her in.

My wife videotaped my dismount and run/ limp to transition and later videotaped my run in to the finish line. In the run to the finish you can see I was still limping although I had no pain or discomfort.

My enjoyment of the race was clouded by a sad development. During the swim a 57 yr old woman had a heart attack in the pool and they were unable to revive her. My heart goes out to her friends and family.





My performance was pretty poor but I saw small improvements that I hope will lead to bigger improvements. Overall I feel pretty optimistic.
I'm continuing to experience saddle issues which are frustrating. If I can get over them I feel I will make a leap in further improvement - not to mention just being a whole lot more comfortable.