I've never swum in the open water for a race, and as it was a straight line swim you could see just how far 1km is. It's just not the same as 20 lenghts of a pool. I was just thinking you have to be joking, the end of the swim looked miles away.

Had a new wet suit for the swim, and had only used it once, that was yesterday, and I could not believe the difference it made to my swimming. I was relaxed the whole time, breathing was good and my stroke had good rhythm. Didn't get to draft anyone. Navigation wasn't so good, sort of snaked along the course. Happy with the time as my previous best for 1km in the pool was a 22:10.

Work on my navigation, swam abit further than what I should have.

No time for transition (included in bike time), and didn't start my watch. Transition was ok, found my bike quickly and had a good spot near the bike entry exit. Decided to wear socks, I was going to put them on before the run but decided at the last minute that I may as well get the benefit on them on the bike as well.

Have to be honest, I don't really remember much about the transitions, sort of go in to auto pilot.



Practice taking off wet suit.

I'm always happy when I get on the bike, it's my favourite discipline, and I always feel very confident about pacing and what I'm doing.

Bike started out well, was passing a lot of people from the start, and wasn't really pushing that hard. One part of the loop was wide enough for only two bikes so I got held up a little bit as the elites were passing us on their second loop so it was actually difficult to get right to pass.

On the second loop, there were a series of 90 degree turns which we didn't go though on the first loop. Went a little bit silly trying to catch someone and ended up running a little wide on to the grass. I was realy suprised how many people who have tri bars and don't use them. I have to get some as it gets a hard riding on the drops for 30kms.

Actually held a pass that I thought was too fast for the entire 30 kms

Not much,

T2 is my favourite, I quite like the dismount, and my tri coach gets us to practice t2's alot. I would have passed 6 or 7 people at the dismount line alone.

Had a little bit of trouble racking bike, tried to rack handle bars first , didn't work first time so racked by the seat.

Check that the bike will rack by the handle bars before the actually race.

I'm not a good runner, I see running as an inconvience to get to end.
My best 5 km TT on the track is a 26:48, I have never run 10km before, even in training so I really thought that I would suffer during this run.

Mentally I just thought run 5 km as a training run, which would be the first loop. Then just think all you have to do is run another 5 km, so it shouldn't be that hard.

This sort of worked, ran the first 5 km easy, and felt really good the whole time, I've noticed lately that when I'm running well my steps are in time with my breathing.

I was a bit naughty, as a ran though the two drink stations on the first loop for a couple of reasons, I don't like slowing down to drink, and I hate luke warm water.

Started the second loop, and felt good. Got passed by Spider Man, thought to myself that my little boy would have gotten a buss out of seeing Spider man passing dad.

Someone tried to pass me who was running a simliar speed as me. A picked up my pass a little and we ran side by side for about 2kms. I was facinated by the beat the two sets of feet made running side by side and I was trying to think of a song that fitted the beat. The kept my little head amused, I didn't think about how much I was beginning to suffer.

I got the last 2 kms, and I was starting to suffer a bit, running form was getting worse, and I was really just thinking about the end. Couldn't catch anyone and all I was thinking was that all I had to do was run 10 and a bit more minutes.

Had a pattern of looking at my watch, running looking at my watch, got down to last KM and tried to pick up to pace a little but had no gas.

Eventually, I could see to finsh line, heard my name called out. Wobbled aroung a bit as they took my timing chip and that was it.



Bit more run training

Collecting , T shirt, coffee cup, finishers medal, and other stuff. Had to leave straight away as I had to pick up wife and kids for a kids birthday party.


Not training for this distance.


Will do it again next year.