My plan was to go smoothly and not let the race get me in a rythm I wasn't comfortable with. I followed that to perfection. I wasn't speedy but it did the job. Swallowed a few gulps of gasoline water and was afraid I would pay on the bike because of it.

Rounding the bouy faster and in a better way. Maybe start a "little" faster to avoid crazy suckers getting their arms and feet everywhere. But somehow, I think I did a good job at the start. We were on the beach, ran in the water and dove in. I had a pretty decent start. Oh, I almost forgot : after the first loop we had to exit the water, go around something and then dive back in the water. I lost a few seconds there because I ran too far on the beach until I heard someone scream "GO back in the water!!!" Oups!

The transition was one of my fastest. I removed cap and goggles, ran to my spot, put the helmet and sunglasses and left with the bike. I LOVE fyling mounts! Thanks to someone, I had my bike shoes tied with some rubberbands to make sure they don't FALL OFF like my previous tri (dammit!). It went well. I started pedaling for a while, put the right shoe on. Pedaled again, tried to put the left one...lost a lot of speed.

I should buy tri bike shoes... or practice a bit more with my road bike shoes. Other than that it was cool.

I'm VERY happy with my performance on the bike! I have never done a 40 km at that speed. Considering my crappy season related to the injuries, I was surprised with the result. I hammered all along to the point where I was a bit frustrated at myself thinking I wouldn't have any juice left for the run. My quads were hurting at the end. The knee was a bit of a problem after the first loop. I got up on the bike to gain some speed after the U-turn and a few seconds later, I felt it. It stayed with me the whole ride but wasn't a "major" issue though.

I got out of the water a good 45 seconds before my friend Marco. He is a STRONG rider. So I felt I HAD to be speedy if I didn't want him to destroy me on the bike leg. He didn't overtake me until the second lap. Actually, it was funny because we could see each other at each end of the loop and at the first loop he litterally screamed at me "I coming to get you sucker!" in a joking voice. He got me during the second loop but I didn't let myself lose sight of him.

Other interesting thing (not), is that I almost took a nasty plunge! I tried to avoid a man hole cover at the last minute. I managed to get my front wheel out of it and next thing I know my back wheel is in the air and moved laterally by at least 6 inches. When it touched the ground I was certain I would fall since the momentum of the bike was more sideways than forward... but I didn't and told to myself to stop f-ing around!

During the second loop, at one point we began to be a little tight for space. Riding at about 25mph, 2 guys start to overtake me and then seemed to back off a little. We were 4 side by side at everyone the same speed. No more place to overtake for the others and nobody were accelerating to complete the pass?! So I slowed down a little and tried to follow these guys out of their draft but there wasn't too much space available for that to happen. So I have to admit, I drafted for about 50 feet :-( . The guy that just overtook me started to slow down!?! So I overtook him again and stayed for a while in front. I turn my head to see if someone's coming... who do I see? This wheel sucker stuck behind me (there was no one else now, one got in front and the other backed off). He did that for a while. He overtook me again, only to slow down a few hundred yards later, I then overtook him again and he stayed again on my wheel. Idiot! Oh well...

Hummm not much I'll tell ya! 23.5 mph average is more than okay with me with all those injuries :-)

Everything was very good in T2, except that I went in the wrong alley at first!!! I lost some precious time but ended up getting out of T2 before Marco, who was like 15 seconds in front of me (at least). Other than that, everything was darn quick.

Get in the right place!!!

I was afraid I wouldn't be able to have a good run after I toasted my legs on the bike. I started out aggressive and fast. I passed a lot of people and then I backed off a bit. After the first loop, I managed to get in front of one of my teammates (with whom I never spoke, though). The run was good for me. I was very tired and felt like my right quad was about to explode or cramp... but THAT didn't happen.

Loop 2 and 3 were tough but I voluntarly slowed down a bit to keep some juice left for the last loop. Good strategy even though some of my competitors overtook me. The ones that passed were so fast that I didn't have a chance even if I would have pushed. Go on guys...my pleasure.

I kept cool and hydrated the best I could with the 2 water stations. One gulp to drink...the rest for cooling the head and chest. Worked out fine.

Remember the last teammate I overtook? He managed to stay with me all the way to the finish line. At 500 meters, I started to hammer thinking he wouldn't be able to follow. He did. Then I went in "red zone" mode and he did too. It was down to a 2 second margin...that I won. It was a hell of a sprint finish! A lot of fun.

Not much. I'm VERY pleased with a 10km in the 40 minutes zone.

I drank a lot. Spoke with Marco for a while and with some other people. And then I managed to find "Chippit Muffin", the first BTer I meet! Isabelle cheered me the whole race and it helped during the run! Thanks!

Then I went running with someone from the club for 15 to 20 minutes. Considering the blisters I had... ouch!

We stayed to see the ITU Elite race. Athletes from around the world were there and so were 4-5 guys from the club. It was amazing seeing the guys swim at an incredible speed and then do a lightning fast T1!!!


Some injuries limited my training volume but I can't complain here