Ran out from beach to as far as I can before I started swimming. I figure swimming pace is 20++min/km when I swim really really fast, so walking / wading, no matter how slow, would still be faster than swimming. This was the only good thing about the "swim" for me, it turned very ugly from there. There were huge waves. When I started to swim, I found myself bobbing up and down and waves were moving me back instead of forward. When I tried to sight, all I saw were huge waves coming at me, and I couldn't see the (first) buoy beyond the waves. When I tried to breathe, all I got was water, water and more water. I tried floating on my back and keep my mouth open to the sky, but water went in through my mouth as well. I finally waved to kayaker who towed me back to the beach. I probably didn't go beyond 100m out from the shore. John Salt, the race organizer, kindly put his arm around my shoulder and consoled me as I arrived back at the beach. I actually didn't feel too sad, as I knew given my recent lack of training that today would be more a training session than a race.

OWS is my weakest link, and the waves today made it twice as difficult. If my father weren't critically ill and I didn't have to fly 20hrs back to Hong Kong on 20min notice 2wks ago, I would have done OWS practices the last 2 wks, and maybe I'd have a fighting chance today. When I flew back from HK a few days ago, I contemplated not racing today. But since I've already registered, I decided I would make the best of it and treat this as a training session, knowing full well that I didn't have the appropriate race training. I would not have done anything differently.

Suit stuck to heels.

As I exited the transition and crossed the timing mat, I noticed there was no beep. I looked down, timing chip is gone! Oh well, must be the waves during swim that knocked it loose, or did it get caught while I was taking off my wetsuit? Oh well, no sense worrying about it. Bike course is quite hilly. At one point, most of the people were walking up the hill with their bikes. Since I didn't do the swim, I found enough energy to climb all the hills on my bike. Top speed = 65kph

When I was heading back to the transition area, I reminded myself to look for the timing chip in case it got stuck to the wetsuit. As I arrived at the bike rack, I saw my timing chip neatly wrapped around my rack. Hurray! OAT official found the chip so they wrapped it around my rack to make sure I see it when I got back to the transition. What service!

Good strong run, because I didn't have to do the swim. However my ankle is all swollen after the run. Ever since my 20hr flight from Hong Kong, something happened to my ankle. It swells up by the evening every day. I iced them at night, the next morning it looks OK, only to swell up again by the evening. But there is no pain nor decrease in range of motion. VERY strange.

Went to inform timing chip people to DQ me as I did not finish the swim.


Lack of training, esp OWS, because of last minute trip to Hong Kong.


First off, I want to thank everybody for your good wishes. I had to fly 20hrs back to Hong Kong on 20min notice 2 wks ago to visit my Dad who is critically ill. My Dad's situation has stabilized although at 91, anything can happen at anytime. Going into this race, I didn't have the appropriate training, but since I've already registered, I decided to do this race as a training session. Because of the lack of OWS practices and the huge waves, I DNF'd the swim, but I biked and ran and completed this brick session, so I'll consider this "mission accomplished". Toronto Tri is in 6 days, and I wouldn't have a chance to practice any OWS before then, so that would be another training session instead of a race for me. Hope the water will not be as choppy and my ankle, which has been swelling up every night since my 20hr flight, will be back to normal then.