I was pretty relaxed waiting for the swim start so when it was time to hit the water i was keen to get stuck into it. I started in the middle of the pack and got a good start and rounded the first buoy with no problems. The swim is in a tidal canal and I think it must have been low tide because in some paces you could touch the ground with your feet and a lot of people were actually walking rather then swimming (is this cheating?). I joined in at one stage and ran about a 100 meters or so. During the last half of the race I got bashed around a fair bit. The team swimmers (who started after the individual competitors) caught up to us individuals and swim over us. I received quite a few scratches and bumps from these guys and also an accidental elbow to the head for good measure. Overall though I thought I had swam a good leg.

When I got out of the water and saw my watch I was pretty disappointed. Here I was thinking I had done a great swim but my watch showed I was 3 minutes slower then last year, unbelievable.

I quickly tried to forget about the bad swim time and focused on getting in and out of transition as quick as I could. I found my bike, donned the helmet and glasses and picked up a couple of gels.

T1 was all good.

I managed to jump on my bike and slip into my shoes fairly easily and headed off on the cycle course. I passed my family after 2k's which was great and they all gave me a huge cheer. The bike leg is normally pretty busy at Noosa, which means there is normally heaps of opportunities to draft (it's only cheating if you get caught) the faster team competitors as they come whizzing past. There is a down side of course. Some of these team competitors are fiercely competitive and are normally yelling and screaming for everybody to stay left. It gets a bit hairy when you’re trying to pass a slower cyclist and then the team cyclists are trying to pass you. Most times it ended up in a shouting match "keep left!!!" "get out of the way!!!" "stay right!!!", you know what I mean.

Anyway, apart from the yelling the cycle leg was pretty uneventful and I managed to finish in around the same time as I did last year. This made me a happy camper!!

T2 was good. I got off the bike and racked it back in row 3. I slipped on the shoes, picked up another GU (I only had one on the bike so i had 2 left for the run) and headed out.

All good

Mmmm.....as I started the run I felt like crap, not wanting to spew crap just a bit tired crap. I tried to stay positive after having a good cycle leg but at this stage i knew I wasn't going to beat last years time so it kind of made it hard to push myself to run faster. It was a ridiculously hot day too which didn't make matters any better.

My run was realy about staying cool. Every water station I grabbed 2 cups of water. I drank one and tipped the other over my head. I passed the family again and this spurred me on some but once they were out of site I really started to struggle. The finishing line couldn't come soon enough and as I crossed the line I looked at my watch and wasn't to surprised to see a fairly slow time.

My run training has dropped off a bit as I started a new job so I kind of knew that I would struggle in the run.

The Noosa tri is a massive event with thousands of competitors. This means there is a fantastic astrosphere but this year was the first time that it felt slightly overcrowded.

When I crossed the line I was hot, exhausted and very relieved to have finally finished. A few silly thoughts about this being my last Noosa Tri raced through my head but I think they were the result of feeling disappointed about my run time (and also my poor overall time, nowhere near a PB).

.....but as I write this report (which is now over a week late) I think back to the day and yes it was a rough and tough race but I did also have a heap of fun.