I started really strong and put a couple of body lengths on the guy in my lane. After about 100m I settled in for the rest of the swim and I concentrated on everything that I have been working on in the pool since September. I lost track of the laps right away so I had no idea where I was in the swim. At about the halfway point the guy in my lane passed me and went up about half a body length for the next couple of laps. I was catching a lot of water from him and had to breath on one side. This wasn't as easy as I remembered as every two breaths seemed too quick and every four seemed too long. He continued to pull away until he had about a ten to fifteen second lead when I saw the flutterboard for last lap. I cruised down and back and got out of the pool in 12:45 - I had hoped to swim around 1:45-1:50/100m so this was a good effort and I'm really pleased.

Work on breathing on every second or every fourth stroke to improve my ability to deal with waves. That and my flip turns are the only part of my swim that I was unhappy with.

This was my first time dealing with transition and I think things went really well. On exiting the pool I grabbed my glasses and towel and headed outside to the bike rack. Once there I rolled my socks onto my feet (great suggestion from BT) put my helmet on, clipped on my race belt and I was away. I jogged with the bike to the mount line but almost fell with the combination of wet pavement and cleats. I stayed upright but I didn't realize that my pedals are significantly harder to mount when they are wet and you are excited!

Either practice starting with shoes already clipped in or work on clipping in in all types of weather.

At the beginning of bike I had some trouble getting clipped in - I ended up getting up to speed with my feet on the bottom of the pedals. I was passed almost immediately on the bike but once the rider was past me I got up on my pedals and followed her up the hill. Along the way due to rough pavement I had sports drink splashing all over me - something that I need to address before my next race. At the top of the hill I dropped down a gear and settled into my bars. Like everyone says, the first while on the bike is rough while your body gets used to the new sport - I had done some swim/bike bricks but with the harder effort I wasn't feeling great for the first while on the bike. The first lap on the runways I watched as everyone in my heat pulled away - although I was tempted to hammer, I reverted to my training and kept spinning, stayed aero and raced my own race. On the runways I was flying - for me - and I was really happy with my cadence and gearing. The second lap had some seriously negative thoughts as I realized I still had another lap to go and I was starting to really feel the pace in my legs. I ignored this and just kept on pedaling. I ran out of sports drink near the end of lap three just as I was heading off the course back to transition. When I checked the time I thought the course must have been short as I was way too fast for what I had predicted. With the big hill on the way back down I decided to risk taking my feet of the shoes for the transition. I have done this in training and spun out my BG before getting out of the shoes. I did, stopped before the dismount line and got off in a hurry. I was really happy with my time and speed on the bike - judging from my HR I went hard but not too hard that it killed me on the run.

Figure out a way to keep the fluid in my aero bottle and I need to practice clipping in in all types of weather. Also, my computer wasn't working so I had no idea how fast or far I had gone.

I blazed through T2 even though I tried to go the wrong way into the bike racks. Once someone pointed me the right way I was pretty quick. Had no difficulty dismounting but getting the legs going was tough. Once at my stall I racked the bike on the wrong side and moved it over one, grabbed my shoes and hat and was off. Almost forgot to move my race number to the front.

Pay more attention to the way into T2 during the briefing.

I felt really slow when I hit the road. I had been having some pain in my knee so I was hoping that it wouldn't show up today and it didn't. I found my cadence and although I still felt slow, I just kept at it. Near the middle of my second loop I started to fade a little but managed to keep the pace steady. About halfway through the third loop (top of the hill) I started to slow down and really had to dig deep to get the pace back up. I probably lost a few second here but I was able to find my pace again and keep going. Within the last couple hundred meters there were a couple of kids that were walking towards the finish line who decided to pace me for a little bit. This was the last bit of motivation that I needed to finish strong and hit the finish line with a sprint.

Watch my pace near the end of the race.

Walked and stretched for a few minutes - anything that started to feel tight I made sure I got it stretched out.


My abilities - overall I was really happy with my race - I'm not sure that there was much more speed for me to find out there. A couple of little things here and there but overall I think I raced to my potential. As a first race I am really please with both my time and my effort and think I left very little on the course. As this was not my A race for the year I think I may have the ability to shave a little time off for my final sprint in July.


I would like to thank the organizers and voluteers for the time and effort they put into this race. It was a great introduction to the sport.