Much better sighting and negotiation of crowd. Time improved by about 30 seconds over last time on this course, but more importantly this felt much better--I was more agressive in claiming space in the water, and got off course only once.

Go a little harder now that the tools are there.

Relatively long run to T1, but this is too slow. Can shave some time here. I'm taking the principle of not rushing too far--this is leisurely.

Significant headwind S and E. Bike felt much more comfortable after fitting. Time could improve even more.

Go a little harder now that my position is better.

Still a little slow but OK.

Hot; this was all I cound manage. Splits: 8.39--9.09--9.03. Run will remain my weakest link, though with lots of base training my times have been very slowly improving.

This was--disappointingly--the same time as my last race on this course (though the distance in T1 added a little time). But the swim felt much better and I feel as though I have learned a lot about OW swimming.

The really strange thing is that although my placement is low (125/189 overall, 10/15 in the age group), my SWIM placement is the highest of the three (firmly MOP). Bike is so-so (which is peculiar because I came from cycling); run is the limiter, of course. I only just learned to swim so don't expect to find anyone behind me, never mind half the field.

And though I'm totally lacking in speed, I felt (at least in the swim and the bike) as though I could easily have maintained those speeds over longer distances. (Run would probably have slowed). So on to Oly in a couple of weeks and we'll see whether that is true.