I was the second person off after Lidia. Pretty much after I saw her getting into T1, I decided to not wait around too much and decided to wait within the transition area known as the "pen" due to the fencing and the number of people squeezed in an area. It was interesting to see the dynamics of the people in transition. Some people don't pay too much attention and didn't realize that their team mates haves finished. There was one guy who got angry as he waited for like...2 minutes and when his team mate came through he mentioned that he had been waiting and was not happy!! Even the commentator said "calm the farm down" followed a friendly reminder to people that this is a fun event!!! Chill out!! God I would not like to be in her shoes (the team mate) having to deal with that person!
Run 1
This part was not too bad. I kept a good pace but there were people who were quick off the mark and sprinted past me. I was trying my hardest to stride out and increase my cadence but a sand run is difficult. I had passed a few people and even more during the run into transition. Running on concrete was difficult as the small rocks and hard surface was not nice. I am glad that I ran bare feet as shoes would have been difficult! Last thing you want to do is get sand in them.
T1
This was LONG! The transition area itself was long. As we were running on wet grass, I was able to pass a few people which was good. As I had my sunglasses on during the first run, all I had to do was out my helmet on and off I went with the bike. As I was pushing the bike on the saddle, I passes a few people too.
Bike
I actually found this part to be difficult. I had trouble getting my shoes on as my feet were so dirty and wet. Eventually I had my left feet into the shoe and strapped in but took forever to put my right feet into the shoe and the strap was not prepared properly so I rode the entire way with it unstrapped. It was only a 10km ride anyway so it didn't matter. As I had breakfast at 4:30am and nothing else to eat and I raced around 9am, I was low on energy. Thank god I had a gel taped to my bike. I wasn't going to but thank god I did! That was the only form of energy I had and I took it about 3km into the ride. I passed many people on the ride and only had 2 people pass me (one guy looked like a triathlete) and another guy looked like he wash keen cyclist. I found it tough on the bike as the roads were wet and my legs were not cooperating! Gotta do a long ride next week before Portarlington.
T2
I couldn't do the tri alliance dismount as there were too many people. There was also a slight hesitattion as it was this race 12 months ago that I fell off my bike and had a minor concussion. I didn't wear a hat for the race so all I had to do was put my shoes on, ventolin and my just in case gel in my top and off I went.
Run
The beginning of the run was not great. My legs were hurting and my chest was also in pain. After a few hundred meters, I could pick up my pace more and I made sure that I was under 6min/km. Good news was that after the initial warm up, I was actually running close to 5:15-5:30 pace which was awesome! I kept telling myself, "all you got to do is a 4km run today and that was it"! I kept increasing my pace and whenever I felt my legs decreasing in speed, I just picked out people in the run that I decided that I was going to pass. Best run ever!
Overall, my time was close to 53min according to my garmin. Oh, and I forgot to press lap on the bike so I just decided to just leave it and record the entire thing as a long run! I will know which part is the ride as the pace and speed picks up.
It was a fun day. Kraft put on a great spread but I was not hungry and just had my protein shake and drank water. I did have a few pieces of bacon from the spread but nothing else.
The uniforms we had was another thing to note!! Bright yellow and green!! Not the most flattering of colors! And thank god I was able to exchange my (small) tri suit to a 2 piece men's outfit as it fitted so much better!! I prob won't wear the top again but the shorts were great!
Another race done and dusted! One more to go. Let's see if we can pull a rabbit out of the hat for this one hey!
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
As the uniforms we had to wear last weekend were yellow (and green) - they are not the most flattering colours for the body. As I was wearing a two piece (male) - it did not sit well during the run as you can see from the photos below. Once again - a word of warning - pictures may bring a bout of laughter - you may pee your pants.
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