Given how the Victoria Half went I was lucky to find this race right around the corner. A change to have fun with the fitness built all year.

Given the shorter distance of this one I wasn’t too concerned about thing overall. I did have some background stress about pace though - I have been very focused on overall endurance and really don’t have much top end, still have to be careful out there.

No wetsuits for the swim - not a surprise given only the half athletes were allowed rubber last time. With my swim result at the half I was a bit over confident about this swim. Things didn’t really go poorly here, they just weren’t as comfortable as last time. There really wasn’t congestion and I didn’t over cook the pace. It just felt like more work.

As is usually the case for me the bike went well. The course starts pretty punchy before settling down to more rolling roads. Being in the 2nd start it was tricky to sort out who was who on the road - I was catching some of the slower athletes from the 1st start. I was pleased that I was able to settle into a solid tempo. The nature of the roads didn’t yield an impressive looking average speed however, I finished with a 200W average power which is what I had set out to do.

I made a lot of places on the bike coming into T2 inside the top 10 overall. Given how I felt about my swim that was a bit of a happy surprise. I made up another place through T2 and was out running.

Hearing where I was in the overall picture got my ego rolling and my running pace was well beyond my run fitness. Even with the short distance I really overcooked myself. This reminded my of my early days racing as I would always blow up on the run - due to riding too hard and starting the run much too fast. Kilometre 3 was rough. My run fitness was always going to be put to the test, here or at the half. Thinking I was actually competive was foolish and cost me a tonne of places. I was able to right the ship and closed the final kilometres at a pace I should have used for the entire run.

All told I was happy. I got a chance to show myself that the hard work I had been putting in these last months paid off. It was fun to be at the start line. Despite not racing a triahtlon for a number of years my transitions were ok - I still know how to do this…

A fun side bonus was that my wife, sister and brother-in-law teamed up for a relay. This was kinda a big deal for my wife as she hasn’t taken part in a triathlon for a very long time, she is just starting to get herself back into endurance sport after dealing with a number of physical issues. I am really proud of her for getting out there.