Catfish didn't get me

[alpinerabbit]

So...
Today was the repetition of my first tri that I did last year.

Pre-race
Was hardly nervous. We had pouring rain. Last night I was thinking do I really want to do this, but DBF said do it.
Had one yoghurt for breakfast, and tea. 7 am bike check-in followed by coffee and a croissant (!), and sitting in the big tent away from the rain. Went to the loo but once, not 4 times like last year.

Suddenly ran out of time and "room in stomach" to have a pre-race gel.

Swim
Decided against wetsuit, to save time in T1. Water was warmer than the air.

I started from the middle/behind so I got into the melee. One girl complained when we swam thight around the buoy - my thought was "if you can't take it, swim the long way"....
They sent us over land and back into the water for the last 30 meters. Stupid.

T1
I notice I forgot my gels in my rain jacket which is, alas, with DBF....


Bike
Love my new ride, was just spinning along nicely, got caught in the pack and we were told off by race marshals but there was not really anything you could do - I tried passing, got caught again and caught in the pack. the lane was narrow most of the time and they rode triple file (stoopid) so passing was not possible.
On the very last 1-2K I got away.

Run
Not much to say, aid stations had only water (in fact aid station 2 was only just setting up so they had nothing at all). I held my pace, got rid of a borderline side stitch, and finished, could have been stronger but as I said, I had no gel.

Result:
1:13:25
12.30 swim (was longer than last year and with a new over land passage)
1:40 T1
31.25 bike (33.5kph, 7th in my AG! 19th overall!!)
1:10 T2
26.38 run (that's a 5:20 per km )

56/171 overall
11/44 AG (35-45)

... compared to last year

Total time 1.13.14
39/134 Overall
21/70 Age group (21-35)
Swim 13.47 (50 overall/25 AG)
Bike 37.18 (36 overall/20 AG)
Run 22.08 (64 overall/35 AG)

- this year we had a longer/more complex swim and an actual 5K instead of 3.8K run (bike still only 17K).... I'm getting better time wise. In terms of ranking I guess I have to take into account that I moved up an age group.

Since it was raining nonstop I only got wet once...

oooh and because tomorrow is the Ironman, they had massages and jaccuzzis, can you believe it!!!

and as I was saying, you actually can race a sprint without fueling.