1/2 IM.
Can't decide if I'm more excited about that or finally trying "timtams" for the first time
Overall I'm happy but I have tons of room for improvement.
My Time was 7.20
Here's a run down of how it went

Woke up early to pouring rain.. it was the kind of socked in, low cloud cover, never going to quit, kinda rain- good news there seemed to be only a slight wind and well it was a "warm" rain.

hmm- not sure how to set up my transition in pouring rain- never thought that through at all..( the day before had been gloriously sunny at 27C.)
I had a few grocery bags and kinda laid things out and then put then in the bags- just hoped for the best- I mean I wasn't going for an agegroup record or anything

the swim was good-
Time 39.07 ( 2.04/100m pace) this was a 2 loop swim- after the first loop you had to get out of the water and run around a bour on land and then get back in for the second loop.

T1 8.25min
well it was pouring rain Did I also mention that my bike was racked at the furthest possible spot from the exit of transition?- It was about 250m away from the exit!! Couldn't decide how to go all that distance- with my bike shoes on or off? Did I mention it was pouring rain Decided a weird gimpy kinda shuffle with my shoes on was the way to go..albeit slowly

Bike was 2 loops again
Time 3.35, ave speed 24.6km/hr
I was happy with that..did I mention the rain????
Actually I was happy my max speed was 57km/hr flying downhill woohooo
but the difficult thing was that I had a good swim and am really a below average cyclist so that although I was out of the water ranked 85/317, I finished the bike 223/317 so it didn't just seem like 200 people passed me...they actually did and that doesn't count the people in all the other agegroups- so I spent the whole bike ride with people flying past me (including Michielle Jones) ( that was actually kinda cool- to see how fast they go!)
Met my DH in the transition so we could actually start the run together- that was a nice suprise- my run fell apart pretty quickly unfortunately - something I ate was not agreeing with me- my tummy was really crampy and I couldn't decide what I could or could not eat or drink to make it feel better
Run time 2:51 - should say run/walk/bathroom time
At least it had stopped raining by then and actually it was just nicely overcast with a light wind- definitely could have been worse ( well maybe not the time but how I felt
So overall I'm happy- it started out well even with the crappy weather
As for the rest... live and learn- I suspect it was the rain soaked stuff I tried to eat on the bike- I have a pretty sensitive gut as it is so the soggy fig newton coulda done it!
The only real drag of the day was about 35km into the bike I heard a "tingle/jingle" as I was coming down a hill with a sharp right turn. I thought at first I might have had a flat but it seemed ok so I kept riding- it flattened out and I refilled by profile bottle with my other bottle- then I went to get back onto my aerobars and I realized that the "tingle/jingle" was actually the entire pad of my aero bar falling on to the pavement- not just the foam but the whole darn thing!!
I chose not to go back ( we went back after the race but it was nowhere to be found) The big drag is we went to the LBS to replace it and the guy said it would be cheaper to replace the whole set of bars ( at 90.00) than to reorder that piece- at 60.00!!! That is crazy!

I think I'll try another 1/2 sometime- with more consistent training- try to improve on the bike- would be nice to be solidly in the middle of the pack next time. ( Apparantly I'd have to shave off 10min AND be in the 70+ agegroup to see the podium)