Alarm clock woke me up at 445 this morning and really nice to to see the beautiful blue sky and the sun.  I packed my transition bag the night before with my wetsuit, swim cap, earplugs, googles, bike shoes, running shoes, towels, helmet, sunglasses, baby oil, anti chafe stick … I understand why they have these huge transition bags. Oh, btw baby oil is for your legs and arms so the wetsuit comes off quicker.

I got to the park before 6 to pick up my race packet with my bib and to get my number and age painted on my shoulders and legs .. might be for the paramedics… 38 year old male, nr 52 found in the ditch.

At 645 I walked down to the beach with my wetsuit halfway on to attend the race meeting and I noticed that the yellow buoys were really far out .. is that really just 400 meters?? Just after 7 the first men in the elite group were sent of and by the time I got into the water waiting for my wave at 715 the first guy was about to exit the water so I guess it is just 400m.

I thought I was a pretty strong swimmer but open water swim in 59 F / 15 C is not even close to swimming indoor. I took it really easy for the first 150 meters but my breathing just got shorter and shorter so I ended up swimming breast stroke for next 200 before finishing “strong” … I have the utmost respect for anyone that is an open water swimmer and I have no idea how I am going to do 1600 m later this summer. The good part is that even if I did the breast stroke I managed to stay ahead of most of the guys in my wave but my time was somewhere close to 10 minutes which was disappointing.

Baby oil worked and wetsuit came off ok so quickly out on the 15 mile bike ride where I think I managed to stay around 18 mph average on a fairly easy course then transition over to the 3 mile run and I did the transition at around 1 hour but the run was tough in grass, mud and gravel.

Overall I am happy with getting in at I believe just under 1.30 and todays learning is that the wetsuit will go with me to Sweden this summer and I will do a lot of swimming to get ready for the Olympic Distance in August and September.

Update with official results; 37 of 66 in my age group and 218 of 374. I will get into the upper 50% next time

Net Time: 01:28:18
Swim (1/4 mile) : 00:08:39
T1: 00:03:38
Bike (14.8 miles): 00:46:29
T2: 00:01:27
Run (3.2 miles): 00:28:07

Next tri is in two weeks

Brjann