OK, now that I can feel all of the delicate parts of my body that were near-frozen after the swim on Sunday I'll write the race up.
As I mentioned in my earlier post it was 58F in the water and I didn't have a wetsuit. I had a pair of tri shorts (bike shorts with a thinner pad), the yellow Clyde class swim cap, and a pair of Sweedish goggles. That's it. I had to do the first 1/3 of the swim backstroke because when I put my chest in the water I couldn't hold my breath. I eventually hit a point where I could take a few strokes without dying but the water sucked most of my strength. Walking up the beach (and then up some stairs to T1) was tough.
The bike was better. The day was warming and it was comfortable to ride. I've done one other race in the same park and the route was shifted to be easier to start (last time you had a good climb right out of T1 so you had to have your bike in a low gear to make the run/walk from T1 - jump and ride move possible). I rode my Super Course and it was adjusted slightly off, with the seat a little too low, but that's my fault for not re-fitting the bike I haven't been on for better than a year. Oh, and I left my helmet in my truck (I carpooled to the race with my brother) and had to borrow one (Brian, bib # 77, you are my hero).
The run was a little long for a sprint (4.5 mi) but it was through the park and pretty nice. My only gripe is that the kid's duathlon they were running was using the adult run route for the kid's bike route and I got tagged in the arm by a sprinting kid.
As you can see from the pic above, I was last (20/20) in my class and darn near DFL (dead f---ing last) overall, but I did finish. I haven't been as good as I'd hoped with my training this fall and now I have a base time to try and better.
The first thing I noticed when I got the box a couple of weeks ago was that the bags were beautiful. Swift lets you customize the bags and I couldn't be happier with how they cam out. The attachment is simple - I tossed in a little extra to have a bungie attachment with an S-hook for the bottom so all I did was hook the bungie on the bottom and pull up until I could hook the top bar on the rack. The two bags worked great for what I wanted to carry - my work clothes, computer, and some notebooks. With a second set of bags (which I have) I can easily load enough gear for a short trip (couple of days) without trouble. When the weather turns enough for me to test the bags out with a full tour, I'll let you know.
The other piece of kit I wanted to crow about is my Fat Cyclist woolie (sorry, it's a limited edition and there hasn't been any info on the next version). Like all FC gear it's made by Twin Six, and it's fantastic. Yesterday was the first time I really tested it in poor weather, I'd worn it on cool days before but not in the cold. I was wearing the jersey with a day-glo vest over it and shorts, and within a few minutes I was plenty warm. I will soon be ordering a few more wool jerseys for winter riding.
