And we're off!... First race, done.

Sunday saw the first race of my season, bringing some good and some bad memories...

It all started at 05:30, when, as I woke up, I realised I had set my alarm 30 minutes too late!

No matter, get the Omelettes made and get out, it was only a short drive. First Omelette made for Sharon, I begin on mine... Cracking the 3rd (and last) shell on the side of the sink, I then pour the egg straight down the plughole, instead of the bowl! So, I make do with a two egg Omelette.

Trying to maximise my time, before leaving the house, I switch on the Garmin 800, to check it's set for the Canyon TT bike. The unit freezes during start up, and won't change. Off and on, again, and it finally starts up. Unfortunately, it had also reset to default settings! 

Really!?... Furious, I quickly went through the settings, again.

Bottles filled, we load the bikes into the camper (Alfie) and head off on the brief drive into Gt. Yarmouth.

First there, I begin to relax, as we wait for registration to set up. I nipped into the pool area, to grab myself a locker key, for later.

It's a dry, mild day. Eventually we get registered. The bikes are racked and our kit set out. I have three hours to wait, before my start time...

At last, it's time to join the queue, grab my timing chip and move to the water.

Just a few days earlier, I had done a 250m TT in the pool and was pleasantly surprised with a time 5:15. I was sure I could beat that in a race situation, but was also wary of going off too quick and making a hash of it. 

Unfortunately, I over compensated and was a minute slower!... Damn!

I ran out of the pool and into T1.

A relatively quick transition, I grabbed my bike and ran out to the mount line (starting the Garmin on the fly), leapt on the bike and was off.

Once settled into my pace, I looked down, to check the data, only to realise that the Garmin was also on a default screen, which didn't include power!

So, back to the old 'Perceived Effort'.

The bike leg was a 3 lap (16km) set up. The outward ride was into quite a stiff wind, but the upside, was the ride back toward the Marina Centre, as I chased the pedals, all the way back.

The bike leg done, I was back in for T2.

Bike racked, lid off and on with my running shoes.

Out on the Promenade, for the 3km run. Again, the outward leg was into the stiff wind, which was quite a grind, but, as per the bike, the return leg of the run was a flyer.

So, before I knew it, the whole thing was over.

Off to the timing van, to collect my timing slip. Slight hiccup, as the timing chip reckoned I'd taken 42 mins for the swim!

Spoke to the technician about it and he said he knew what had happened and would sort it out... "Don't worry"... The famous last words!

It turned out, that over the next few hours, I saw my times change 4 times, and so did my overall position! Eventually, it settled with me at 4th in my AG.

No excuses to be made, but plenty of learnings to take away from this.

Next stop, GYRR 5m series on 22nd April.