Race Day

I participate in race 3 of the Gatorade Triathlon Series this morning. All together there are 6 races in this series, so far I've done 2, and plan on doing 2 more, one at the end of this month and another in March. Today's race was an Olympic distance triathlon, 1500 meter swim, 40km bike and 10km run.
We enjoyed perfect conditions for the race, the ocean was dead calm, almost no wind and the temperature didn't go over 30 degrees. Awesome day for a race.
I finished with a time of 2 hours, 35 minutes and 9 seconds. I've never done an Olympic distance triathlon so I have nothing to compare it to, but I'm really happy with my time, especially the bike leg.
Breakdown...

1500 meter swim - 33 minutes, 16 seconds

transition 1 - 3 minutes 6 seconds (it was a 500m run from the ocean to the transition area)

40km bike - 1 hour 7 minutes and 49 seconds

transition 2 - 2 minutes 33 seconds (another long run from the dismount line to the transition area)

10km run - 48 minutes 26 seconds

I've just registered for the Busselton Half Ironman, its in Western Australia about 2 hours south of Perth. Cari and I plan on leaving the weekend before the race and making it a mini vacation.
The event uses the same course as the Busselton Ironman race they hold in December so its a good way to get famliar with the course if I decide I'm going to do the full Ironman this year.

Waiting for the swim to start at the beach, the blimp at the left has a camera on it, they take some great crowd pics with it.

Walking back from the water after cleaning my swim goggles. First time racing with my new goggles, they were awesome.

Waiting for our category's swim to start. Each category has a different colored swim cap.

Jesse is back to his old self so we brought him along.

Finished the swim, making my way to the bike compound...

Coming across the finish line. Cari wasn't able to spot me during the ride or run so these will be the only action shots. I've decided to fire her as my official photographer.....

I dragged Cari out of bed at 5 am this morning, I owe her....

I just got a tri suit last week, seen in the above picture. Its make by Orca and it's awesome. It's one piece top and bottom so it fits really well under my wetsuit, and it doesn't bunch or bag during the bike and run. I usually wear riding shorts and seperate top, never again!
Next race is in 3 weeks.

Steve (gots to pop the blister on his foot) Dickinson