Pembrokshire Coastal Triathlon 2009

Debut in the Sea water was the start of this Triathlon. Suggest by a friend who liked the area, me and "The Daf" signed up without hesitation. The Swim required a wet suit and after renting for Bala Stand 2008 and suffering with ill fitting, I decided to buy this year to finally complete my Triathlon kit. After weeks of research I purchased the Orca £99 from Wiggle. Cheapest you could get but the reviews were very positive. A 6am start from home we arrived in Broad Haven for 8am to sign on. The Sea was flat and my nerves quickly disappeared. A welsh Grand Prix event the set up was very smooth and professional with a superb speaker on the mic talking about the Triathlon scene and the day ahead. The start horn sounded on the beach and in we went into the splash, 1500m swim which turned out to be close to 1900m after a problem with the sat-link. (35min.18sec 54th) Really enjoyed the swim with a steady pace to make sure I was comfortable, whilst taking the suit off on the way to transition the pain on the neck was unreal, thought id been stung by something, but turned out to be a wetsuit burn, ouch. Wetsuit 5*, but make sure I grease up next time. During transition I picked up the bike and then decided to put my shoes on, not recommended! The Ride was very up and down, with some long climbs, sharp twisty descents and one gruesome climb. Very gd ride (24th) and felt gd before the run. Put my new Saucony's on for the run and straight away i knew i was in trouble, the shoes were digging into my foot from the start, calf muscle tight and definitely pushed to hard on the bike. The first 3k of the run was on the coastal path, which on any other day would have been awesome but didn't enjoy the slippery narrow climb up to the top at all. This followed by tarmac road to the finish which included gradual climb and a downhill finish before 300m on the beach to finish to a big crowd(44th). Nice spread of food and drink at the end completed a very gd day at the end. Definitely sign up for next year. Finished 29th, daf 16th.