The pieces are there.

So the first race of the season is complete.

Last Saturday I competed in the 2013 Clermont ITU Sprint Triathlon Pan American Cup. 
This year they changed the course to make it a full 750m swim. Unfortunately due to some colder weather it was a wetsuit swim. The bike course is flat and fast with a 180* corner and a bit of technical work near the transition. The run is also flat but long as I measured it to be 15.3km long on my Garmin.

Normally, I like to line up to guarantee clear water but with a definite advantage to the Right, I had no choice but to risk it and position myself in the middle. The race began and it was messy from the start. For the first 200m I got a bit pummelled from left and right but managed to get open water. I moved into 3rd place and settled there only to see a gap form between 1st and 2nd. I went to bridge the gap but fell short. I swam the final 400m between Tommy Zaferes and the rest of the pack.

2nd out of the water, I got a bit stuck in the wetsuit but was comfortably in the front pack.

We grouped up pretty quickly. I spent the first lap making sure I got all my nutritional needs. Our gap quickly jumped to 35seconds and then levelled out. We maintained this gap for the remainder of the ride.

I wasn't in great position coming off the bike so I had to move quickly.

The first km of the bike was rough. Looking at the Garmin I forced myself to push it. I picked up my arms and my legs began to follow. I started to move up. I worked well with Luke Farkas for a couple of km's and then tried to chase down Connor Murphy and hold off american Kaleb Vanort. I ran an average pace of 3.08/km for the 5.3km to finish up in 9th place.
RESULTS FOUND HERE.

Overall, I wasn't as sharp as I would like to be but I feel it sets me up nicely for next weeks race in Sarasota.
More on that later though.

Ciao for now,
Andrew McCartney