Stagging it
A good friend is getting married. He is very much into triathlon and is off to IM Kona having qualified in IM NZ earlier in the year. In the three weeks since IM Austria. I did no swimming, no cycling and only 3 jogs at 5mn a km that near killed me.
My plan for this race was to not drown in the swim, not crash on the bike, do 100m of the run and then head to the pub. A few pints the night before didn’t help.
In the swim I zig-zaged like a ^&^&*^* and everytime I zigged I swam over a club mate. Everytime I zagged I swam over him too. I kicked him in the kick. I swam over his back. I generally beat the crap out of him. I felt very bad about it but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t stop.
Anyways I beat him out of the water and then sat down and took my wetsuit in a very very relaxed fashion. Despite beating him out of the water I exited T1 18 seconds down on him.
Given I didn’t trust the security of the place we were staying I had left the disc snd SRMs at home so i rode by perceived effort. A steady to mod hard effort meant that he was 200-300m ahead of me for most of the cycle and I was riding past lots of people. After a few km I past the stag and suggested he jump on and get a tow. He didn’t take up the offer 
Carbo was still 200-300m ahead until 15km and he went for it. I rode on and came into T2 safe in the knowledge that next stop was the pub. Heading out for my 100m run I twigged I was in top 5 or so and in all good conscious couldn’t fvck off to the pub just yet. My running legs were still in Austria and there wasn’t a hope in hell of me running well. My lower back has been super stiff. I can’t engage my hammers and all I could do was waddle about and hope that my waddling was faster than Hughs. It was faster, just not fast enough. I never caught him and I was passed by one guy. I debating going with him but my legs just wouldn’t turn faster. I continued my waddle and finished 15 seconds down on my clubmate in first place. Looking at the results now I do regret a little being so “relaxed” in T1, but hats off to Carbo. Excellent riding. The big red machine is coming back and will be flying for IM WA!
Third place, prize money, more beer money. Happy days.