This is my first attempt at a race report.. So bear with me! It's likely to be long..

Well we flew up to Noosa on Friday morning, arriving around lunch time.. Off the plane, and immediately noticed the heat/humidity.. Queensland's australia's 'Sunshine State', and i'm from down South where it's alot colder at this time of the year...

First thing we did was unpack the bikes so we didn't have to worry about it was done and then headed in to the transition area to have a look around. Registered and got our race packs and had a look at the awesome expo.. Got a new helmet and a couple of bits and pieces and then went and checked out the swim start. Headed back to the hotel and ordered in some pasta for Dinner. I was wrecked, so had a very early night.. Problem is, due to the 1 hour time difference I was out of wack.. waking up at about 4.30am the next day, thinking it was 5.30!

2 of us took our bikes out to look at the bike course early saturday morning.. Wanted to check out Noosa's famous 'Hill' before race day.. Wasn't as bad as I had expected from all the reports i'd read.. I mean, it was slow going up it, but I had expected alot worse.. Going down was the fun, or scary, part though.. With the road still open to traffic on the Saturday, scary more like it.. Hitting 73.7kms per hour going down for the first time! Headed back to the hotel to wait for a couple of other friends who were arriving that morning... Put their bikes together when they arrived and then headed back into town to check them in! Found out the race had been classified as a non wetsuit swim due to the water temp being too high, dissapointing, but nothing could be done about it!!
watched the criterium's and 5km road races that were on.. After dinner, back to the hotel for another early night..

Sunday.. Race Morning.. Again, stuffed up with the time difference and woke up stupid early, went through the motions, trying not to think about things too much. Problem is, i'm a numbers freak.. I wish I could stop it, but I can't help myself. Calculating times etc, I knew I wanted to do a 2hrs30mins.. Seemed like a nice round number..

I'm not the fastest/strongest swimmer.. And am always worried about getting bashed in the swim, So I started out wide and hoped for the best. Got a relatively clean start which was great and felt really comfortable. Bit of thrashing about when our wave started to catch the tail enders of the wave in front, and your usual problems, but managed to get on to a nice pair of feet for a bit of it, mostly though was swimming by myself. Didn't really have any idea where I was going.. The swim goes around an island in a river, just followed everyone else and didn't have any problems.. Came out of the swim, and was dissapointed
Swim time - 30mins 48 secs (later found out it was a slow swim for everybody, against the current..)

Felt good coming out of the swim, found my bike with no issues at all, helmet on, gels in pocket and I was out of there real quick. Jumped on the bike and started going, instantly new this was going to be a hard ride.. New bike and wheels felt fantastic, but the heat had already started to get up, and the wind was pretty healthy.. ended up being a head/cross wind for the whole ride, which was a bit hard with my deep rim wheels and me being about 55kgs.. Ride was undulating for the most part, with 'The Hill' at the 10km mark.. 3kms of up hill and then another 8kms of flatish riding till the turn around. Didn't feel great at all on the way out, couldn't get into a real rythm or get my legs going. Made it up the hill, got passed by a fair few people, but just kept myself going and got there.. Battled on to the turn around, had a gel, and started to come good. Made sure I kept drinking because it was real hot out there, with the hottest part to come. Saw my friend who'd started 17mins behind me a couple of k after the turn around, so I knew he was gaining.. Managed to get up to 76.7kmh on the hill this time!! Had another flat spot but then came good and managed to keep my avg up to 30.5kmh which i'm happy with in the conditions..
Bike time 1hr 19min 59secs including both transitions.

Fairly quick transition.. Still put socks on because I can't do 10km with no socks, and it wasn't as if I was going to win the thing... Hat and race belt on, and headed out on the flat out and back road course.. By this time it was almost 10am, and the temperature hit 30 degrees, with a clear blue sky and scorching sun.. Didn't feel the best heading out on the run, but that's expected, over the first 4kms, I was on pace to at least go under 50, but then it all fell apart.. Just got too hot, Every aid station had someone with a hose to hose down the runners as we went past.. I was sipping water and throwing it over my head but just couldn't cool down.. Every step I came close to walking, but managed to pull through..
I've been having a bit of a problem with my lower back/right hip, nothing major, just some twinges, and I could feel that all through the run, and my big toe joint was killing me every step I took.. But I kept going. The atmosphere was amazing! There were so many spectators.. Kids wanting high fives the whole way, which I gave as long as i didn't have to move to do so..the last 1.5kms was just a mass of people cheering and it really spurred me on.. There was even another girl about 200ms from the end who I decided to pass, she tried to cling on, so I decided to sprint the finish!! Felt like passing out at the end.. But they had showers going on the way to the recovery area which was bliss..
Run time, 52mins 55secs..
Overall Time, 2hrs 43mins 43secons.
19th of 39 in Age Group
179th of 564 Females..

To start with I wasn't happy with my time, however when put into context with the conditions, I'm quite pleased with how I went.. I had a great day, and so did my friends.. I was the slowest out of the 4 of us, but I was also the only girl.. my friend who I thought would catch me from 17mins behind didn't, which was a win for me!! He only made up about 16mins.. For my first Olympic distance I'm really happy with the results and I can't wait to do it again next year!!

I'm now looking forward to my next Oly in January, although the location for that one isn't usually very favourable either! It's all a part of the challenge.. I know I can get under 2.30 with the right conditions, so that's my goal now.. I have 2 more Oly's the season to do it in..

On to next weekend, Local Sprint 500-20-5.. Hopefully I'll do much better at that one!!