We had perfect weather for the race: blue sky, 60-80F, and no wind. It was warm on the run, but I liked it.
The swim was beautiful in the clear Taupo Lake. We started in waves by age group, 8 at a time every 10 seconds, so it was not crowded. Despite being in fresh water, I finished in 30:50, 20/189, I thought I would be 3-5 mins slower, so it started well.
T1 was hilly and with a 400 m run up to the bag and then the bike, a total of 6:26. I took the wrong bag (one number up from mine), but I realized it quickly and lost 15 sec max.
I biked with my new road bike (Canyon Aero road with integrated tri-bar) as I am working for 2.5 months in NZ, and a road bike is more comfortable for leisure rides. I think it is not as fast as my TT but decently fast, I am not sure it was optimally fitted as I did it myself due to time constraints. I would probably have been 5 to 7 minutes faster on my TT, which would not have changed anything anyway, so it’s definitely the right choice. The ride was in the beautiful NZ countryside, hilly for the first 25K, then rolling and then with a long moderate uphill up to 85K before returning to the transition. The return part is well known for being with headwind but not this time! I executed my plan targeting 215-220W NP with a max of 260W on the climb. Total: 2:38:27 36/189
We had bike catchers for T2 and it was straight downhill. I ran with the Hoka Cielo 1X which are great but painful to get in and lace, so I will blame them for my poor T2 time: 2:43, but I could not have run like I did without them.
The run was two loops by the lake, so crossing the front lake bars and restaurants. It was packed with people everywhere, which was great. The first loop felt long but I could run it as planned. I was worried I would lose stamina for the second loop so I slowed down a few times during the first loop when I saw my HR was over 140. The second loop went fast and I felt good. Not spiking on the bike over 260W paid off IMO. I ran the second loop return with focus as I realized I should be able to do a sub 5! I did the last mile like a mile repeat at track in 7:07! Total 1:40:18 19/189
Overall 4:58:42 15/189 (top 10%!). I thought I would be slower due to the road bike and the long T2 but the weather was great for me and my peers 
So we flew.
I have been training with athletica.ai (https://app.athletica.ai/) for 2 years and had two great seasons (3 World championship qualifications: 2x 70.3, 1 full). I healed from my 2 years long PF (due to hip misalignment/leg length difference), which enabled me to attend the track sessions with my club SVTC (Silicon Valley Tri Club) with a fantastic coach. These track sessions and Athletica run workouts brought back my running speed from 5 years ago! Thank you, Coach Muddy!
A big thanks to Taupo for encouraging triathletes to take over the city, the race management, the volunteers always smiling, to my wife, who was my sherpa and photographer, and at my arrival as a volunteer, to give my medal, hat, and towel!
It’s time to start the off-season, take 2 weeks off, visit NZ, and be fresh for next year!
