Twilight tri/du series, race 2 (first for me though)

Tonight I did my first twilight series race (I did a du - some made people did tris!). Pretty miserable conditions, which made the biking somewhat treacherous (one right turn, 3 left turns and a particularly wet roundabout certainly slowed me down). Quite a few people racing various lengths, despite the conditions. Will obviously have more closer to tri season and when the weather is nicer! I joined the tri club (it's $50, I get trinz membership, and the races are free - as opposed to $7).

Finished 2nd in the du, and 3rd out of people doing the long event (there were a handful of people swimming, which is frankly mad!) Got beaten by a super fit multisporter in the du, and some awesome young dude who did the tri.

Happy with the first run, not particularly happy with the bike (did have a slow down a lot at the various intersections, because of the water), last run ok - got into a decent rhythm reasonably quickly, but didn't push quite enough. That said, quite an undulating run course, so not too bad.

First time I've run/ridden fast for quite a while.
First run: 2.33 km; 8:40; normalized graded pace - 3:44. As I said, happy enough with this, given I haven't run this fast for about 10 months!

T1: 36 seconds.

Bike: 15.967 km; 29.48; AV watts - 223, normalized power 235. Should be able to hold a higher power output on the bike. Disconcertingly, I was matched by a guy on a mountain bike (that is one damn quick effort on a mountain bike!). The conditions did not help, and it was a surprisingly rolling bike course, but still. Then again, I've been injured, and I was watching my VMO/knee, so not silly to have taken it a little easy.

T2: 32 seconds.
Second run: 4.13km; 17.25; normalized graded pace – 4:08. Not too bad, given the course is undulating and I was running off the bike, but didn't push it anywhere near as hard as I should have (well, it is a training race, so perhaps not stupid).

Total time, 56:55.

Reasonably happy. It's hardly a competitive field, but I did have one guy to push me. Should have been faster, but then again, it's a training race, and I've been injured, so not too silly to have left a little in the tank.