Bala Middle Distance Tri

First big race of the season.
Drove up the night before and slept lakeside in the back of the van.
Typical Welsh weather in the morning i.e showers.
Got in the lake well before the start to try and get used to the temperature. Not as choppy as last year so had a better swim. Still way off the pace of the leaders but I'm used to that by now.
Glad to see the finish as usual and started reeling people in on the bike.
Went for 808s rather than the disk as the course has a fair amount of climbing in it. Steadily reeling people in and managed a top speed of 68kph on a descent.
The course is out and back- over a moor down the other side then back again. Good fast finish into Bala, but had schoolboy error in jamming gears on a climb by whacking both levers when trying to shift too late from 53 12. Had to jump off and back peddle it. Probably cost me at least 30 secs.
Quick T2 foregoing socks and didn't feel too bad going into the run. Settled into a steady 6.30 pace up to the turn then picked up to closer to 6 for the run back. Caught most of my age group, but 3 ahead at the finish.
6 minutes quicker than last year in 4.16. Pleased with 1.19 run at the end which was top 6 for the whole race. Not so pleased with the massive blisters though! Had a bit of food at the finish then had a lovely 5 hour drive home on my own mostly in pouring rain.