Matt Lewis reports, "I flew out six days before the race and soaked up the sun, enjoyed the theme parks and white sandy beaches.  The temperature averaged 82 Fahrenheit with a gentle breeze. Each day more and more cyclists could be seen cycling around the streets of Clearwater on all of the best bikes you can imagine with the pointiest helmets!  A few days before the race, registration opened, the swim buoys went out, a stage was erected on the beach along with large TV screens for spectators to follow the race day action live.  (Don’t think I featured on these!).

Sorry Matt, no pics from Florida.  Anyway
Falmouth looks quite nice

There was a great atmosphere starting to build.  On the Saturday the race started at 07:00 with the disabled athletes and pro women, each wave then went off at five minute intervals until 08:00.  This many waves was hoped to reduce the mass drafting that occurred the year before. My wave went off at 07:20 and was a relatively sedate start, great swim out (for me) but had problems with blinding sun on the way back.  After 34 and bit minutes I was running up the lovely white sand, through a mass of showers and wetsuit off and through transition, all that went smoothly and I was out onto the road.
It would have been so easy to go off too hard on the bike as the roads are so flat and straight but  I’ve done that before so I took the first twenty miles fairly easy.  During this time I got passed by large packs of drafting riders and kept easing off to avoid getting caught up.  The ref at the pre race briefing made a big deal about the drafting and issuing red cards.  Although I saw him riding his motor bike alongside drafting packs for miles and no cards issued!  I guess its just inevitable on such a flat course and judging by conversations by the pool afterwards, many competitors see the drafting as an extra challenge, to see how much they can get away with!  Any way I rode an honest bike, enjoyed a long tailwind before turning and taking the last fourteen miles into the wind.  I came into transition five minutes slower than I’d hoped but feeling relatively fresh and went out on the run feeling positive.
There were loads of people and cheering, it was great.  But then, darn, I just couldn’t get into a good running rhythmn.  At each drink station I was drinking four cups straight and I think the humidity was really hampering progress.  The course was mainly flat but with four long climbs up a big old bridge it was still fairly tough.  At one point on the bridge I passed Julie Dibens who was leading the womens race and had the mountain bike leading her along. Because she was in the lead I didn’t really click that she was suffering.  I should have realised because I was passing her and I was running badly.  It felt really good to come to the end of the run and cross the finish line, just to get something more to drink!
Had my medal given to me (rather nice, you’d like it Ian!).  The competition overall was incredible, some really fast people out there, including the Grannys and Grandads.  Everyones age group is written on their calf and its so disheartening to be passed by people in the fifties that literally flew past!  There was also I guy I saw on the bike who just had the one leg, no prosthetic and pedalled the whole 56 miles with the one leg.  He was going really well too!  There was another Gulf war vet with one leg, he did have a prosthetic. .The Hoyts were there too.  How amazing are they!  For those that haven’t heard of them, check this out:
You Tube Video
My eventual finish time was 4:35:17 and 427th overall, 70th in age group.  I was a bit gutted I was so far back but on reflection it was a great event and a great experience.  I’d definitely love to go back and give it another go.  The Exmoor qualifier is by far a better course but the atmosphere at the Worlds is so cool!  The only other local guy Isaw was young Will Collins from Falmouth College (winner of Wadebridge tri 07).  There were quite a few other Brits, mainly from up North.  Thanks for all the words of support on the various forums, look forward to seeing you all soon."

....and here's the Will Collins story 

"The first half of the swim was going fine.  The sea had calmed from the practices earlier in the week and after fighting off the slower swimmers I settled into a nice rhythm on the outward leg of the swim to the turn around buoy.  However as the 18-29 age groups were last off the older age groups were still thrashing their way through the swim and on the return leg to the beach this meant having to swim around slower swimmers still on the course, coupled with the blinding sun I lost a fair amount of time and exited the water in 7th in my age group and 79th overall, which I was pleased with considering the calibre of the competition and high number of pros.

Will (on left), having just completed his swim,

I had an average transition and then managed to settle into a nice rhythm on the bike probably my weakest discipline, I averaged a good (for me) 22/23mph.  However at about the 20 mile mark hoards of riders flew past in draft packs and as the head referee put it at the briefing the morning before most of these riders were “of a certain age”, this was annoying considering I did not see one person get pulled up for drafting.  I carried on well until at mile 50 when I punctured!  My inexperience showed as I forgot to check the tyre for the massive nail that was in there and just inflated it.  After faffing around for about 10 minutes the mechanic truck arrived and swapped my wheel for me losing me in total about 20 minutes on the bike.

                               ....cycle and....
 
I got into T2 and out onto the run planning to run about a 1hr 30 half marathon, I ran through the first 3 miles well but my legs just did not want to go with me.  Whether it was the heat or the puncture ruining my focus,  I tried to put in the effort on the second half of the run but it was just not my day and ran 1hr 48 finishing in 5 hours flat to come in 36th in my age group and an abysmal  906th overall!"

                                    ....run.

Well done to you both from all at CAC