I did a OD at the weekend, which I like to do as a warmup race for a 70.3 in 3 weeks. I've been working hard on my run and was hoping to have a good race and run leg. Unfortunately a shark meant the swim was cancelled and this was a bit of a bummer as I should have been top 3/4 overall out the water. This was replaced with a short 600m run, then 40km ride around Rottnest island, all of it bar 2km is hills. Really tough. And it was hot (102F) with no shade. Luckily my sleeved trisuit was black along with my helmet, shoes and bike... Originally race plan was to swim hard, ride moderate, run hard with a bit of breathing space. Unfortunately now with the swim canned I had no gap starting on the bike, the front guys hammered it from the start sitting on around 25mph and I dutifully followed... well I kept up for 10km then dropped back slightly, but ended up riding hard trying to stay in touch. Got to T2 drenched in sweat and breathing like I'd just done a 400m sprint. Thankfully, transition was in a large sandpit so I got to pick up my bike and run 200m through baking hot sand which really helped my HR...so yeah got onto the run (more hills, more heat) and was feeling pretty spent. I was aiming for around 6.40min/miles pace, but ended up averaging 7.30min/miles. Pretty disappointing considering I'm hoping to run low 1.30s for the 70.3. Feeling a bit of anxiety about the race now, this was supposed to boost my confidence ha ha... I just don't know how much to read into the heat, the course and the fact that I went too hard on the bike. I would have thought I could have run better off the bike considering I've almost doubled my run volume from 25 to 45 miles Do I just write this race off? It's hard not to be bothered by how slow I ran.... The 70.3 will be on a flat course and temps will be cool.