Triathlon - last in this season

In the end of June I finished my first Sprint Triathlon. I fell in love with this event immediately. My plan is to finish the Olympic Distance Triathlon ( Swim 1500m, Bike 40km, Run 10km ) next year and the Ironman ( Swim 3800m, Bike 180km, Run 42km ) within 5 years. My goal for both events is to finish within the first half of age group and all competitors.
This was my final test before my next year Olympic Distance Triathlon. I wasn't sure how good it would go, but I knew that it will give me good assessment of my training methods and performance predictions. Here are details:

Sprint Triathlon:
Swim 750m, Bike 30km, Run 7km

Goal: 1:50:00 (swim 16, bike 55, run 34, T1 3, T2 2)
to be in the first half both total and age group.

Result: 1:49:11
144/483 (much better than goal)
17/54 (in the first 1/3, much better than age group goal)

swim 16:41 171/483 21/54 - in the first half both total and age
bike 53:39 96/483 11/54 - in the first 1/4 total and age group
run 34:01 191/483 20/54 - in the first half both total and age
T1 2:53
T2 1:58

I am so happy today. I have achieved my goal of 1:50:00. This was my second triathlon and my performance improved since the last one. It isn't easy to compare both, but my placement, my cycling and running speed was much better, and my transition times are finally comparable to others.

There are two disappointments: first my swimming time didn't improve at all, despite the hard training and the fact that I reversed the proportions of breaststroke to front crawl from 80/20 to 20/80. I will have to work hard to improve my open water swimming. My second disappointment is with my running performance. I have hit my target time exactly as planned, but around 2 km to go I was passed by one runner from my age group, I was able to keep him within 20-30 meters, until another runner from my age group passed me, he quickly joined the other and they were racing to the finish, I was unable to force myself to increase my speed, although my pace wasn't really max out and I knew that I could do much better, to reach at least my training pace. There was something holding me back. I have to figure out how to force myself to have stronger finish. In the last 10 meters I was passed by another runner from my age group. So in the last 2 km I lost 3 positions, but I wasn't tired and at the finish line I felt that I could run another 7 km.

Results

My next race:
Niagara Falls Half Marathon - 28 of October 2007