Littlefoot (litterally)

Littlefoot Triathlon was today.
Rode the bike over to the race since it was only a 15min ride. It was freezing on the way over, my hands were hurtin!
Got all set up and we were on our way. I always talk trash to Jocelyn about cracking her on the swim (I'll admit she's a far superior swimmer than me but once in a while I'll get lucky in the open water) and 100m into the swim I saw my opportunity. There were only 2 women in the race and they had orange caps so I pickup her outta the swim lineup. Onto her feet and I'm holding steady. Stayed put until 150 to go when the beach was in sight and I made a spirited move on her left. Pulled ahead just in time, jumped out and across the mat with 1.5 seconds to spare.
In all that excitement I almost forgot about the bike and run. A horrid transition it was (cough cough 1:58). I figured I needed a jacket and gloves since it was so cold and they took forever to get on since I was so wet. Finally I hit the bike, felt good from the start and got rolling. Passed a good amount of guys and was in 3rd entering the 2nd and last bike loop. Tired a bit the 2nd lap but kept going strong with with a couple minutes to go I finally caught Haven Barnes. Brandon Rakita had crushed the swim/bike and was out of sight in first. Haven transitioned better but I caught him back on the run and held the 2nd spot throughout.
The good: I worked the swim and bike very well which was my goal. Being a runner I like having fast run splits but I realized it's probably better to use my running background to go all in on the swim/bike and know that I can hold on and run good but not great. I executed that well today.
The bad: my transitions were terrible, need to work on those. Why put all the work into training if I can gain some easy time with better transitions.