Welcome to the wolrd of tri, hope the tri bug bites hard (although your wallet will hope otherwise). As someone who started tri only at the end of last year and now spend every spare cent and time on the sport, take my advice... Resist the temptation to rush in and buy all the latest and best (and expensive) kit until you know the sport is something you want to invest in. Try borrow the expensive stuff like a bike and wetsuit until you want to take the plunge and put your cash into it. Since you're starting off with the Joburg City, there is no need to get a wetsuit yet (and you wont' be able wear one in races until around April / May until it gets colder anyway). It may help your swimming, but training without a wetsuit makes you a better swimmer. The odd open water sim before the race will be useful if you've never done one before. Don't buy a TT bike (yet) - you can't use one in sprint tris. Rather borrow or buy a second hand road bike (if you don't have one already). When you get up to Olympic discance and beyand, then you can either add clip-on tri bars, or start thinking about whether you want to invest in a Tri bike (but keep the road bike for sprints and training)... Just buy tri shorts and a top for now (I think one-piece suits are a waste and when those pre-race nerves hit and you need to hit the portaloo, one-pieces are a bugger...) You can wear a speedo underneath if you want (I do), but watch out for chafing... Nutirtion isn't really a factor on sprint tris - a bottle of energade and a GU got me through my first few sprint tris. Finally, embrace the training and the challenge of doing three sports in one, and have fun in the race... Then, when you're fully hooked and dreaming of Ironmans etc, blow all your money on tri bikes, areo wheels and helmets, GPS HRMs, compression clothing, protein shakes, shoes and whatever else you can't resist!
