Racing season went on right the next weekend
with the Sprint triathlon in Dukhan. Last year I finished around sixth place,
also because I forgot to put my helmet into the transition zone and had to go
and collect it from the car! This year I had more experience and probably even
more power, so I had hopes to follow my second place from 2011! But just small
ones, because the main objective was to race hard and enjoy! This is my
attitude for this year J
It was a beautiful Friday morning. After camping
in the desert nearby we didn’t have to spend one hour driving from Doha, so we
could come to the venue just around 7:30am and with no rush prepared everything
for the race. It was so nice that the race was starting at 9am. I’m not an
early bird and every extra hour in the morning mobilizes more of my strength!
The distances were a bit shorter than last year and 400m
swim passed really quickly. I tried to work with my arms hard and increase the
stroke rate. It felt like I was going faster, but when I got back to shore and
saw many people around, I knew that I was same fast as always! But in the race
concentration there was no time to think about or be disappointed about such
things. The race was not over yet!
I hopped shirtless onto the bike and started pedaling as
hard as I could the 16k bike section. I didn’t have the proper tri clothes yet,
so I decided not to waste time with putting a shirt on! I saw Lance Armstrong
doing a triathlon half naked and where else than in Qatar’s 30 degree mornings
you should try it too J
I started quickly passing a lot of people and because the two loop course was
short I didn’t have any idea what my position could be. So I kept going around
37 km/h average, just focusing forward.
Just at the beginning two guys I passed started drafting
behind me! In triathlon this is not allowed, but here it was, so it was not a
problem. Well it was not a problem from the rules point of view, but I had a
big problem with it! I wanted to complete the race as proper triathlon on my
own, and therefore I wanted everyone else to do it on their own also J I
didn’t have any benefit from drafting anyway, because as soon as I was not in
front we were slowing down and I didn’t just want to drag them to the finish!
So on the slight downhill, where I’m somehow usually faster than others, on a
roundabout, I sprinted forward from the back and was flying down 50 km/h easily
leaving them behind J
During the second loop I saw Iain on the other
side of the road, who I knew is faster on bike than me and basically the only
fast person I knew. “Wow…if he is behind me, it is a good sign” a though blazed
through my mind, but with your heart racing at 180bpm, the brain is focused on
other things than thinking about some positions! So I just kept going…
I dropped the bike, changes shoes and headed for the last 4k
run. I saw two ladies and one Filipino, around 100 meters in front of me and
thought “This cannot be the front of the race!! I have to still be somewhere
behind!” and mindlessly kept running and focusing on another problem. My
stomach was cramped and I couldn’t catch enough breath!
It happened probably from swallowing too much
water in the sea, or air when drinking, or just because I was pushing too much.
I didn’t know, but the only thing I knew was, that I couldn’t run properly.
Properly means fast and fast on 4k distance means less than 4 min/km. I was not
running that slow with 4:20 min/km, it was painful and I was slowing down even
more.
After around 1k I overtook that Filipino and saw
the rest of the run route in the distance. To my surprise there were really only
those two ladies left in front and not that far ahead! But I couldn’t do
anything to chase them. I was stuck, gasping for air, burping and slowing down
instead. Obviously the other runners started closing on me from behind. Slowly,
but steadily!
And at 1k to the finish Joe finally caught me. He passed me and
tried to find his revenge for me letting him behind on the bike ;) But to his
bad luck in that moment I finally burped out enough air and set my lungs free.
There was still enough strength in my legs from not running at my full
potential, so I rather easily leveled his pace, followed him for a while and
around 200m from the finish I sprinted from the back and left him behind once
again J
Third place overall then, but the fastest man! Those two
ladies were just too good! I won a big box with a home theater system and with
Ondrej and my lovely race photographer Jitka we went for a pizza and towards
the day on the beach! I just love these short morning races. They just power
your day J
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