Events organized by Al Khor community are always very
popular, because they are held in their beautiful compound with pool and they
always have a nice after race lunch J And of course that they are very well run.
I did their annual triathlon twice in the past. The
first time I went badly wrong way and the second time I was just too new to
triathlon and finished somewhere around 10th place if I remember
correctly. This year everything was different! I had the right gear,
experience, skills and I was much stronger that last time. And with strength
comes confidence which was boosted by fact that none of the strongest guys I
knew were on the start line J
Anyway…the day started with a strange feeling that I don’t
remember experiencing for a long time. When the alarm rang I immediately sat up
on the bed, my eyes open and I could just feel energy running through my body.
I was not tired or sleepy and I felt like I could start running right now!
“It’s gonna be a good today” I thought with a smile J I had also a professional
race photographer with me, because my beautiful Jitka was doing me a company,
so I had one more reason to push to the limits. Everything was set and I was
ready. But since I jumped to the pool many small small things started coming,
were distracting me and I had to fight a tough mental battle not to lose
concentration and keep going.
First were the 30 lengths of a 22.5m pool. I
learned before how to do a flip turn to speed up my swim, but I was afraid to
use it here, because we were swimming in circle with two others and I was not
confident that I wouldn’t cause some collision, so I was turning as always.
Then my goggle got fogged and I had a hard time to see forward and not to hit
the end of the pool. But I refused to clear them and was swimming the last laps
almost blind! Obviously my style and speed were affected and my swim was slow.
How slow I can’t say, because I forgot to push the button…again!
Transition was good and it was really pity that I couldn’t
try my new triathlon specific shoes, because there was manufacture fault and I
couldn’t use them! Instead I used my normal shoes, but since I learned how to
put them on the bike directly and had a trisuit, I was quite fast there. Run
in, put sunglasses, put helmet, grab bike and run out.
It took me a while to slip into the shoes while on the
bike, but still much faster than putting them in the transition area. Then I
could enjoy my second strongest discipline, so I grabbed the aerobars and
pushed forward over some roundabouts and humps. Unfortunately the last of the
hums was so big that I lost my only water bottle! I briefly though to stop and
recover it, maybe I should have, but at the end I said: “It’s just half an hour
in the bike. I can manage without water!” and I continued.
Of course I can ride 24k without water, but how fast? Being
there and knowing that I’m closing to 45 minutes of maximum exercise without
any water I was deep inside afraid to go full speed. I was afraid that I might
get too thirsty and then run out of energy that I was just not pushing as hard
I could. And in a sprint triathlon giving all you got is the way to go.
So I overtook a few people and was going around 36km/h
average seeing only Iain 100m behind me. This was the fact that made me just
cruise like that, because here was not getting closer and I had a feeling that
I was the first in the race! It was just a wrong attitude, because what if I
wasn’t!
But it could probably be even worse if I didn’t read the
race report from DC Rainmaker the previous day. It was about how he mentally
blew up the race, because one thing was not as he expected! I was thinking
about it the whole time and it definitely helped me not to slow don’t even more
and keep fighting. Nothing is lost until you are in the finish and anything can
happen!
Seeing the end and water in the transition area I
speeded up in the last lap. And it was quite easy to increase the speed for
2km/h. Iain did the same and we arrived to the transition almost side by side
and in the lead of the race.
I grabbed a spare bottle from my bag losing some time in the
process of course and run out trying to drink and recover. I also took one
Turbo snack for the finish, but obviously I got a light side stitch from not
keeping the breathing rhythm. So I had to slow down to 4 min/km, try to get rid
of the pain and recover. Fortunately Iain is not the fastest runner, so he was
at his maximum when I was running easy and recovering J
Luckily after 2k the pain went away and I got back to
normal. Normal meant that I could just gear up and go 3:30 pace for the
remaining 3k just like nothing. I just don’t know where all this speed is
coming from. I have never been able to run this fast and I don’t remember doing
much running training. I think I’m a bit weaker on the bike than before, but
the run speeds I can do now are just strange! But it feels great, that’s for
sure J
So my miracle run saved me again and won me another great finish
time and trophy. 1:06:21 is fair time, but there is still plenty of room for
improvement. But every such experience is valuable and is taking me forward. So
maybe one day I will be completely happy with my performance J
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