Racing together with my clients.

In this blog I wrote about the preparation I was going through for my triathlon and the fact I had hurt my Achilles tendon and had had very limited running training leading up to the event. Well, this race has taken place and I now want to share the experience with you.

The race took place in Austria, and I had the honour of travelling with and doing the race with two of my clients, Tim and Martijn. They are also friends from the triathlon club I am a member of. This makes the whole experience quite different from when you just turn up for a local race.

Firstly we travelled there. There were 6 of us (3 taking part, 3 partners/supporters and 3 dogs) and we travelled by car. We travelled with 2 others on Wednesday evening halfway and then continued on Thursday morning. The 2 other members of the group followed a day later.

With the Ironman races, you are required to register one or two days before so we were able to do this on Friday. Later in the day, we went for a swim in the beautiful Lake Zell. It was one of the most beautiful swims I have ever had.

In the evening, there was a 4-km night run. Tim had already signed up for it in advance, and for some reason, we all felt the peer pressure and signed up, including Brian and Mariuxa, who weren’t racing on Sunday. I wasn’t supposed to go hard, so I was going to run with Brian, but I lost him in the tight roads of the town, and as each kilometre went on, I went a bit faster. The competitive spirit just can’t be put to the side!

Saturday was a bit full-on. We had to attend the race briefing at 0900, which lasted about an hour. They explain the course, things to be aware of, timings, etc. Then I had a short bike ride to fit in. I did this with Tim and Martijn, although we lost Tim on the way as he is way faster. We then had to get all our stuff together to take to the transition zone together with the bikes. It is quite time consuming but I was happy to do it  with the other guys.

And then all of a sudden, it was race day. We arrived super early, as we expected to be stuck in traffic for a while, but we arrived with no issues. So, it was super relaxed getting everything ready in the transition zone, and we had time for a nice warm-up swim before we started. Again, we lost Tim, so we weren’t able to wish him luck before we started. The swim was a rolling start, with a few athletes leaving every second. I really enjoyed the swim. I found my own space, and on a couple of occasions, I saw someone with a beautiful swim stroke pass me, and I swam directly behind them to get some drafting effect for a short while.

The bike was a good level of challenge. The climb was around 800m over 14km close to the start. It was really tough, with a steep section at the finish. Some people had to get off and walk, so I was pleased that I was strong enough to keep going on the bike.

The rest of the bike section was relatively flat, with some rolling hills. And then the run started, which was going to be a bit of an unknown as I had been nursing an Achilles injury all summer, so I hadn’t been running much. What I didn’t expect was to get a stitch in my side. That lasted a long way through the run and made running fast a challenge. At about 15km, I drank a Coca-Cola for a bit of a caffeine and sugar boost. It might be a coincidence, but the stitch faded then. As I got to the 2km to-go point, I realised I could push a bit harder so sped up into the finish. I had no Achilles pain and I was really happy with how it went and enjoyed the experience.

After we all finished, it was really nice to come together with Tim and Martijn to share our battle stories. This is the great thing about having a community around your sport. We can share our experiences, how we train, and racing stories, and we can train together. We make friends and also meet up for non-sporty events.