With a 10 hour drive, 3 nights sleeping in a "shed" and the Pro line up looking like a re-run of the European champs, it was always going to be a tough race!
After the long day driving across 3 countries and "only" getting lost in 2 of them, we finally made it to our accommodation, later to be called "The Shed!" After a plate of pasta and a few glasses of water it was time for bed.
We woke up surprisingly early on Saturday, so to kill a bit of time we went down to the race site to register and check out the growing list of race entries.
With World no. 1 Joerie Vansteelant now entered, and 20 odd of Europe's best duathletes, it looked like my goal of finishing in the prize money (first 10) was out of the window??
Later on we checked out the bike and run courses. The bike was basically 8km up a mountain, with 12km back down, which was to be completed 3 times, with the run course being 2 laps of a very badly measured undulating "5km", to be repeated before and after the bike. In effect, 10k/60k/10k was looking more like 11.5k/60k of hell/11.5k, hmmm just what the doctor ordered.
Race day: With such a high class field, I knew a good start was important, as groups would soon start to form and I didn't fancy the idea of over 3hrs of time trialing. Unfortunatly I got my pace judgement wrong on the first run, and went on to suffer during the first lap of the bike. On the first bike lap I was sick, and not being able to top up my energy levels immediately, it took until the end of the second lap of the bike leg before I really found my legs. The 3rd lap went well and I started picking off riders. The final run went OK, but dehydration (from having been sick, therefore loosing a lot of liquid) forced me to take it easy during the last few kilometres as I was cramping up badly, and so I dropped a few places.
I'm pleased with my finish result of 16th considering the race that I'd had, but I can't help feeling had things gone better that I'd have made the top ten.
The long drive back hasn't done much in the way of helping my legs to recover, so I've taken an easy day today and am planning to get back on it tomorrow, with a paddle session early morning and a bike session in the afternoon, after all the 1st World Cup Quadrathlon in Ibiza is now only 12days away. It's time to shift focus from what's done, and look at what's to be done. . . This time in 12 days I will will be pushing for a medal!
