Two weeks ago I was racing in the Ironman 70.3 Pula. It was my third time in Pula and I was pumped for a great race to close the season.
We got there, like last year, on Friday so my brother and I didn't have to run like crazy on Saturday to register and check in our stuff at the transition zone.
The registration process was quick and easy and we got back to the apartment with everything we need for the race. Since you can check in your bike and bags quite late, we decided to stay in the city for a little longer and get race ready later in the day.
Lucky for us we didn't get to eager because at around 3 PM the race organization sent an e-mail notifying us that due to a thunderstorm approaching they would stop the bike check in process and everyone who already brought their bike and bags should collect them because of safety concerns. We would all do the check in and bag drop off before the race.
The storm cleared the next morning and we went down to the beach ready to rock 'n' roll.
Once there I started putting on my wetsuit but saw a guy, whom I recognized from the race briefing as the one responsible for the swim course, talking to the divers who set up the buoys. I heard him say that because of the waves he won't let anyone into the water.
A few minutes later we got the official confirmation and new schedule details.
We would start all dressed up for the bike and would start from the beach in a rolling start procedure. This went pretty smooth but because of fairness stretched out 30 minutes till I was able to start running to my bike and hit the road.
As opposed to my last race in Germany I felt awesome from the start!
I probably started out too hard for the first 5K but I just wanted to race. Once I settled into a rhythm I started passing a lot of people and got pretty annoyed with how people fail to arrange themselves on the rolling start. If you are fast go to the front, if you are slow go to the back. It's not rocket science.
However, since everyone just wants to start the race I was forced to overtake a lot of people which costs energy since you have to pass them in 25 seconds once you get closer the 12 meters to them.
Even more annoying were people riding in packs (some in a single file, but also in groups stretching from one side of the road to the other). Overtaking these guys is basically impossible without breaking a rule or two.
Going strong - credit: FinisherPix
Once I passed the 50K mark I thought that I was probably going to fast since my average speed kept going up (I averaged 31 km/h on the first 30K of slight but steady uphill and later rarely fell below 36 km/h. Surprisingly, I still felt awesome. I kept overtaking people and was looking forward to the run which wouldn't be in heavy rain like last year.
I could have been a little faster on the bike but the wind was pretty strong the entire time so I had to be extra careful not to end up on the side of the road.
Bike time: 2:42:52
I got into transition and was out in 1 minute and 40 seconds. Pretty good if you ask me :)
The run started pretty good and for the first 5K everything felt great. After that my left quad started hurting. I wanted to ignore it but it started slowing me down a bit.
The problem originated a week before where I ran in a 10K race (along with my wife and a friend who did the 5K version) and I ran a 40:04 which is a PB. I then ran on another race on Thursday (3 days before Pula) where I ran in a 5K and finished in 19:17 (again a PB).
I was hoping that I could fully recover till the race but it wasn't possible so I kept running as good as I could and finished the half marathon with an average pace slightly above 5:00 min/km.
Keep running - credit: FinisherPix
Would I race twice before an (half)ironman race again? Absolutely! But I would be smart about it and not shoot for a PB :)
Run time: 1:47:48
All in all I am pretty satisfied with the race. I finished 192nd out of 1209 overall and ranked 42nd out of 165 in my age group which are really good results.
Happy that it's over - credit: Andrea Knez Karačić
However, the true star of the race was my brother. He wanted to prove that you can goof around and still finish the race so he took his single speed mountain bike and put a backpack on for the bike course and still managed to overtake people.
Overtaking people on road bikes? Easy! - credit: FinisherPix
He then put on his best t-shirt, a Sponge Bob t-shirt, and matching shorts to show how a true gladiator looks like (sort of :D ).
I want to point out that he didn't just signed up for the race out of the blue, but had actually trained for the race. The only difference was that the race itself wasn't really that serious :)
Skittles kept him going - credit: FinisherPix
This year there were a total of 9 people at the race and I like to think it was u fun trip. They were cheering like they always do and in the end made the race special again. That's the part of the blog where I get somewhat emotional because I truly believe that I am blessed with a great circle of friends who could have chosen to be in any place in the world but decided to get into the car and watch us compete.
They are really a bunch of great people :)
I love these guys :) - credit: Hrvoje Hlevnjak
p.s. you can check out my race data here if you are into numbers :)