Last Sunday I raced the 4th Falkensteiner Punta Skala Triathlon in the small town of Petrčane.
Months of training are slowly coming together and I couldn't wait for this race. Since I have another middle distance race in 2 weeks which I consider the first "A" race of the season I wasn't really looking to push too much. I was aiming for a time close to 5 hours which would still be a personal best.
I was a little worried about the swim since it's clearly not my best discipline. I am not a bad swimmer in the pools and the last few weeks I swam the 1.9 km in around 34 minutes without too much effort but swimming in the open water is a whole different beast. Panic attacks, small or big, always came up so I was just looking to keep calm and swim.
I positioned myself pretty much to the back of the starting field and a little to the left since after the first buoy came a right turn and I wanted to be on the outside in order to prevent getting kicked in the face.
Once at the first buoy I made a right turn and started the longest part of the swim. Half way through (marked by another buoy) I glanced at my watch and when it showed that I was almost a kilometer into the race in around 17 minutes I was pretty pumped. I was aiming for a time of around 34-35 minutes so this was awesome.
Out of the water in a great time - Photo: Hrvoje Hlevnjak
Swim time: 33:22 (51st overall)
Another thing had to work on were transitions. I tend to lose a lot of time between disciplines but this time I was moving smooth (more or less) so that my T1 time was only 2:17 (instead of the usual 5)
I jumped on the bike and started riding. Based on my training I should have been aiming to hold something around 220W during the bike part but since I decided not to push to hard I ended up riding 191W on average (206W normalized). I eased most of the descents and kept the rest steady which was quite different from other guys.
There were people who overtook me multiple times only to force me to drop back (non drafting race) and then overtake them because they ran out of steam quickly. This was breaking my rhythm a little bit but after 30-ish kilometers I started to get a lot more space for myself and on the last 40 kilometers I was riding basically alone.
Riding hard - Photo: Toni Filipović
Bike time: 2:34:16 (40th overall)
T2 went smooth as well with only 2:06 spent putting on my running shoes, cap and sunscreen.
I started running and I felt pretty good. I was in a small group of 3 guys but quickly left them behind me and with my eyes in front of me in hopes of catching someone else.
The run course isn't really hard but there were a few uphill sections on a gravel surface which caused a little problems and halfway through I started to feel my legs a little more. I checked my watch and saw that I had more then a hour to finish the last 2 laps and still be well below the 5 hour mark so I eased a little in order to keep my legs somewhat fresh.
Running like the wind (or a gentle breeze) - Photo: Hrvoje Hlevnjak
Once I was in the last lap I was really excited to know that I will finish well bellow what I was aiming for. I did my "Thank you round" with the volunteers which were amazing and now it was time to cross the finish line.
Done! - Photo: Hrvoje Hlevnjak
Run time: 1:39:24 (30th overall)
My total time was 4:51:26 which was enough to secure myself the 31st position of 120 competitors and the 7th spot out of 20 competitors in my age group.
As always, I have to finish with the people who followed me to the race and kept pushing me hard throughout the weekend. Because of the run course configuration I could see them 3 times per lap and every time they were louder and louder :)
They of course cheered for other runners as well.
They are all part of the family :) - Photo: Hrvoje Hlevnjak
In the end of the day these guys make triathlon even better.
Best friends and fans! - Photo: Hrvoje Hlevnjak
My next race is the Sparkasse IRONMAN 70.3 Kraichgau PRESENTED BY: KraichgauEnergie (wow that's a mouthful) and I am super excited about it. Since I had such a good race without going all out I am really having some high expectations about the upcoming race.
For everyone interested in cold numbers you can check them out here.
Until next time, keep smiling :)
I'm smiling 'cause I love it :)