24 May 2015-
I had originally
planned to do 70.3 St. Polten last weekend, but we had a
conflict on the calendar with the Rhodes Ball.
I had not been to a proper "ball" before, so thought I would
check the race schedule and see what other options I had. I found Challenge Rimini and thought it was a
good choices as it was surrounded by some other big races and thought nothing
more of it.
Come to find out
Challenge Rimini was also a "big race" and was the European Triathlon
Union Mid Distance Championships., yeah talk about a long race name. I found this out a week or two before the
race and at first thought maybe that was just for the Age Groupers, but no,
come to find out it was for the pro's as well.
I had a decent
travel schedule to Rimini, leaving Oxford early on Friday and getting into
Italy by 1pm. I made it down to Rimini
by 3, and the weather was pretty bad. A
storm had rolled in and it rained pretty much the first 24 hours that I was
there. I got in a short shake out run
and attended the race briefing. I do not
recall them specifying that it would be completely "ruled" by the ITU
rules, but maybe I missed that part.
Then when I was doing some research I noticed a few athletes had
National Kits that they were wearing for the race, which I found interesting,
since some of them were attached to actual teams and were not wearing their
team kits.
Race morning I
headed down to the start around 930, yes it was late and the race didn't start
until 11. One of the best parts about
this race was the start time! I went to
enter transition area and they had all of the pros off to the side doing bike
check and gear check. Come to find out
you were "suppose" to have a national kit, so they took note of me
noting have one on, with the proper ITU layout.
They then made you get out your race bib, race chip, and swim cap to
ensure you had them. Pretty annoying,
but it is what it is. After that
checkpoint I went to enter transition area and a lady stopped me and started
talking in Italian about my bike. She
didn't speak English at all and just pointed out the fact that I didn't have a
seat tube, since I ride a beam bike.
I waited around
while she was trying to find someone but after a few minutes just left to my
transition spot, figured if it was a big enough deal she would come find me,
she obviously had my race number and knew where I would be. Sure enough about 10mins later another
official and the same lady showed up. He
explained to her that it wasn't a draft legal race and that the bike was
acceptable for the race. So after an
interesting morning dealing with the ITU officials it was onwards to the race.
Swim- 31:44
It was a pretty
rough swim and the buoys were really hard to see. There were only a few "middle"
buoys throughout the whole course to sight off of between the turn buoys. With the rough water and lack of buoys it
seemed a lot of people were all over the place and there wasn't really a pack
for me to swim with, mostly because they left me in their dust. I came out of the water and through the bag
area of transition, only to find 2 other pro bags there. That is when I knew I had my work cut out for
me…………….
Bike- 2:36:02
I was really happy
with how I rode the course. My power was
a few watts lower than where I expected it to be, but the numbers were
there. The roads were pretty wet from
the previous days rain, and then about 35mins into the ride it started
raining. The descents were pretty
sketchy due to being wet, and even if not wet not sure if I would have went
much faster. I was slowly passing a few
guys early on in the bike, but after the half way point I was pretty much on my
own till the last 1K of the ride, where I pulled up on a group of 4 guys. We entered transition area together and then
it was onto the run.
Swim- 31:44 /
Strava / TrainingPeaks
Bike- 2:36 / Strava
/ TrainingPeaks
Run- 1:19 / Strava
/ Trainingpeaks
Total- 4:32:34 /
18th Pro
Overall I was
disappointed with how the race as a whole went, more so with my bike and
swim. I knew that the swim conditions
did not suit me, but thought I would have still been a little closer to the
lead group in terms of time. Losing
15mins to the lead bike splits was really frustrating, especially since my
numbers were very close to what they were in Galveston, and I had one of the
faster bike splits on the day.
The good thing is
that I ran a solid run, on non tapered legs (I ran 20 miles on Tuesday), and
built some confidence in knowing that my run is improving. The other good thing is, even though the
placing and time were not great, I learned a lot from the race and will be back
to fight another day.
Thanks again to
everyone for their continued support! You can view all of my sponsors HERE and get special discounts from a few of them as well!
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