My first triathlon race
Last weekend I finished my historically first triathlon race. It all started as a small „push“ from my colleague from work Vojta. He persuaded me to sign up, with arguments like „it is easy / lots of amateurs will be there / it will be fun“. Since I had wanted to try it for some time, I signed myself up.
The triathlon (called „Větřkovický triathlon“) consisted of approx.
600 metres swimming, 20 km mountain bike and 4 km run. I was mostly
concerned about the swimming. I would not tell I am a good swimmer, at that
time I had been swimming regularly for about two months. Before the race I had
added some extra sessions as a protection against drowning 
.
August in Czech Republic was very hot, heat waves, 30+ degrees and so on. But
on the night before came a large storm with heavy raining. When I woke up in
the morning, it was still raining a lot. With the great help of my support team
(my parents), I got to the start. Due to the weather, only 59 out of
120 signed up people came. However, my colleague David, who also started at a
triathlon event for the first time, was there, not disgusted by the weather
all 
.
The announcer shouted „start“ and we all ran to the water. I tried to swim freestyle (which I had not practised enough) and felt totally winded after about 20 metres. From there I continued with breast stroke as fast as I could (I admin I was sloow). After sixteen minutes, when I finally were at the beach again, I was glad I survived. I was also unable to run to my bike, had to walk and slowly tried to catch my breath. My first „pit-stop“ was the slowest of all racers. I felt totally out after the swimming. As soon as I was riding, it got better.
The bike course was hard, two laps, in each two steep hills with 300 metres
elevation combined. I felt like a tourist, mostly walking next to my bike and
pushing it uphill .
At race finish, totally exhausted
Pit-stop to change from bike to running was much better than the first one,
I only had to change my shoes, which I managed to do quite fast. Running was
the best part for me, I felt relaxed (in comparison, in fact, I felt almost
sick) after I started to run. Everything changed when I reached the first (and
only) hill. I became a tourist again and was very happy to reach the top. The downhill
was really steep and quite dangerous, but I did not hurt myself. After that, it
was flat land to the finish. I even managed to overtake one runner.
I finished in 2 hours and 7 minutes, almost 40 minutes after the winner. I felt exhausted and sick, but also very happy and excited, that I made it!
It was definitely very hard for me, but it did not discourage me. For sure it was not my last triathlon, I am looking forward to the challenge.
My results
- Place: 45 out of 59
- Total time: 2:07:03
- Swimming: 16:03
- Mountain bike: 1:22:25
- Running: 22:39
Links
- RACE RESULTS ->
- Other pictures: #1 #2 #3 #4
- More galleries ->
