I woke up saturday morning to blue sky and sunshine, with the temperature expected in the mid 20's, perfect for racing conditions. That said, I also knew the course would be muddy as we had some serious rain the day before. It seems that I would not escape the mud on this trip. After breakfast with the world champ again I was off getting my things ready and headed to transition , which was a 5 min bike ride from the hotel. The race orgnizers announced that it was going to be a non wetsuit swim, due to the fact that the Germnan championship was also happening during the same race and shockingly, they have diffent rules. One of them being 21 degree or higher is a non wetsuit swim where for us at home it would need to be 24 degree. I will not bore you with the details but not many official spoke English and it was hard to get answers for a lot of things. The gun went off at 11:30 where just over 300 athlete were taking part. The swim was chaotic and someone grabbed my ankle and pulled my chip off! Well nothing I could do, after the first lap my swim time was slow, really slow. As I got out of the water after the second time and deduced that the swim was probably 2000 m, not 1500. After a quick transition I was on the bike and was hoping to catch up a few people. The first 6 km of the course was flat and fast until we ended up in the forest. I was greeted with lots of mud, which is always tricky to negotiate, too much power and the back wheel spin, not enough and you start to slip. In addition, I'm a bit heavier so I tend to sink a bit. After some climbs there was some sweet down hill where I could past some of the lighter racers. Still on the bike I noticed that I had lost my heart rate monitor, seems that this race was not friendly for my electrical stuff. More mud, more down hill and up hill and at the end of the 35 km bike course my legs were a bit tired. Another quick transition and I was off to the run. The run course was nice, some hills, some flats but nothing technical like Czech. I would book the course in 3:26 and unfortunately since my chip was lost I wouldn't get any of my split times. My feet were cut to shread from the swim as I found out after the race. I made 8th in my age group again which I was please with. The racing in Europe was a great experience and wasn't easy at times, but every time I have doubts, pain or slow down I always think of past and present cancer patient who have to go through it all. It then gives me a perspective. I dedicate these 2 races to all of you who knows and have been touched by it. I'm back home on Monday and have a weekend off from racing. The long weekend I will be at the Xterra Canadian Championship at Whistler on September 4, I encourage people to come and watch, it should be a great venue with some big names coming to the race. The following weekend I will be racing at the Grand Fondo. Happy trails!
Carpe Diem
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