Olympus has fallen

I was greated this morning with a beautiful sunrise and what promise to be a hot day.  Race start was at 11 am so I knew it would be toasty by the time we exited the water.  Had breakfast with the usual suspect, Lisa and Allison, the only two other competitors from North America and good friends.  Mr Nicholas, Xterra Director extra ordinaire was already gone to the site.  I wasn't too sure which race kit I was going to wear.  I have my Canadian and Brand Champion one.  I always feel somewhat pretentious wearing my Canada kit but I opted for it today in Honor of my fiancée.  You see Steph was an Olympic athlete and competed in Greece in 2004 so it was only fitting I would honor her as she could not be here on this trip.

  I went to transition fairly early, wanting to get marked before the rush only to be told no body marking.  I went and set up my transition, went for a light run and was lucky to have pro Ben Allen loaning me a co2 cannister in case I flat.  Airlines don't let you fly with them although the plane is full of them, but I digress.  Water was nice and I was looking forward to race with my cool new Synergy wetsuit.  As the gun went off it was fairly crowded for quite a while, I got kicked on one of my goggle on the first lap and I kept being cut off by a swimmer who kept zigzagging on the second lap, clearly unable to sight.  I got off  the water in about 27 min or so.  I headed on the bike course, and no turtle today but plenty of racers.  First lap went well but the second lap was more laborious as the 3000 feet of climbing total would slowly take its toll.  In typical European fashion, this course was no different, fair amount of climbing and nothing too technical.  I'd book the 30 km in about 1:45. I headed out to the run at a nice 35 degree sunny day and I was flat, I didn't have any juice to give on the run.  Not too sure if I had pushed too hard on the bike or the fact that there were few aid station did not help.  I would booked the 10.4 km in about 58 min, good for a 3:10 overall.  I don't have a clue where I stand as no results were posted but knowing how was the European are, I doubt it will be a podium.  This is been a great race and a special one for me, you see my mother always had wanted to see Greece, unfortunately after she lost her battle to cancer last year, she would never get to see it.  This was my way to honor her memory so close to her birth day, I doubt she was not watching.  So that's why when I saw that Greece was having a race, despite the cost, I had to do it.

Time for some R&R for a few days.  I hope you enjoyed the journey, happy trails!

Carpe Diem