A couple of clarifications to start with. I posted in my race preview I wanted to get in the top-10 based on the field of 12 that were meant to be entered. It seems the hosts hadn't thought to include their own athletes on the entry list and an additional 8 Slovaks toe-ed the start line. So a field of 20 starters, including 10 Brits. Without any history on the Slovaks I just pro-rated my target to top-16.66.
Then at the briefing the course was also changed to include a running start rather than an in-water start and from 1-lap to a 2-lap swim, meaning clambering out of the water on a shallow-angled gravel surface. That didn't seem like a major issue, but watching the first heat it was clear that the water exit was actually quite tough. It was also clear that many athletes don't practice running starts.
Full results are here.
The start was a bit of a performance. With 70 starters across three age-groups being individually introduced, then each nation getting an introduction along with a little bit of jokey music about their country and a wee blast of the Slovak national anthem. (A couple of the Spaniards seemed genuinely miffed about the few bars of Viva Espana that they were subjected to).
Being the second race to go, we did have a slight advantage, in the we knew the starter would slur on-your-marks straight in to the starting hooter so as soon as he asked if everyone was ready, we all moved to the line. By the time he said 'marks' most of us had covered the step across the mat and were onto the beach and anyone who didn't have a foot in the water by the hooter was asleep.
I got an excellent start. It turns out I was sandwiched between the eventual silver medallist and a swimmer who was on just faster than the pace I wanted. The three of us all took our dive on the same stride. We were pretty central on the course and as it was a fairly straight line out to the first buoy the start was just one straight line of swimmers. As the edge swimmers started to converge and a pack started to form I had a quick look and found I was still in the midst of the lead pack nearly 150m in.
I knew I was on almost full-gas (Garmin says 1:20/100m which is inside 100m PB pace) just to stay there though so I backed off slightly. That turned out to be a mistake as I got squeezed from the side and a big arm/leg/body ducked me half-way through an in-breath and I got a big breath of water. It took me four or five strokes to try and cough that up and get a breath, but I managed to keep most of my momentum and was still somewhere near the back of the lead pack going in to the first buoy.
The turn was the usual melee of thrashing body parts but I got round it without any disasters. The buoy had sorted out the pack though and it was now strung out. It was a short leg to the second buoy where I was out on my own before turning back towards the beach. I was now out on my own as the strung out line of swimmers started to break up. I was also conscious that I had been working at what felt like my 400m pace for over 350m and was likely to crash into a wall soon so I had no choice but to come back to a more sensible pace.
At this point my new best pal arrived on my left. A guy in a wetsuit with a garish yellow stripe down the side pulled up alongside me, at about the pace I now felt comfortable with, and I just slipped in beside him to draft along. We worked together (ok he worked and I stayed about half-level with him) until we reached the beach.
Out of the water at the end of the first lap in about 8:31, that included a large handful of seconds lost exiting the water as it was difficult to get footing on the stone gravel surface in order to stand up and run out of the water.
My new best draft-buddy and I then worked our way up to a small group on the way back out to the first buoy. It seemed we were making progress in catching that group, and we settled in at the back of the group to save energy and take a bit of a free ride from the draft of the group. I stayed tucked in here, nicely coasting along for the rest of the distance out to the first buoy, took a wide line to avoid crashing into my draft-buddy, added a couple of quicker strokes to get back on to the pack, and settled again to the second buoy.
It was only as I took another wide line around this final buoy that I realised that I had lost a couple of meters, and that I could then close that gap within a handful of strokes. I was actually cruising too slowly behind this pack. I moved to the left-hand side of the group so I could keep them in sight and added a gear. I didn't just fly past them, but within 10 strokes I was past them and out at the lead of the group. I was working a bit harder but I was managing to put clear water between me and the group. In hindsight I should never have stayed with them. When we caught them at the start of lap 2 I should have put the effort in to go around them and push on. Having sat on the back of the group I had saved some energy but sacrificed at least 30 seconds as I came out of the water with a second lap of 9:00 and a disappointing 17:31 swim time.
I had hoped for something close to 16 minutes so I was a bit upset with myself, but I figured the energy saving of drafting was probably worth most of the time I might have lost there, and some of the rest was just down to it being an open water swim.
I made a better exit from the water this time, although I did forget to press the lap button on my garmin. I had a great transition, the results show I made time on almost everyone in my age-group. I regularly post here after races that it astounds me how little time people spend practicing their transitions. It seems that holds all the way up to International age-group level. The number of people adding socks, or having to sit down to remove wetsuits was unbelievable.
I was out on to the run very smoothly and settled into a comfortable pace. With 5 laps to run it was very difficult to judge which lap everyone else was on so it was simply a matter of running at your own race and hoping that the people you were passing were on the same lap and anyone passing you was on a different lap.
I was running at a pace that meant I passed a few people, and anyone who passed me was going so much faster that they seemed to be a completely different class. I just assumed they were the leaders lapping me from the younger age-groups. That gave me a feeling that I was probably working about right. In hindsight I was not. I was lapping the ~1,000m laps in 4:09, 4:07, 4:02, 4:03 and at this point anyone a lap ahead was going in to the finish and anyone left on the course was on my lap.
I noticed at this point that I was actually a lot fresher than when I got out of the water and it finally occurred to me that I had been enjoying the experience too much and hadn't actually been running very fast. I had a handful of people in front of me and on the last lap I put in a more reasonable 3:46 lap and passed several of them.
Garmin says my heart rate coming out of the swim was at 173bpm but that my average during the run was 122bpm and I finished at 87bpm. While I was definitely not going flat out I am pretty sure the run numbers are down to an issue with the HR monitor rather than a realistic figure.
I finished the race in 14th overall in my age group, catching 15 and 16 on the last lap, and 7th GBR.
I am not actually particularly pleased with my performance. I should have swum at least a minute faster, and probably run a minute faster as well. Small comfort is that even with those estimates the best I could have done was 13th. 12th and above were nearly 3 minutes ahead and even on my best day I don't have that. Not this year at least. But I did really enjoy the experience and I will be attempting to qualify again for next year.
And in the meantime I have the rest of a triathlon season to get on with.
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