Hi,
last Sunday was a very important day for me as I had to take part in the Birkirkara St. Joseph Sprint Triathlon Series Race 2 of 4 and wanted to check if I have improved over the last 5 weeks. The venue was changed to the usual Coast Road just opposite the Coast Line Hotel. A friend of mine, Keith Galea gave me some important tips on how to tackle all the things one has to do on race day so I gave it a shot.
I was there earlier than usual. This made me relax and prepare one thing a time without rushing through transition preparations and warm up. In fact I was intent to warm up properly for the swim as well; something which I had never done before.
The race had some delays to start - it was the only time I was getting nervous. At the start there was the usual chaos of hitting people and getting hit but today it was much worse - I could tell there were much more competitors as I could not get past some athletes till the first buoy. However, I was relaxed drafting behind some swimmer's legs to keep fresh for the remaining part. I was also trying to keep as straight as possible as I had noticed I have some difficulty in going straight during this past week of frequently training in open sea. I was very happy when I finished as apart from not being tired, my watch showed 14:29: a Personal Best by 11sec.
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| Large Number of Participants in this Race |
Transition was quite smooth and quick and on the bike I felt strong. I was not sure about speed or cadence; I just went by feel. Looking back at the data now it was a very good feel - great bike finish time of 32:59, very good average speed and an average cadence of 94RPM. By finishing the bike in such a time I beat my previous Personal Best of 37:16 by an astounding 4mins 17sec.
Transition 2 had only one hiccup - I could not get my right running shoe in properly but on the whole it was still less than one minute total. I was close to feeling some cramps as soon as out of transition but the last gel I had helped a lot. Still my first kilometre was difficult after pushing so much on the bike but I knew I was trained to overcome that feeling. Beginning the second kilometre I had an athlete dashing past me and I knew I had to step up a gear. I increased the pace as much as I could sustain. I could not plan ahead till the last kilometre as I was out of breath in no time with the increase. I was finishing each kilometre in an average of 4:30/km - much better than my usual race average of 4:40-4:45 and somehow I was sustaining that pace even though I had found it difficult to keep during training. The last kilometre was very difficult - my form broke down to manage that kind of pace and when close to the finish gantry I looked back and saw someone trying to run past me. That was the kick I needed to sprint the last few metres and finish the run in 22:31.
I was extremely happy because I knew I had made a great time of 1hr 11mins 5sec. I threw myself on the nearby pavement breathless but proud of my improvement of 6mins 31sec over my Personal Best of 1hr 17mins 36sec obtained in the previous race at Kalkara 5 weeks ago. However, upon comparing my best time on the Coast Road course (which was of 1hr 19mins 20sec), the improvement is 8mins 15 sec.
I finished 20th out of 59 triathletes and placed 14th in my category and very happy with the result obtained today. I want to continue improving as much as I can - now I have 6 weeks of hard work to prepare for the next one. I also wish to thank all those who helped me in my training and those who supported me during the race especially my wife Maria and baby Elena.
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