Challenge Bahrain

My First 70.3 at home, total time: 05:42:47 Nutrition: Had normal meals the week before the race, made it as a priority to get no surprises at the race.  Breakfast 3 hours before the race: oats with milk, 200 gm and insure 2 spoons mixed. 1 GU before the swim 6 GUs on the bike, 1 every 15 km 1 GU organic Stinger on the run, electrolytes every 2 km

SWIM: Swim course was an easy 1.9 km loop, water salty. Felt good on the swim, didn’t push too hard, tried following the loop route and kick away all the other pink caps ;-) Transition 1: was well organised, my garmin got stuck when removing the sleeves of the wet suit, so now need to master how that thingamajig stays on me while I escape the wet suite! BIKE: was a 1 lap 90 km course, tried focusing on the heart rate and all the exciting things going on around, bottles falling on aid stations, people with flat tires, people with fat fast butts ahead, funky bike colors and diversity of biking positions! One thing I did NOT see was all the mad driverso must have hated us in passion that day with all the road tailbacks and other stories! After 50 km the heart rate started going down and legs getting very heavy, nearly cripy crappy cramping SO since it’s my first one I decided to not push it over 75% for some time to save those legs for the run and stick to the PLAN! Felt better after km 70 though and pushed a bit harder there. Was spectacular finishing the cycle at the F1 track!

Still kept myself entertained so having seeing some guys ahead unclipping on the bike before the transition I decided to learn it there and then, so came to the bike finish with my feet on the shoes, ready to run!

Transition 2: my bag was not there so yelled (me? Really? Yeah!) number 251, 251!, run bag 251 many times till they came with it and overall could have saved 1.5 min, but that’s a learning curve here!

THE RUN Felt fantastic on the run and could run at 90% most of the loop, water each 2 km at aid stations was great, some ice and a GU, legs went a bit heavy on 15thkm and heart rate started going down to 85%. Here I experienced something I can describe as my body was able and going, but my mind started switching off, a bit like when you are about to pass out. So took a strawberry gu and electrolyte on 16th km aid station and started focusing on everything around the ZOO ;-)

mainly Looong Latin botanic birds’ names and monkeys’ forest, passing a few inhuman looking guys and chatting with a cheery relay girl on the run – all that brought me back to sanity and then out the zoo, towards the F1 Grandstand I just loved every moment of anticipation of seeing my friends there! Must say that the closer you get to the Finish line the more your body starts whispering: “hey, I’m tired, lets take it easy”, but the loud mind wants to still push as much as possible. I loved the run! How many people I passed here who had passed my on the bike cheering: Go Anastasia!  ? I would say over 200! Actually I decided that’s what I’m going to keep mind busy with next time – counting all the heads I pass on the run ;-)   Bottom line is:   Triathletes can’s run, I must kick my little ass on the swim, smile less on the transitions and be in pain on the bike for the faster next time ;-) Full coverage of the race with video of each finisher. Me approx. 417 min 30 sec

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