The podium of category Sen1 (minus 2nd place). I have to ask myself: Was this guy after my wig or what?
“I’d rather be 5h than 4th again!”,
That was what I told myself before heading out for the local tri season opener at Kinzigtal-Triathlon last Sunday. I’d been 4th there two times in the past and in the process had been passed by the same guy at the exact same spot in 2009 and 2012. See last year’s RR here.
This year saw me arrive at the race venue a bit more tired than in previous years as we had out 20 year highschool reunion the night before. With no more than three hours of sleep and a few beers the night before even the sprint distance promised to be a chal-lenge this May 5th.
The race is organized by the local tri club my club has a long lasting friendship with and so this race is where the local tri scene gathers and chitchats each spring. Great atmosphere, great people were a given and so it was up to us to make it a great race in addition to that. Our team showed up with a record of 13 athletes that really made an impact. Seeing the triathlon section of our club grow from those five guys back in 2004 to more than 30 in 2013 is a really great thing. The first wave – it’s a pool swim – had all the girls and our race horse, Julia Ertmer took home an impressive win with more than four minutes on second place.
I for my part was set to swim in lane one with last year’s winner, Marcel Bischof. So, would have some great feet to draft off – if I only could hold on to them in the first place. We’d see… Our male race horse, Florian Brosch, was set to race in lane three with Oliver Weber, the guy who had passed me to take third those two times in the past. Oliver is a very good swimmer and so Florian would also have the chance for a new PB in the pool we thought. Before the gun went off all seven of us in the last and presumably fastest wave of the day gave a “thumbs up” and off we went.
After only 25meters of trying to hang on to Marcel’s feet I realized that trying to do this for the whole 500m held the danger of already blowing up on the swim and so settled for my own rhythm at around 1:30m/100m. Marcel steadily increased his lead and I also saw Florian also constantly pulling away from me at the feet of Oliver. The swim exit saw me in around 10th place at a time of 7:34min. Very good for my standards and the fact that I’d had to swim that on my own. I fumbled a bit with my race belt in T1 which cost me some seconds on the competition and was up on my QR CD 0.1 a bit later than expected. By that time the eventual winner, pro Johannes Moldan had already covered the first kilometer of the bike as ha had mounted his bike some 1:30min before me. Nonetheless I had Marcel who was in second in my sights from the first long straight and steadily gain on him during the first half of lap one. While slowly rolling him in I passed the rest of the competition including two fellow team members. I passed Marcel at the turnaround of lap one but could not distance him any further than 20 meters. He seemed to play a bit with me and passed me at the half point of the bike with a little surge. I repassed again at 15k only to see him make a big surge with only three kilometers to go on the bike. Maybe he did not believe my pre race statement that he would at least run 2min faster than me and tried to get the deciding seconds there and then. As some readers will know “It’s all about the bike” for me at times and I tried my best not to let him gain too much in order to secure a better bike time than his. That at least worked out quite well. Nonetheless Johannes even went some 20sec faster than me so again so best bike split. Grrr… ;)
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| Entering T2 after the 2nd fastest bike split of the day. |
Back in T2 I fumbled for sa second and perhaps deciding time, this time with my right foot, not the left, Mr. Day-Lewis. I had to take the right shoe off again as I had somehow folded the inner sole while slipping into the shoe. This cost a few precious seconds and so Marcel was long gone when I went out onto the run with a deficit of already 20sec.
Right when exiting T2 I saw my two teammates Florian and Jörn Gabler enter it as well as Oliver Weber. I calculated that I had some 1:30min on third at that time and went off as fast as my already tired legs allowed. I lost sight of Marcel pretty early and waited for the turnaround at around 2,5k to take new splits on the competition. There teammate Florian @40sec back had already eaten up half of my lead. As I already started to fade it was clear that he would catch me before the finish. Jörn was a bit further back @ 1:20min and I was quite positive that I could hold him off. My menace Oliver was even further back so at least this time he would not pass me again for third. Even though I expected Florian to catch me earlier I remained in third until right after the 4k marker when I finally heard his breath from behind I extended my left hand for a high … or rather low five during the pass. So right then & there I was in 4th. Again. For a third time! Bummer. Still there was no way to keep up with Florian. Also we did not know whether there had perhaps been some fast underdog in one of the earlier waves so off he went and trotted along behind.
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| On the home stretch. |
When I reached the final 200m stretch Michelle shouted at me not to slow down as there really had been one fast guy in wave three. I must mumbled something I don’t remember but thought to myself that today I’d rather get 5th than 4th again. So I took a look back and without too much of an effort cruised to the finish line finishing 4th in my wave – and 5th overall. Florian had picked up his speed at the exact right time as he beat the guy in 4th by only 3sec and I was some 15sec further back in 5th. So at least Florian did not have to worry about being responsible for my 3rd 4th place at this race. He confessed after the finish that he’d thought about that quite a lot when slowly reeling me in on the run. Had we taken on the last kilometer easy & together – there was no one less than a minute behind us at this point – it would have been a real disappointment as we’d have finished a tied 4th.
Still I was able to bring home first place in my new age group which they don’t call by number any more. They just call it Senjors1, not 40-45. Top 5 – check, AG win – check! So in the end I can be really pleased with the result for the day.
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| Eight of us right behind the finish line. With Timex’ Tim fourth from the right. |
We had a great time post race with delicious pastries, cakes and pies as well as a great to watch kids race. Of our 13 athletes an amazing seven made it onto the podiums of their AG and we managed to get the overall win by Julia as well as 3rd (Florian), 5th (me), 6th (Jörn Gabler) in the men’s race.
Next week it’s more than twice the distance for me as we head out to Kaiserslautern for the first league race of the season. As my ankle made it through the 5k run at an ac-ceptable speed and without falling apart I seems that I can look forward to that race as well even if the current water temperature in the lake there is reported to at around 14°C. Brrr…
