Preparation
Just one week between my DNF in Almere and this race, because I stopped in Almere after the bike part I don't think it would impact my performance a week later. Always fun to explore a new race venue so I was looking forward to this one. No significant injuries leading up to this race, just hoping I wouldn't feel flat after 60k on the bike like last week.
Goals for this race were to save the legs on the bike (as far as possible on this hilly course!) to be able to first of all complete the bike and then to have a decent run:
- Swim: under 32min
- Bike: keep the power numbers in check, on the flats not over 250W and on the climbs not to far over 300W
- Run: keep the overall pace around 4:40'/k
Location
Start, T1/T2 and finish line are all located at "Les Lacs de l'Eau d'Heure" a lake close to Cerfontaine, south of Charleroi in Belgium.
Stay
As the race venue wasn't to far away and there was no need to leave the bike the day before the race, we didn't opt to stay close to the venue and just made the trip on race morning.
Swim 0:29:47 Overall Men-72/577
- One loop beach start swim, comparable to the triathlon in Lommel (which is a 2 loop setup). A few minutes before the swim start we were able to get a few strokes in, I hopped in just to feel how cold the water would be. The temperature was just perfect and the water was super clear. Athletes lined up on the beach, maybe 100m wide and x rows deep.
- The gun went of and all hell broke loose, I had done some mass starts before but nothing even remotely compared to this! It was a battle all the way up to the first buoy where there was a major bottleneck and you basically had to tread water for a while before you could get going again. The part to the first buoy was horrible, even had someone grabbing my wet suit on my back and pulling me back. After a while I felt seriously gassed thinking if this goes on a little longer I need to do some breast strokes to catch my breath! But I guess everybody got kinda gassed at the same time as things started to cool down a little from there on. After the first buoy the field was a bit more stretched out so you could finally get into a decent rhythm. I got onto some quick feet from the first to the second buoy, but lost those feet somewhere so from there on I tried to find some open water and pass some more athletes coming into the final stretch. The last 100m or so I tried to kick a little harder to get the blood flowing to my legs to avoid being to dizzy coming out of the water.
- Overall Men 12.5% is more or less were I normally end up. One of the few times I managed to swim under 30 minutes, 1:34'/100m pace is pretty good for me!
T1 0:03:52
- Climbing out of the water I started to run and try to unzip my wet suit, while being occupied with that I bumped my left foot into some concrete step. I thought I heard a crack and it hurt like a b***. I continued the long run to my bike and my right hamstring already cramped up, the week leading into the race it already had felt tight so guess it wasn't 100% and probably got triggered by kicking hard those last 100m in my wetsuit. The barefoot run to the bike was rather painful as there was no carpet on the majority of transition and the asphalt was pretty rough.
Bike 2:32:46 Overall Men-47/577
- 2 laps of 46k each, very rolling terrain, barely any flat, didn't had a chance to explore the course beforehand so first time riding these roads. As I blew up last week trying to hold 270W I tried to keep myself in check and not push more than 250W on the flats and keep it not to much above 300W during the climbs. Problem was there was barely any flat so really hard to keep the numbers in check.
- During the first lap my toe hurt pretty bad, especially if I tried to ride out of the saddle, so I stayed seated for the entire course. The second lap my toe went kind of numb so didn't pay to much attention to it anymore. The closer we came to T2 though I was curious about if I would be able to run with it. Besides my toe issues a rather uneventful bike leg as I just tried to keep everything under control. After 2 hours I noticed however that I didn't even had finished my 2 bottles in my front hydration system, which normally would be a bare minimum to finish those within 2 hours. I lost my last salt capsule so the last 30 minutes I didn't have any capsule left, as compensation I tried to drink extra and took on an additional gel from an aid station. Near the end I was getting cramps in my right abductor so that wasn't very promising for the run.
- Overall Men 8% - 36.0km/h - NP = 251W, 91.7km - 949m elevation. Actually more to the front than I expected as I really tried to control myself.
- Lap 1: 258W NP, 45.69km, 1:14:00
- Lap 2: 244W NP, 46.04km, 1:18:39
T2 0:02:36
- The moment of truth! Would I be able to get my running shoes on or not? I had a DNF last week so really really didn't want to DNF 2 weeks in a row.
- Surprisingly enough I was able to put my running shoes on without any issues, so off I went and within 50 meters my right hamstring cramped up already, so had to hobble out of T2.
Run 2:11:20 Overall Men-501/577
- 3 laps of 7k, very rolling the first half of the lap.
- After I was able to shake out the cramps on my right hamstring it went ok initially. Looking at the splits of the first 3k they were around 4:40ish. But then I started to feel bloated, unable to breath normally, a stomach that felt like a stone and with stitches all over my abdomen. I had to stop and walk it off, then run for maybe 500m before I had to walk again and so on. Near the end of the first lap I took my time to drink some cola and that started to help in the second lap. The stitches faded away and I was able to breath again. But because I didn't took any gel nor salt on the first lap I started to cramp up pretty soon. Lap 3 was even worse with quads and hamstrings fully cramping up so it was a struggle to get to the finish line, but well we got there in the end!
- Overall Men 86.5%, must be one of my worst runs to date! 6:13/km is just horrible.
Overall 5:20:23 AG-108/299 Overall Men-194/577
- I was pretty happy about how the swim went, felt gassed in the beginning, was able to get a good rhythm going afterwards, didn't feel particularly strong near the end but a more than decent time and pace.
- Similar to the swim, although I kept everything in check on the bike I didn't really feel strong near the end.
- The run … just horrendous, lets just forget about that one. Only positive is that I finished it.
Aftermath
During the run I didn't feel my toe at all but once the race was over it started to hurt more and more. So I walked into the first aid station to have them take a look. When they pulled of my sock my toe was all purple, not looking to bright. They splinted the toe and advised me to see my doctor to get an RX taken to determine if it was broken. Luckily my toe wasn't broken but just severely sprained.
Some lessons learned
- Don't eat a gel in the last few minutes on the bike, it might screw up your entire run.
- Don't drink to much iso the last 15 minutes on the bike, it might screw up your entire run.
- Take a few extra salt caps with you on the bike, so dropping 1 isn't a disaster
- Great race course/venue to do again, as well for the spectators it's a great race with the 2 loop setup on the bike and 3 loop setup on the run.
Result
- Run 0:29:47 Overall Men-72/577
- T1 0:03:52
- Bike 2:32:46 Overall Men-47/577
- T2 0:02:36
- Run 2:11:20 Overall Men-501/577
- Total 5:20:23 AG-108/299 Overall Men-194/577
Tags: OpenLakes 70.3 race report, race report OpenLakes 70.3
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