Last Sunday I raced with Malta's top triathletes in the first Sprint of the Maltese Championship. I had been preparing for this day since last November. Lost weight, gained muscle and now I can proudly say that I am official triathlete! =D *wiiii!!*
The night before the race I ate a plate full of pasta so that I would have some carbs to use during the race and set the alarm to 5am. Usually, I do not like to wake up this early however yesterday I woke up at 4:15am. Maybe because I was quite excited since it's my first official race :)
I had everything set up the day before so theoretically, all I had to do is, wear the trisuit, and drive to the Coast Road (opposite Coastline Hotel). My fiancée also woke up early (at 5am) so that she would help me if I needed anything and also give me some encouragement during the race. Drove off to the race venue and while I was taking out my bike I noticed that I had a flat on the back wheel and I had also forgot the water bottle at home (too late to go and get it by that time).
Called Fabio (my coach) to check if he had a spare tire tube and a spare water bottle. The phone call ended with a positive answer and within 5 minutes I had a new tire tube and a water bottle. I quickly set-up my transition area, fixed my flat and did some warming up before the race. Needless to say, the water was really cold at 7:15am but we all had to go in and swim 750m....*BRRRR*
Ready.....set.....GO!!!!!!.......had a good start for the first 150 - 200 meters but I had heavy breathing problems so I had to switch to a recovery swim, thus I started swimming using the breast stroke. I tried various times to swim freestyle again however I could not cope with my breathing. Then I thought, I'll swim it using the breast stroke and then push during the bike and run.
One of the golden rules of triathlons states: NEVER TRY SOMETHING NEW DURING A RACE!....what did I do? The opposite!
Since it was my first race I knew that I had to clip my bike shoes to the bike before the race starts and attach 2 rubber bands to the bike frame so to keep the shoes upright. Got out of the water, grabbed my bike, mounted it and the rubber bands did not break with first pedal stroke so I decided to break them manually while still moving. Broke the first one, no problem...while I broke the second rubber band, I swerved with my racer (due to lack of momentum) and fell from the bike. :( Got up as quickly as possible, mounted the bike again....did 4 pedal strokes so to get a good momentum and then I got both feet in the bike shoes to start cycling.
Did my 20km bike, then off to the running part. Suffered from calf cramps during the first 1km however it felt better after a while.
Finished the race in 1 hour 23 minutes. quite happy with the result however I am determined to cut 3 - 4 minutes of my time if I swim better. Therefore, I decided to swim a whole lot more in the open water until the next race (within a month I believe). If I can swim 750m all freestyle I would have already gained 4 minutes, without any efforts.
Well done also goes to Keith Galea who managed to finish the race with an impressive time of 59 minutes, 39 seconds!
Last but not least, I would like to thank all those who encouraged me before and during the race, especially me fiancée, Erica Grech! :) Thanks sweet!
