ETU European Long Course Champs
Thursday, July 1st, 2010ETU European Long Distance Champs (4/120/30)I seem to be blessed with racing in beautiful parts of the world thisyear. I have never been to northern Spain before and have been bowledover by how spectacular the area is.So the journey began by sitting for 90 mins on the tarmac at Stansteadairport from 7am thanks to a French air traffic control dispute. Thepoor cabin crew did not know what had hit them, they filled the timebusily feeding and watering the hungry triathletes on board….we musthave cleared the on board supplies!Eventually we got underway and 1 hour 40 mins later landed at Bilbaoairport where we were met by our travel hosts, Nirvana travel. As thecoach wound its way up through the hills surrounding Bilbao I got myfirst look at the beautiful countryside of the Basque region.We arrived at the hotel and settled in, got some food (eating seems tofeature alot I remember). When I am away on trips for competing themost important things for me to sort are getting food and water,putting the bike together and registering for the event,pretty much inthat order. Managed to get the first two done and took the bike out tocheck all was in order. The city of Vitoria- Gastiez is a cyclistsdream, it is full of cycling lanes with their own traffic lightsintegrated into the road traffic system - makes for very safe andstress free cycling.With this event T1 and T2 were in different places, with T1 at thelake 17km away from the main race venue so we knew that we would haveto be organised to get bikes racked at the lake before race day etc.All this stuff is normally sorted out at the race briefing. We weretold that the race briefing had been moved from the main race venue,at the stadium, to a building in the old town, which was about 30 minswalk away. We got a lift with nirvana up there but then had to walkfor quite a way through the old town to where we were told thebriefing was to be held. It was a team bonding moment as many of uswandered about in the heat trying to find the venue. No signposts, noA boards outside a building..in fact …nothing! Eventually we found atiny doorway into a church type building that had an A4 piece of paperput in the window declaring athletes briefing. Our poor team managerand several of the team did not manage to find it atall.Fortunately the meeting was not too long and we all got back to thehotel tired, ready to eat and get some sleep. It had been a long day.Friday, day before race day dawned warm and sunny and I got out earlyto do my pre race session. There were several things that needed toget done on friday, the most important being registering and gettingthe various race bags to T1 and T2. both transitions needed to be setup on Friday. The race organisers had detailed how we were going to betaken up to t1 on coaches then brought back to set up T2. we had beentold that we would not be able to get into T2 on race morning soeverything we needed for the run section had to be left in transitionon Friday.Registration was easy and straight forward and I decided that I wouldgive the lake reccie that had been organised a miss, choosing to getmy feet up for a few hours instead. It is easy to get carried a way atteam events doing too much before the race. I figured I would see thelake when I racked the bike in the late afternoon!After a restful afternoon we assembled at the stadium with our bikesand colour coded transition bags to be dropped off. I am not sure thecoach drivers had been told they were taking a load of people withbikes on their coaches and I watched with horror as they opened thebaggage holds up! We actually travelled with our bikes on the coachwith us! The journey up gave us a chance to reccie a bit of the bikecourse, which seemed mainly up hill and twisty turny.The lake was very spectacular and racking the bike was sorted prettyquickly. However we then found ourselves waiting for the coach to takeus back for ages…an hour later we were told that the coaches werenot picking us up where they had dropped us…aahhh. We agreed thiswas turning out to be a trip that was training us to be a good atwaiting. So, having walked to where the coaches now were, back to T2we went and laid out our yellow run bags.Back at the hotel I put together my last minute bits for the morningand tried to get some sleep. I cannot say that the pre race care ofthe athletes had been perfect but I had got everything done as Ineeded to and just needed to go and race.Race day promised to be another scorcher and the excitement wasbuilding as we all got ready to race. It was brilliant to see theelites with us in transition. We had Jodie swallow competing and thecurrent Xtrerra champ, Eneko Llanos was also there.Before we knew it it was race start time, a beach start. The klaxonwent and I launched myself into the lake. A few fast strokes and Ifound clear water. The lake temp was perfect, in fact the lake wasperfect. I settled into my pace for the 1 x 4k loop. I had acompletely clear swim and was out of the water in 58 mins, I had hadan amazing swim leg and couldn’t wait to get on the bike.Through T1 and out onto the bike course. It was 2 loops of anundulating, rolling course, twisting up and down and through thebreathtaking countryside. The support from the locals in the villagesthe course passed through was brilliant. The support of people passingin cars was brilliant and also of the many groups of cyclists. Itoccurred to me how sad it is that we cycle in our country where thereis not such a deep love and culture of cycling. The marshalls wereexcellent both in directing and on the feed stations. On long courseevents it is essential that there is enough fuel and water for everyathlete and as we females were last to go there were concerns that bythe time we got to the feed stations supplies would be low or run out.Not so…I was really impressed with the support on the bike course. Ifelt great cycling, at Bala two weeks before I had struggled on thebike…this was very different. As I went past T2 on the first loopthe crowds were cheering like mad and the atmosphere was awesome. Thesecond loop was quieter but I felt strong and came into T2 with a timeof 3 hrs 56. I was delighted.Through T2, I organised my gels and drink for the run…they wereabsolutely baking, having sat in the sun all day!My electrolyte drinkwas like tea! The run consisted of 3 x 10k loops through a park andthe local streets, with no shade. The temps were hitting 30 plusdegrees and I soon realised I was more dehydrated than I had thought.I adopted a run/walk strategy for the fist loop to rehydrate and getmyself together. The second loop was better, the sun went in and itwas hot but cloudy and the respite from the sun was welcome. The thirdloop was tough,the heat was brutal, alot of people were walking bythis point. I went back to the first loop strategy and dug in to getfinished. I was very grateful to see Jimmy at the start of each loopgiving me good encouragement and keeping me focused!And finish I did. The team manager handed me a Union Jack to wave as Icrossed the finish line. I was very pleased to stop!! I had done it in8 hrs 06, a time I was delighted with.I would like to mention a French competitor, an older man, probably 60plus who completed the course in 11 hours 59. he had cramped on therun course and was in agony but he carried on and finished. We were atthe stadium to see him cross the line and I found it so inspirational.The human spirit is an amazing thing… after he had had a moment tocollect himself they led him over to the podium and helped him up…hehad won his age group!!It was a totally brilliant moment, very movingand one I won’t forget.I was very proud to stand on the podium to receive my silver, and Ishall treasure it.All in all a great race, in a beautiful part of the world, supportedby lovely people.Paula


