well, i did another race.
yesterday it was the ‘short course’ at the helveticman triathlon, near luzern, switzerland. the short and half-iron races are basically shorter versions of an ‘extreme’ tri, with point-to-point courses, crazy climbing, minimal support, off-road mountain running, altitude, and small fields.
2k swim: wetsuits on for a big triangle around a stunning section of lake luzern. i swum very, very easy and came out comfortably. i’ve been having a few weird injury problems lately and wanted to take no chances on the swim; the plan was to get out having burned as little energy as possible. water was perfect and we were literally sighting off a castle on the return leg - brilliant!
53k bike: on the bike i hoped to be a bit more aggressive, but expected the worst. my experience of racing in switzerland is that the swiss are mediocre swimmers but stunning cyclists. but - but! - i was somehow finding my form on the ride, and picking people off. even on the climbs! the course begins with a punchy little climb, then rolls, then starts a long, long, steep climb to a mountain top. i didn’t get passed on the bike, which i guess is one of the nice things about a slow swim, but mostly tried to stay on my nutrition and watch my heartrate. the temps stayed in the low 20s, and fell a bit with the altitude, and the wind was still. perfect riding, but . . . 2200m of climbing!
one of the great things about the race is that it feels like such an old-school adventure. people riding road bikes, aero road bikes, old steel classics, whatever. at one point i had to pull off the road and ride on the sidewalk while some farmers walked a huge herd of cows down the middle of a little village road.
anyway, up to the plateau and into T2. i had another solid transition - after a summer of crap ones - and was feeling surprisingly good about running.
13k run: the whole run was over 2000m altitude, i think, and had just under 400m of climbing. there was very little actual flat, and the pounding does add up. my legs were cramping a bit on and off and the fatigue generally was building up, but the weather was perfect and i felt controlled. i was also happy to be feeling aggressive and was trying to pick runners off. i had a 250mL water flask and a caffeinated gel on route, plus two cups of sports drink, and that was it. i figured by that point the damage was done and i needed to just run it in.
the peak altitude occurs after a savage, hands-on-knees climb up a rocky, rutted slope. i’d been happily running at 4:00/km pace for a while before then, but both quads started locking as soon as the climb started. after that a long downhill to the finish, on my now throbbing quads. the actual finish line was, cruelly, at the top of a final little climb. dammit! i drank all of a liter of radler at the finish, ate some great mountain cheese/meat/bread, picked up my jar of finisher’s honey (yes!), and then got the cablecar back down the mountain.
i made it just in the top 10 in ninth place, and a most of all felt like i’d pretty much left everything i had out there. i think that 8th was a minute or so ahead, and maybe i could’ve made that up, but other the top 10 was quite stretched out and i wasn’t going to catch first this year. my wife and i have full-time jobs and two toddlers at home, so as far as i’m concerned it’s a victory to just make the finish line.
i said this last year, but if triathlon is wondering what the post-covid future looks like, this is one great model. small, friendly, adventurous races that go off the beaten track and conform to nature instead of forcing arbitrary distances and crowded facilities. when i got into tri many years ago, i loved that it felt like an adventure. that feeling has been harder to find lately, but helveticman brought it.
more races like this, please.