I did it! 6′ 18»
One of the best days of my life. I knew it was going to be extremly hard but I would have never expected to have such a good time doing it. I enjoyed every second of it!
But let’s start from the beginning…
It was my first triathlon ever
I was the youngest participant of the race (20)
I was sorrounded by Ironmans
Everyone had more experience
But I was not ready for everything!
Finally… race day!
I slept pretty bad the night before the race. Surprisingly not becasue I was nervous but due to my dad snoring! =)
So, after a cold shower first thing in the morning was coffee and a good breakfast!
Unless most of the triathlons, which usually start at 7 am, mine started at 3:30 pm
«Great idea!» – I though
It is always very hot in Sevilla, specially around 2 or 3 pm. I was afraid of the heat but the day turned out not to be super hot. The temperature was high but bearable ( 33º / 88º F)
I have to say that I came to this race feeling ready and having trained a lot but very short in material compared to the other triathletes.
I had just rented a racing bike in Sevilla. The first time I saw it I tought it was very decent but it ended up being one of the worst (cheapest) bikes of the entire race. Do you wanna see by yourself? Check this bikes out!
After seeing some videos in youtube about Ironmans, it was really exciting to have my first race number written in my arm and in leg by one of the race referees! #450
We were divided in 3 groups. Federate triathletes (men), federate women, and non-federate and relays. There was 2 min between the start of each group. I was in the non federate group.
The atmosphere just before the start was amazing… maybe because it was my first triathlon or maybe just because I was impressed by the other triathletes. I don’t know. But without even realize I was already floating in the water waiting to start swimming. I was not dreaming. This time it was real. Very real. It was time to live a new experience and show myself how far I could go…
3… 2… 1… GO!!!
I have never had so much fun swimming!
Swimming with other 700 athletes is something different. I thought that it would be easy. The river was wide and I started 4 minutes after the first group. «I won’t have any problem» – I thought. hahaha
I could have decided to start in the back of the group but I was representing DELTA STATE!!
What would my friends Vlad, Toby, Yvan, Mihaelo would say?
So I dared and I started in the first line of my group! It was naive, silly, and crazy but it was super fun and worth to try!
Even though I tried to start as fast as I could, in the first lap I got kicked almost everywhere, people were TRYING TO PASS ME OVER… and some did
I knew that some people were going to swim faster than me and pass me but never like this!
Well, after surviving a few minutes of chaos I found my place in the race and I could relax a little bit…
I wish I had had my tennis racket to get some revenge to those who pass me over though haha
The federate triathletes had a golden cup while mine was blue. I didn’t know how fast I was going but I felt great when before the end of the first lap I started passing swimmers with golden cups!
Without even realize I was on this blue carpet running to start the bike!
Here is my swim time
Do you want to check to more photos of the race?
http://www.triatlondesevilla.com/half/
I hope you liked this first part! What an amazing experience it was…
Please leave me your comment and see you in the next post!
dsublog 