70.3 World Championships. 70.3 means 70.3
miles, means 113.1368832km in total. 1.2miles swim, 56miles bike, 13.1miles
run, or 1,9km swim, 90km bike, 21,1km run. 113 World Championships.
Yards, meters, miles, kilo, liter, ounces,
gallons, euros, dollars, pounds, Celsius, Fahrenheit…
Does it really count if the temperature is 100F
or 37,78ºC or 310.93ºKelvin? There is only one fact: it IS hot. Las Vegas
temperatures in September are high, day and night, sunny or cloudy, windy or
not. Las Vegas means casinos, weddings, gambling, lights everywhere, shows and
money. I came here to race, 2 days in Vegas, no casino yet. Instead the day
organizes around swim, bike, run, eat, rest. We come here to race, to measure
and compare our performance with the best of the world and race the world
championships. We are supposed to be the best of our kind, the elite of Ironman
(or half in this case), or the lucky ones who got here by role down (like
myself).
I raced 3 half IM distances this year. The
first was terrible until the run, the second was lovely Italy where I got my
slot becoming 5th of my age group, the 3rd was my 1st
race win. They all were very different; they call themselves half distance,
referring to Ironman or long distance triathlon. Anyone not belonging to the
world of triathlon has no idea what “long” means.
And neither did I yesterday in Henderson pool.
25yards; how many meters are 25 yards? 22,86m. I was supposed to do 30x50m. I
did 40x50yards, thinking that 25yards were about 20m.
Be in control of what we are doing, taking as
reference something we know, not just let happen what we don’t know. Is it
really important if I swim 25 or 22,86m? The times were telling me 20m, my
feeling was horrible but actually I’m not sure if it was the pool, the heat,
the travels or that I was thinking I was doing very poor pace in this session.
Time and distance, a price, salaries, temperature, we always compare trying to
make us feel good but many times is does the contrary.
If you are happy with what you gain and suddenly
you find out that your buddy gains more than you, you feel bad, even if you
were very happy with your money before. You are happy with outside temperatures
of 100ºF, not having any idea how much that is, you find out that it is almost
40ºC and think: damn, that’s really hot! You do your race and feel great, are
happy with your performance this day, see the result list and think: what a
shit place I’ve done!
I am training mostly alone, especially the bike
and the run and I trust my body, listen to it, fight with my mind many times
and learn. I know that my run is probably my best. I know that I have a solid
power on the bike. I also know that I still have a lot to enhance on the bike.
Sometimes when we go out and train with someone we feel bad about our performance
because probably we think the other person is better than we are, instead of
trusting our capacity and enjoy the company. It is really hard to find a
training partner who does make you feel good, who makes you push this little
bit more to get better, who slows down if you’re having a bad day, who works
with you, challenges you one day and rides along with you the other…
We race to know where we are in the ranking,
how good or bad we are, if we can win the girl or guy next to us. To feel good
if we did a good race, or learn if we couldn’t put everything we had. We put on
the desk what we have, dollars or euros, doesn’t matter. We gain, we spend. And
we go a certain distance in a certain time and I think what counts at the end
that we try to do our best.
We know the distance of the race, on Sunday we
will know if it is long or short, if it will pass fast or slow, that’s up to
us. Even if it is a championship where world’s best athletes compete, every single
one of them has to make his or her own race. I don’t care if I run 13.1 miles
or 21.1km, 100 or 38 or whatever degrees. I want to do my best, do my race,
give it all and have a good time with friends. The more we enjoy, the faster time
passes, too fast sometimes and too slow in other occasions. It’s all about what
we make out of it. No matter how you name it. Meters, yards, Euros, dollars,
race, life…
2h @ starbucks... taper morning
