austria 70.3 episode seven!

mr Felt, locked in, loaded up, looking mean!

Race morning kicked off with 4.30am brekky at gasthoff bohm, everyone a bit quiet and guzzling nervously. Drove to race venue, luckily had left plenty of time in case i got lost again, was glad i did as parking took forever. It was a bit chilly and drizzling at this point. Went to prepare Mr Felt...this is the bit i have been told not to tell anyone about - my not so secret any longer pre-race strategy!! On the morning of a race my nervousness seems to manifest itself into an inability to not be able to inflate my tyres - whatever i do the air just comes out! So i usually get someone to help me, and so as not to appear Totally pathetic i have a Strategy. Some time ago during a flight my bike pump got broken - it works, but looks appropriately damaged. So i claim that it's just broken ('oh no!') and get some passing unsuspecting person with their own pump to inflate my tyres for me!! It has worked every time so far, however having admitted this i may become known as the Girl with the 'Broken' pump and people will just ignore me and snigger, or maybe i will ask the same person and they might say 'didn't you have a broken pump at that race back in 2005?' haha!

Anyway i got some poor frazzled guy to sort out Mr Felt's race feet, gave him a pat (mr Felt, not the guy...maybe i gave them both a pat in my blur of churning nervousness!) and headed off on the long trek to the swim start...

austria 70.3 episode seven!

the swim finish!

the second lake, the day before - very tranquil...

where's my bag???!

After all the bike course viewing, bike and bag packing and checking in etc, there was only half an hour to go before the briefing! So much for visions of lounging around on the grass in the sun reading my book. After the briefing there was a huge wait for the pasta party to kick off and when it did it was like a scrum to get to the trough (pasta!). It was good practice for the swim start anyway.

Race morning (yes we are finally there!)...damnit am out of wifinet time...more later ;-) ah the suspense!!

austria 70.3 episode six!

mr felt and his rivals

mr felt wasn't too keen on the 'david beckham' felt

bike bags in the austrian sunshine

bag 915 stands out purely because there aren't any twigs or ribbons tied to it!

So the afternoon before the race was taken up with a lot of walking about to different places hanging bags up and checking bikes in, all at different places. With it being a big race it was more like an Ironman with all the bags and check in procedures, not like the singapore 70.3 where you just plonked everything by your bike. I thought i fuss over mr felt when i abandon him to his rivals at his place but there was a girl in the next row to me wearing a very flouncy frock who seemed to be polishing her cervelo. Mr Felt doesn't think much of cervelos so even he thought this was excessive. I left him to psyche out his rivals and he gave me a look which meant in tri bike speak 'don't flippin' well be last out of the water' and i went off across 5 miles of grassy field to the run transition to leave my shoes.

austria 70.3 episode five!

the swim start flags in lake one!

the swim start, no mistaking that!

The triathletes staying at gasthoff bohm. we were summoned for a photo the evening before the race. We were all great mates by the time we left, ah who says this is an individual sport?!

austria 70.3 episode four!

So i was staying in a guesthouse (Gasthoff Bohm)around an eventual 50 mins drive away from St Polten, the race venue. Initially i was a bit concerned it was a way out but the roads are so pleasant in austria and the stereo so good on my rent a car that i didn't mind so much! Also the guesthouse was lovely and there were lots of triathletes staying there and the owners were great people and mr gasthoff bohm was also racing. The first evening in austria i had dinner with an Italian triathlete whose mama kept phoning him to see if he was ok! (ok generally i think, not checking to see if he was ok having dinner with me...then again..!)

The next morning i trailed round hardware shops trying to find an adapter plug as i'd brought the wrong one! so couldn't charge anything up. Luckily i have 2 phones (one no. that everyone has and one that not everyone has, aha! am just so important ;-)! so i could use both until i later discovered some Brits staying at the same guesthouse so i borrowed their adaptor - handy! I went to find the race venue and it took me nearly 2 hours!! I found St Polten ok but took the wrong exit off the highway and ended up driving around aimlessly for an hour wondering what the german for 'race venue this way' is. There were no signs except for a few Ironman posters fluttering from lamposts. I eventually found it, stressing a bit about how i'd ever find it again and then spent the rest of the day traipsing round doing stuff - so much for resting! The race is so huge (2400 competitors) and very well organised as it would have to be with so many people but the downside of that is it is very spread out with 2 lakes to swim in and two transition areas. So i registered, got Mr Felt tuned up, found the lakes, found the two transition areas, chatted to random people at the expo, stared at the map of the bike profile in the info tent and got a bit worried, signed up for the bus tour of the bike course, went for a swim in one of the lakes (after being punched in the jaw by the wetsuit..i am not joking, we hate each other :-Z ). Was exhausted by the time i got back to gasthoff bohm!

The next morning I went for brekky early as i was going on the bike course tour. (see above for pics of bike course and random people who had no idea they'd be appearing on my blog, ha!). Met a dutch guy called Eric who was also up early to go on the bus tour. He claimed he knew how to get to the race venue so we went in his car so i could see the way. Turned out he wasn't too sure either and we ended up driving the scenic route but at least we did get there slightly faster than i had the day before. Coming from 'flat' countries we were both very interested by the austrian definitions of 'flat' and 'hill'. A while into the journey we were told by the race director man that we hadn't got to the hills yet - haha we did laugh - until Eric wryly commented we wouldn't be laughing tomorrow! I was so glad i saw the course for 2 reasons: (1) i got to see the gorgeous scenery i would be riding through the next day - really i recommend this race just for the bike course, it is so so stunning it is such a joy to ride through and (2) i got to see just how the bus struggled up the hills and the 8% - and more alarmingly - the 14% descent signs. Yikes!

austria 70.3 episode three!

First off on a race trip, you have to get there, and the physical journey is all part of the bigger journey! Travelling with a bike can be quite an experience depending on the airline and the airport. I swear airport designers do not have people with luggage in mind when they do their airport designing jobs. Steps and tight corners to negotiate, narrow elevators, silly post things stuck in the ground which are just a few inches too close together to accommodate a passing bike box on a trolley, fellow passengers making quips as to what's in the bag, and ferocious check in staff who seize the opportunity with glee to charge you excess baggage while allowing the person beside you on with a set of golf clubs and a whole lot of scuba diving equipment with hardly a comment. Anyway Emirates now have a bigger luggage allowance, yippee, so no problems there this time. Had a joyous air steward person attending my row who couldn't believe no one was drinking 'what's wrong with you lot, it's free booze!' i pointed out it was only 8am but he didn't seem to see my point! Landed in Vienna, picked up the hire car, headed off to the car park armed with the knowledge i had to drive 100ks away from vienna but had no idea in which direction or what the name of the town was i was headed for. Then my phone bleeps - the flipping car company had blocked 900 euros off my card! I only have a low level credit card anyway for car hiring/emergency purposes only so that was all my funds gone. fab! Decided not worry about the minor detail of suddenly having no access to money and instead focus on finding my way to the guesthouse. Luckily Austrian roads are very well sign posted so even blonde pigtailed girls can find their way. Mr Felt was happy to be out of his box and the travel bandages off and resurrected into a bike shape (see pic above).

austria 70.3 episode two!

So, Austria 70.3 was supposed to be a training day in preparation for IMUK, which has now turned into a 'training day' - more about why another time. The week before austria that original training day intention turned into a 'go get it girl' day. I thought austria would be good preparation for the UK in that it could be chilly and wet (it wasn't) and hilly (it was). I really wanted to challenge myself on a hilly course to see if i could climb and if i could get over my fear of descending (see 'julie's triathlon demons' below for more on this!). It has taken me 8 years but with a bit of magic dust chucked at me on a recent Hatta-Kalba ride I am starting slowly to get over the fear! Good quote coming up: 'a lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could'. I guess it's a lot to do with trust but I was wondering if I could do the same painfully slow hanging onto the brakes for dear life teeth grinding descent (this IS the improvement by the way!) when out there on my own. You will have to read on to see if i could!