Wednesday, February 6, 2013

#13 at 70.3 Ironman Panama

One of those plan b that makes you glad your plan a hadn't work at all!


A beautiful country, where I met nice people and really enjoyed the whole trip... Cafés, bbq, the city, Panamá Channel, Gamboa, Casco Viejo, the old American military base, the infinite pool and the Amador Causeway (an artificial terrain which links two islands to the shore, the Americans have built it with the left over stuff from digging process of the Panamá Channel).

The race wasn't the best one in performance, but was a great test to point out what I should be focus in for the season...
On that warm weather I was not expecting the cold water, and once I jumped in it was like a fright!
Instantaneously I thought would not be a good idea trying to warm up in that icy water, so I did some quick arm strokes and went out to wait for the start. And we really waited for the start, as it has delayed 50 minutes. 
Out of the water wasn’t cold, but on the soaked suits many athletes were already shivering. Luckily I found this elegant yellow jacket to keep myself warmer! 

I was cold on the whole swimming course, by the last meters I couldn’t feel my hands. It was not a good swim for me and I got in T1 close to a minute from the leaders. 
The bike was my best discipline, in a hilly and windy route. I was pretty competitive which made me happy as my bike leg was always the weakest on all the 12 races of last season! 
I suffered on the run… After recovering from a knee tendinitis, I haven’t had enough time to build up a proper training volume, so I paid the price on the last 10k. I have suffered all that pain I wanted to have had on Ironman Cozumel! 
At that moment I was placing 12th, and I could do some important points on the rank just by holding that position, so I gave all I had to hold that pace. I finished 13th with two athletes arriving right behind me. I was so exhausted that I could barely walk to the rest area, where I stayed for more than one hour lied down! 
A blessed soul offered me an advil, later a beer and soon I could move around with steps bigger than 10 centimeters!