Winter Schiniathlon (run 5 ride 60 run 15 2010
Sunday, January 24th 2010 at 12:00 AM Marathon Bay, GR- Distances:
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Race Reports
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My first duathlon
Since I don't know how to swim, I joined the winter duathlon (schiniathlon). The distance was 5/40/15, RBR respectively. The weather was blahhh... Close to 0 with strong wind and rain. Occasionally, there were small lakes on the bike route.
I had trouble reaching the starting point, because I had to travel from my home, which is in the north of Greece (Orestiada) to Athens. Despite the snow, I managed to travel by bus and reach the airport to fly to Athens. Next day, I was there, for my first multisport event.
I managed to mix everything in the basket in the change zone. At the end, I had too many useless things and I missed some neccessary ones. First timer!
The first run was OK for me. I started slow, thinking that I needed to save energy for later. I finished the 5K in 28 minutes, in strong wind, rain and cold. Then I tried to change in my bike clothes. Since everything was wet, I changed my shirt as well. I do not havw tri-shoes, so I had to tie and untie laces. I missed a lot of time in the change zone, at least 4-5 minutes.
The bike part was easier than I thought. I train on a bike with a 39/53 crankset and now I used a 50/34 bike for the race. The pedal seemed softer and it was easy to keep high cadence. I rode 40 K with the large disk only. I kept a steady average of 25 K/h. I could go faster but I decided to save energy. Due to the lakes, I became completely wet!
After the bike I needed again at least 5 minutes in the change zone, as I changed most of my clothes, since they were wet. Running was difficult at the beginng, not because of the well known brick effect, but because my feet were frozen. After 5K in the umbrella pine forest, I felt a little bit alive again. The last 10K were around the olympic rowing center. I felt better and better, just like endong a marathon. I managed to increase speed and overtake several bikers who tried to move on.
I finally made it in 3.37, rank 38 of 62 participants. Not bad for a start!!!
by Aristotelis P.
