I need to admit something to you. I do it with a slight pain, looking at the title of the blog, but unfortunately: June Karkonoszman and the July Enea Bydgoszcz Triathlon were the events I've been waiting for this year the most. This is the first year in which I do not throw in a row for the following time the same road race: Jarna Klasika, Beskid Loop, Tatra Tour, ŻTC, CykloGdynia, etc. I have been a little bit overstayed. Although cycling is much more unpredictable than triathlon, watching once again the same places, racing with the same people and repeating the patterns lost some charm.

Because even though every race can go completely differently and sometimes in the 200-kilometer race in the Tatras I am already completely puked at the 10th kilometer, and sometimes I'm still fresh up 80 kilometers away, the triathlon is something new and undiscovered for me, and the thought of the first races aroused emotions similar to the first races on the road and the first Mazovia MTB.

I treat the Enea Bydgoszcz Triathlon as a debut. Karkonoski Triathlon he was murderously heavy, but he did not have much in common with classic races at distances expressed as Ironman fractions. Triathlon IT it was also somewhat specific, and for me it ended right after swimming. Why Bydgoszcz? Because the organizer invited me. Because practically the entire trinternet (I learned from co-starters that as a triathlete I have to press the prefix 'tri' everywhere), he agrees that not only is it the best organized competition in the country, it is also the best choice for beginners. Why the distance 1/2? With my logistical deficiencies, my strangeness in transition zones and the small number of hours I spent beyond my power threshold, I found this one to be the most enjoyable and the least stressful. Somewhere in the subconscious I was also afraid that Bydgoszcz would be much more difficult than the Karkonosze - speed is more difficult for me than endurance.

I was going to Bydgoszcz excited about the start. It's a great feeling. I enjoyed swimming, riding a new bicycle and running.

We are close to Bydgoszcz, about 3 hours by car from the center of Warsaw. Unless it is Friday and we leave the capital, or Sunday and we return to it - then more 5 to 6. So we arrive at around 20, get the starter packet, empty the nearby food trucks (maybe it waits a long time and the food is so, but at least everything is expensive), we visit the sports expo and we are moving into the city.

Szok I - Bydgoszcz is pretty

The first walk around the city causes us slight discomfort and unexpected anxiety. It is somehow empty, quiet, nice - there are no cars, people do not crowd, despite the Friday evening, there is an idyll. Nonsensopedia reports that Bydgoszcz is called the Venice of the North, Polish Amsterdam or Little (Eastern) Berlin (Considering the fact that Venice, this one in Italy, is called Bydgoszcz of the South, Amsterdam: Dutch Bydgoszczand Berlin: Big Bydgoszcz). I agree with that. I feel a bit like in a town that is an efficient connection to Słupsk, Manchester and something bigger (any, with trams and light pathology, about which in a moment).

The river Brda adds charm to it, which winds through the entire city, and a bit further connects with the Vistula. Brda can be associated with our trips to Kashubia, for example Kaszebe Round. Somewhere near our hotel, split up for a moment, creating the Młyńska Island, which, accompanied by the opera and coastal cafes, creates a very pleasant atmosphere. That day, we are 15,000 steps away on a pointless walk.

I do not know if there is any reason why we should go spontaneously to Bydgoszcz, but thanks to the promotion of sports events, we again remind ourselves that Poland can also be very pretty. If sport aims to promote a healthy lifestyle and places where events take place, it does it well.

Shock II - Focus Hotel Premium Under the Eagle

If you are watching any triathlon events a bit, you know that finding accommodation half a year before the event often borders on a miracle. We are looking for a week ahead - why? I do not know, maybe I'm just afraid of long-term plans. Booking leaves us with no room to show off, and we have several places on the second weekend of July. Limiting the choice to those from which you can reach both the competition office and the start from the shoethere are very few of them. The choice falls on a four-star hotel: Focus Hotel Premium Pod Orłem. Let's be honest: does something in the premium name be bad? ;-) But how could people know that something is premium, if it is not written, that it is premium. It's like all those shops with large Luxury inscriptions and handbags with a big name printed by the designer.

"Focus Premium Pod Orłem is a historic 4-star property, located in the very center of Bydgoszcz. It is an architectural icon of the city - a perfect combination of historic Art Nouveau and modern technological solutions. Has been functioning continuously for 120 years "

Why am I unkind? I expect 2 things from the hotel I am choosing: sleep well and have a close start. While in the second criterion, cheat hard, when it comes to sleep, we have a bit of a problem. It may be a matter of lack of air conditioning and any air movement when it is indecently heat outside. Maybe it's this stuffiness or dust. Or maybe just windows exposed to the local murder, from which for half a night they hear chants with offensive phrases, insults and the sound of broken glass. Consolation is left to us with great sculptures, golden ornaments, huge doors and, generally, a climate from the hotel's miniature mock-up Vegas.

I think for the first time in the history of the blog I absolutely do not recommend the place where we slept. It's good that the location compensated a bit (and efficient internet). Before the start I got Race Book (and then also in the office - printed) on the e-mail, it had 56 pages. I do not remember when I last read so many times (joke ... or not). It contained everything: from the schedule, through the routes, to the list of physical things that I should remember - simple and ingenious. A double reading made it virtually unnecessary to use the internet to search for answers to your questions.

On Saturday evening there was also a briefing at which this information was provided verbally. After that, there was time for individual questions to the organizers (estimates), so that people who do not like reading and can not listen, because they just talked with friends, asked about things that were explained twice (true story). In general, the communication and attitude of the organizers to the players is something that I think equal to the cycling world can probably only Tatra Road Race (and related).

Enea Bydgoszcz Triathlon: organization

I do not like things that are hard to pin on (joke). I say this on the one hand as a novice, so I have no comparison, but on the other hand, as a novice I know very little and explain everything to me like in kindergarten. In Enea Bydgoszcz Triathlon the organizer led me basically from the moment of completing the registration form, to crossing the finish line ... in fact even further - until I am clean, full and happy.

I could write peany here, tell how to pick up the starter package on probably the biggest triathlon event in the country, it took me maybe a minute or two and how I felt that someone was taking care of me all the time, but it does not make sense. Believe me, from the point of view of the starter, I do not know what could be done better (but maybe because I do not know). I can recommend Triathlon with a clear conscience to anyone.

1222 words and zero meat

Let's get to the details - how did my debut on 1/2 Ironman look like?

The assumptions were simple - the most important: survive and do not stress yourself unnecessarily.

Second goal: do not make a mess (in the change zones, in the areas of entering and exiting the bicycle and foam, etc.)

Further: break 5 hours - it seemed like the equivalent of marathon 4 hours and 50 minutes for ten days. At the beginning it should be just right

The ideal goal, which I set myself as a condition of being satisfied with my attitude: 4 hours, 45 minutes.

... and it was funny, because I have no idea how fast I can actually run a half-marathon, much less when I run after swimming and cycling.

drifting

Swimming at Bydgoszcz Triathlon is funny, because for distance 1/2 the start takes place in a different place than the finish line. To make it even more fun - it flows in the river and in the case of half - only with the current of the river. I would say that it generates some livelihoods (especially when someone starts for the first time he he he), but the organizer has reflected it on the run, as later.

Swimming in the river is ridiculous and I realize this by watching the competition on a distance of 1/4 a day earlier. I have seen things that are not real, for example people who flow forward and move backwards. People who swim forward and move to the side, so they do not get in fight and they fight a long battle to get away with it. I realize that judges and help on kayaks have a lot of sense. Observation of this from the bridge was perfect, a bit like looking at the aquarium, and a bit like looking at Sisyphus.

Our situation is completely different. While swimming in the foam, compared to the usual one, is like an electric bike compared to the usual one, swimming with the river current is like riding a scooter.

I will skip here a fragment about warming up in the thing and for many minutes of squeezing into the foam, which I will have to give together after each swim. I will also omit a fragment of laying down a part of the body for 20 minutes, which I never want to properly arrange in the foam, and in the worst case, waving my legs is like wearing a rural egg from a foil shop (I can, but the risk of unhappiness). Believe me, it happened.

 - Macia, but you have a silly face in the pictures

 - It's a smile.

At Enea, Bydgoszcz Triathlon is so popular rolling start. It jumps into the water one by one, every 4 seconds - a beautiful thing, although you do not know your position at the stake. I do not think that's bothering anyone, because I suspect that 95% of people compete mainly with themselves.

Unaccustomed to warm up in the queue for the start, I become late somehow. I would say half circle rate. On the side, an alternative queue is set up as usual, which joins the main at the end, so at the end of the bridge I report on a gray (slightly gray) end. I jump on my feet because I'm afraid of goggles. I'm swimming like a missile, like a Soviet submarine, like a yellow submarine, like ... everyone. For a long time, my stomach is smudged with seaweed, which I see perfectly in clear water. On the one hand, it's great, but on the other, I've seen too many movies with dead bodies in the water. From time to time, the bottom approaches me so much that my hand in the crawl must lead quite horizontally under water.

I try to swim shortcuts and shorten corners, but I think it was better to hit the middle. People said that the current was also stronger in the middle, but I do not trust them. I have no idea what to keep pace, so I swim smoothly, but conservatively, not to die when I leave the water. After (subjectively) 20 minutes, my watch vibrates for the first time claiming that I have swam 500 meters. I know he is not wrong. Time in water is slower, but it's perfect. Along the route, Panda goes all the time, glancing at me with one eye. A bit like walking fish for a walk. If I moved more in the front I would know that I can and I swim quickly, but the whole head was flowing much faster.

On the horizon appear two yellow, horizontal, blown tubes - aim between them, just like people around. People are shouting that it is wrong and that the exit is a bit next - I turn back. Someone gives me a hand, someone unbuttoned my foam, I do not know what is going on, but people shout, women wave pompoms, the players run, so I turn off the brain and the autopilot starts.

Enea Bydgoszcz Triathlon: Swimming (1900m, measured 1960m)

The result: 26 minutes and 3 seconds
winner: 23:49

Exit from the dark

I run between the fans, this feeling I do not know about cycling. I run the autopilot, so nothing happens. In the distance I hear Panda's voice, which reminds me that I have to get out of the foam. If it was not for her, I would forget about this detail. The watch goes through the sleeve, the rest will not be a problem anymore.

Nice ladies are already waiting with garbage bags in front of the hall with bicycles. I choose the most lonely one and begin to trample the foam with my legs until it leaps. It worked extremely well. I pack it in a sack and run for a bike - it's a bit like Santa's Run, but instead of the red sack we have blue garbage.

I run through a complicated system of corridors to the hall and in the head I hear only words repeated from the morning by Panda:

I find my bike among the masses of others. It's all white, so the matter is simple. Shoes, socks and food await him in the toilet next to him. I try to put my cycling socks on my wet feet. It takes a while, it fails. I sit down. I see in my mind meme with Panda, whose head is signed in thick, capital letters: "YOU HAD ONE JOB". Failed to.

I'm sipping a gel, I'm trying to put on a pre-fastened cycling SIDI, grabs my spasm in the thigh - some drama. I grab the bike, I'm a little pre-stared, because my long seatpost does not fit under the tube on which it hung and run. Running with a bicycle that weighs one hundred kilograms (with a front-back weight distribution in the ratio of 99: 1), in bicycles it is acrobatics.

It went on average, but without any rebirth, so I consider it a success. After a moment, the light goes out in my head. I can see the darkness. If you wonder why triathlons sometimes do stupid things and why they drive backwards in helmets (true story from Bydgoszcz), then I will tell you.

I reach the beam, stop, try to get on the bike. If he saw this cross-trainer, he would have died of laughter. However, I use the tactics called by me: minimization of the fire. When I get in slowly, I know that I will sit down and go.

Enea Bydgoszcz Triathlon: Zone of changes I:

Result: 4:07
Winner: 2:44

Crackle

I sit and go. The guest next to me is not so lucky, he also sat down, but he only reached the barriers 2 meters further and gave concerts on them. If I was a fan, I would think a madman somehow. As a player, I see nothing strange in this. Getting in is like a situation in which someone at 3 in the morning turns you on the entire regulator Du Hast and in German screams that immediately you have to sit on the bike and drive away. It will work or it will fail.

Cycling, theoretically my crown competition is a bit of shame. I have a time trial on which I was sitting 3 times, I have high wheels (60 / 80mm) borrowed from Ron WheelsI have an ordinary water bottle and a bottle with almost a liter of drinking, hanging on the lemond and I have a cupboard. The worst thing is that I also have a rear derailleur that has been disrupted during transport and most of the gears in the back of me either jumps over or cilia. Man runs one of the largest cycling blogs in the country, and goes on a creaking bicycle ...

I also have some concerns about the rear wheel. During Saturday's inflating of the inner tube, I unscrewed the valve (you know, high cones and extensions). Once vented and screwed in again (along with the extension), the valve leaves no room for its tightness. Probably it would be easier if I did not forget the back seat with buckets and spoons. So I decide to go fast so that the chance of misfortune is as small as possible;)

A bike like a bicycle, I put on lemondka and go 8 times, the same, profile wavy route. 8 rebounds striking from the rhythm and a mass of people to overtake. In spite of these hopeless relapses (I understand people who are putting their feet off), I reach an average of about 39.5km / h. Not bad. All the time I wonder just how much energy you have to leave yourself running. Strategically, I try to squeeze the bar from time to time and empty the water bottles - I do it forcefully, because I'm not hungry. I have died too many times in my life to ignore this.

Drafting is forbidden. It's a strange feeling when you see a player in front of you and you can not use it as protection against the wind. Even just to make it easier to overtake. The safety areas are 7m x 2m from the cyclist and you have to overtake such supplies - there is 15 seconds for this. I try as I can to stop old habits. Also the one who orders to wait for the cyclist following you so that we can cooperate. This is reminded me of the referees on the route, the judges on motorcycles and drones.

Most of the time I'm going again on the autopilot, interrupting him for a moment to stop a few-minute attempt to return the gel, which the glory days were probably behind him. I have a second break when I switch the brain off too much and when I go on lemondka, I try to get accustomed to go to a standing position on a hill - it can not be done. The heart rate after the spectacular attempt to regain the balance needs a moment to return to the normal level.

Then it's cool. At the 86th kilometer for the first time someone is ahead of me. 4 kilometers later, we are together on the beam, where we descend from the bikes and again run to the hall).

I conclude that riding time trials without power measurement is a bit pointless on the one hand, but on the other you can positively surprise yourself. I do not know how many watts were generated by these 134 minutes, but probably a lot, at least for me. On average, the winner generated 283W (by subtracting the exit: 287W), and the normalized 287W - an estimate for such an ideal distribution of power.

Enea Bydgoszcz Triathlon: Bike (90km, measured 88km)

Score: 02:14:07
Winner: 2:09:31

Change of shoes

T2 is simple. Getting in the SPDs to the bike hanger, change shoes and set up a starting number. The gels and bars in the area of ​​the run do not touch. If I was afraid of something other than a technical defect that day, it was a defec ... a defect of the body: kolka, toi-toi and these matters. Maybe a bomb (called in a wall run) is more likely, but it's better than crap in your stomach.

For a few minutes (subjectively, because objectively it lasted 5 seconds) I wonder if I should take my glasses, in the end I do not take them. This is an additional, potential point of misery. The fewer things, the better. The change comes out smoothly and I start running. The course of the entire change zone is around 650 meters - a lot if it sums up with the rest of running.

I run, amazing how long I have to run to start the running part.

Enea Bydgoszcz Triathlon: zone of changes II:

Result: 3:45
Winner: 3:35

shuffling

Running, like running - what to write here. I have no idea how to run with heart rate, or worse, at what pace. I would like 4: 15 / km, the brain says that 4:30 / km will be reasonable. The first lap (out of 4, it was forgotten to mention the Race Book and you had to figure it out) I'm doing a bit cautiously. I'm running old-school but I'm ahead of anyone, so I assume it can not be bad. I also make a bit of a route by which I add a bit, then the place is already placed.

In my head a little autopilot, and a little calculate how I have to run to fit in my new goal. It's stupid, but if I get the result, for example 1:39 from running, I'll be happier than if it's 1:31, because this minute for the "nearest full" will be tiring to me. I know it well. The first five pass amazingly easily. They help a little 2 buffets and water curtains, which make life a little more enjoyable in this amazing heat. At each buffet on that day, I grab at least two cups - one to be poured, one with water to drink and one with something random. Sometimes I spill isotonic with it and stick to it all. It hurts me a bit how many players use their supporters on the road - after all, help is forbidden. Not that they are easier, just as I see it, when they are pouring water, my melting head melts even more. Yes, the visor on my head was lacking on that day.

The second lap is a bit heavier, but mainly due to the awareness of the remaining distance - I have not run so far in a continuous run so far. I know that Panda is doing a lap in the opposite direction, so I try to keep a decent pace so that she does not think I'm running like a faja. Well, fans, a lot of fans. Nothing, a bit of a crude feeling, but very nice, when strangers support you, and the announcer introduces you and makes a high five. This funny, running climate is given, in which everyone is the winner. And even more nice, how to recognize people thanks to the blog and cheer for even more. It just motivates.

Most of the time I see values ​​on the clock between 4:15 and 4:25 - I do not have the courage to try it faster - I try to calculate the estimated time at the finishing line. It seems to me that I will break 4 and a half hours, but something does not agree. If I did not add or multiply, the length of the run indicates over 22km. Yes, almost 23km with the run-out, it's definitely more than I expected. On the third ring, I hear that the winner is finishing. Again I calculate how much I will lose.

Throughout the course of my mind I have one thought: that it will not be faster. I know that the same evening I will wonder if it could not be faster, so I repeat to Maciek in the future: no, it was not faster. I have been doing the last half-mile more quickly, because despite a lot of fatigue, there are still some supplies. I run quite a bit below 4min / km, and yet I'm not dying. It's a drama - in the head at the finish line I will think that if I did not die **. Was it faster though? Was the average heart rate of 157, when I was always on the top for 177, indicates that I did something wrong? I will not know this.

The sprint on the dash had an effect, because it turns out that I had only one second of spare for the next competitor.

Enea Bydgoszcz Triathlon: Running (21km, measured: 22.16km):

The result: 1:37:19
Winner: 1:28:48

Ultimately:

Total time: 4:25:21 
Winner's time: 4:08:27

It gives 7th place in the age category and 14th in the general classification, with a loss of almost 17 minutes to the winner and almost 5 minutes to the box in the category.

5 minutes - so little and so much at the same time ... Do I imagine having to break 17 minutes? There is no whip. Was 5 minutes to be lost? As much as possible - I am going to assemble the equipment ;-)

After this start I have a lot of thoughts about the triathlon and a lot of comparisons with cycling. Let me finish this post with 3,500 words and leave it for the future.

Did I like the Enea Bydgoszcz Triathlon? Yes, I played very well (and the word amused is here the most). Was the choice 1/2 the right one for the debut? Of course. Will I start somewhere on the half again? I do not know, I treat it all as an adventure and it seems to me that I already have a good idea for the next challenges ...: ->

* (no, for cover photoI'm not me)

** I'm taking back what I said about the lack of fatigue at the finish line. Fatigue made me realize when on Monday at 6 am I put my foot on the floor in order to go to the recycling site of the isotonics and my lips grew soft O KUR ... That day, my right buttock suffered.

*** Photos (those that I did not do), made the bravest brave supporter: Panda.

You will find the winner's relation here.