I was really looking forward to the race. Because of the soft winter in Austria, my training went very well and I felt very strong for this time of the year. One week before at the Silvermine Trailrun, I could confirm my good shape at the moment and the win gave me a lot of self-confidence.
But on raceday, I didn't find the race mode :-(
My normal race routine before a race looks like this:
- About 3 hours before the start breakfast (normally bread with honey, prorridge and coffee)
- About 2 hours before the start beeing at the race venue
- About 1.5 hours before the start preparing my transision are
- About 45 before the start warm up (running and if possible some strokes in the water)
But I could manage everything and was still positive for the race....
When we arrived at the race venue we had to park far away
from the start, which was a bit strange for us. After cycling to the start area
we noticed that the start of the race is in 10 min. (We tought the start is at
9:00, but it was at 8:00 o’clock). So I just put my bike and running stuff into
the transition area and ran to the swim start. Luckily they started 5 minutes
later and I could start with the other professional women.
After the chaotic and hectic morning, unfortunately my day
didn’t get better. I started a bit to fast into the race and after about 500m
my arms felt like stones. After a bad swim, I really looked forward to the
amazing bike and running course.
But also on my favourite disciplines I struggled on this
day. On the bike it was really hard to take over the faster swimers on the
trails and especially on the uphills I couldn’t push like I could :-(.
However after taking some extra meters on the run, because I missed a marker, I ended up
at the 6th place. I was a bit disappointed… I felt very good and I really love
the course. But this day, was simply not my day. Nevertheless it was a great weekend and I am sure the next race will be better :-).
For more impressions of the XTerra you can watch the video from XTerra
South Africa.
