Sat, 24 Apr 2004

Triathlon season started

These have been some busy two weeks. Our plan to train a lot during the long vacation weekend two weeks ago was a bit disrupted by the rain. We managed to swim and run (under the cold rain), but our bikes had to stay at home until Monday, when back in Valencia we could do a long 100km training session.

Without much more training during that week, last weekend was our first triathlon of the 2004 season, which starts quite early this year due to the Olympic Games in September. The first race was important -the first of three races for the Spanish Triathlon Open-, and many people from other areas of Spain came to Valencia. The weather during the week had been bad, with rain and a lot of wind, and the sea was in quite a bad condition. When we were about to enter boxes, the organizers announced that the triathlon was going to be cancelled except for the Men's Elite category, which pissed us all. We had to run a shitty duathlon instead. On Sunday, Valencia hosted the European Triathlon Championships during which I and many of my teammates helped as volunteers for the organization. Seeing all the elite triathletes competing so near to us was exciting. Both the women and men races were very interesting, and while Spain didn't manage to defend their two 1st places of last year (for Iván Raña and Ana Burgos), Eneko Llanos got in second place, while Pilar Hidalgo came in third in women.

Watching these two races helped my training motivation a lot, which I was lacking quite a bit and will come handy for our next triathlon, next week in Fuenteálamo, which is a qualifier for the Spanish Championship next summer. It's quite unlikely I'll manage to classify, but at least I have the Eneko Effect on my side. :)