1/8 Zandvoort Triathlon 2011

This was the race I was looking so much forward to since the day it was announced. I wanted to race it, I wanted to swim in the North Sea, and I wanted to cycle on the Zandvoort Circuit…..pretty much due to the sea swim, I decided to go for the 1/8 format. A nice 500m swim in the always rough North sea, 20km ride on the F1 circuit and 5km run in dunes.

About 14 days prior to the race day, I started to monitor the weather as I knew this would be one of the deciding factors on how the race would be held….so would it be a Triathlon or would it be a Run Bike Run Duathlon?
At that time it was just boarder line….Saturday was going to be rainy and Sunday cloudy but dry. Temperature was always going to be a favorable factor. As the time drew closer, it was becoming worse and worse and what should have been my best race mentally almost became my nightmare to the point that day before I was actually looking through my window and thinking this will not happen for me. So on Saturday morning I tweeted about it and you will not believe the replies I got….I was called all sorts names that I will not name on this nice and decent blog hahaha.
Reason for being a bit afraid was that in all honesty I still have less than 1500km on a race/TT bike experience….and believe it or not but in Netherlands summer is over and what we had in March/April/May were perfect sunny record breaking days so I had no chance to train in wet and rain conditions…therefore my fear of going on a bike in these conditions coupled with the pretty hard win of 60-70km/h that was forecasted.
So what did I do after the tweets? I went in the afternoon for a 90min bike ride…easy does it…the idea was to attract all the clouds and beg them to rain….finally half way my training that happened, so I got a little bit of rain coupled with strong wind. It felt like riding a bike when being drunk…from left to right…but then being completely soaking wet. I was ready for Sunday race!!!

Oh yes….prior to this I also heard that the tire/wheels combo I was riding for my races is not really what is called safe…. Thanks @EJVNL and @tweetiris for alerting me of this fact. Apparently my Zipp carbon firecrest wheels don’t get along with the Schwable R.1 tires….as these tires just by itself let go of the wheel…incredible! In any case, better safe than sorry….I bought some Conti 4000S tires that are apparently good, so equipment was also ready.
I also mounted my GoPro HD video cam on the bike…but more on that later.

Weather at this stage (still Saturday)…not looking good….my feeling is that the swim will be cancelled as it would just be too dangerous. Nice and challenging but too dangerous.

Sunday was not only a big race day, but also a Father’s day….so after waking up early and unwrapping the best dad presents, we were off for Zandvoort.
After a short drive this is what we saw....

One thing was sure and that is that wetsuit is staying in the car. Upon picking up my race number 447, this was also confirmed. It was now officially a run-bike-run race.
Forgot to mention that wind was so strong that on my way from parking to the registration desk I had hard time keeping balance. It was strong and gusty! First thoughts that crossed my mind were not very positive....I thought I took the wrong set of wheels with me (404/808 combo). In fact, at the beginning I didn’t see anyone with the high wheels let alone a brave person with a disc in the back.
Air temperature of around 16C was just perfect.

Just before setting up T1/2 I sneaked out onto the race track to see how the conditions are and to give a little spin to the new tires I mounted day before. Wind was just a little softer on the track as circuit is a somewhat hidden by the dunes.

Transition area was set and I was ready for the race.

First run loop was going to be about 2.5km and started on the circuit. Whole 2.5km were on the circuit that had a few turns and a some gentle uphill and downhill tracks with net elevation gain according to my Garmin of 8m. Run started with a pretty fast pace, for my standards of 4:06 per km, bringing me to T1 after some 9:35, with average HR of 165.

Into the T1 it all went smooth, and biking started. I felt really strong on the bike, and from start of cycling it seems that I have been overtaking people and gaining ground on the leaders. Bike course was technical with many turns that were nicely doable on a bike without hitting breaks too much (even in aero position). It was all about anticipating the right gear going uphill and downhill. I think I did quite a good of a job there....and to my nice surprise I had absolutely no issues with the high wheels!
Overtaking other athletes was not very easy as everyone wanted to get the best line even though they were much slower than others…so on many occasions I had to overtake from right which caused extra seconds.
Luckily I had my GPS with me that was telling me approximately how far I was...as I lost count of how many laps I did. As I was approaching km 18 I saw people getting off the course and going into T2. I was a bit puzzeled, and didn't know if I was doing the right thing but in the end went out and into T2. Though of being DSQ did cross my mind, but I just went on and concentrated on fast T2 and the 5km run that was in front of me. Average speed on the bike course was 36.9 km/h and my average heart rate at 170. Max speed recorded on my Garmin was 57.5 km/h. Average cadence 84.
Lastly, my lap times were as follows: 6:12, 6:47, 6:49; 6:44...pretty consistent.

This is how the GoPro camera was mounted on my bike.

This is how the bike race look from the HD video camera mounted on my Cervelo P2.

 

T2 was also smooth, and I was out on the run course. First 300m were hell. My left leg hamstring was cramping to the point that I needed to stop and stretch. After the stretch and a Powerbar gel it started to feel better. Pace during the 1st km was slowest as it should be after T2 but also due to the cramp. Run course was very up and down....and it was steep up and steep down. I felt the uphill parts nicely in my legs. Once on top of the dunes, westerly wind was very hard and on the final stretch headwind.

On top of this, just to add to the complexity, the ground was made up of sand and loose (sharp) stones so good balancing was needed...like I didn't need any other challenges besides carrying 88kg across the dunes as fast as I could. Unlike in cycling, I was passed by a few athletes during the run which I know is my weakest link.

As km's were passing I tried to speed up, and following were my run paces per km:

4:36, 4:31, 4:27, 4:17; 3:15 for average of 4:26 which considering really strong wind and the up/down hilly course I am actually very pleased about. Average heart rate of 171, with net elevation gain of 17m.

After 1:00:43 I crossed the finish line. Extremely happy as I knew it was a good score. I was placed 13th overall and 9th in my age group....if I was placed in the higher age group (only 4 months away) I would have been 2nd in my age group...nice.

Official results:

Run      11:15 (including T1)

Bike     29:16

T2        2:04

Run      18:10

TOTAL 1:00:43

My first run was ranked 46th, bike ride was 4th!!!!, so overall I started the 2nd run as 7th, and lastly the final 5km I was 20th...overall 13th! Nice. Happy.

Now a little bit about the race itself. I strongly believe this race has potential to become one day an Ironman 70.3. No doubt in my mind that it will succeed. Location is great, facilities also, and it will be nicknamed Lanzarote 70.3 of the North!!! Are bookies taking any best yet?

But in order to get there, I do think that next year some things need fundamental changes. 

For example, and it could be only me....so this is my personal opinion:

- I wasn't sure how long the first run was going to be...maybe it was mentioned but I didn't catch it (dutch is no excuse as I understand it well)

- I didn't know where the start was...I think it moved last minute

- I wasn't sure what it meant to cycle 4 laps....where does a lap begin? Maybe a screen with counter next year (thanks for idea @EJVNL)?

- My wife wanted to take a finish shot of me and after asking several people she still didn't know as apparently nobody knew where the finish line was...at Nike they say...there is no finish line...but hold on this is a KSWISS event...

Anyway, these are some minor things that belong to an event that is being held for the first time.

On the other hand, there are many more things that organization and volunteers did an excellent job at...and I applaud them for this. A nicely organized event that I think put organization into a little logistical nightmare after the swim was cancelled.

So to conclude, am very happy I was part of the inaugural Zandvoort Triathlon that has a very very bright future, and with little help of @Maca944 sea will be better next year also so we can swim!!! While you are at it...no jellyfish either please.

I will be back next year! Look forward to it already.

For the GPS lovers, here are the details:

Run 2.5km

Bike 20km

Run 5km

...and last but not least some photos courtesy of my wife Ksenija...

Thanks Peter for the following photo...you will come across this action also on the video:

And some more action shots thanks to Bauke. More photos here.