Even though there’s a crowd of people around, it feels as if there is only me, the sea and my fear… loud, energetic music comes from the speakers, it’s raining, and the announcer gives the final race instructions. I dig deep into myself, looking for the strength to overcome 1,900 m of swimming, 90 km of cycling and 21 km of running. Even though my heart is starting to go crazy, I try to control my panic and find inner peace… suddenly there’s a sound signaling the start, I’m running on the beach, I’m in the water, my heart rate shoots up and the chaos begins… This is how my IRONMAN 70.3 Gdynia begins.
Arrival at IRONMAN Gdynia
I arrived in Gdynia on Thursday. It was a small mistake, because from the very beginning I felt that the city had the atmosphere of a great sports festival. For the first time, there was to be a full IRONMAN start, including 70.3 and a sprint. The whole city is geared up for the event. You could see the teams preparing the entire event. The logistical challenge was quite big, after all, several thousand participants were supposed to come here. Securing the routes, race-pack collection, the transition zone and many, many other aspects influenced the overall event. Because of all this, in my head I was already preparing for the start. There were hints of the pre-start euphoria, concentration and thoughts wandering somewhere in the recesses of the brain, and fear also appeared. My first half-distance race, plus swimming in the sea. I started to wonder if I would be able to do it (swimming had been my nightmare until recently, and the “entrance” to Silesiaman in Katowice had a huge impact on me – more about thatHERE).
Why arrive early?
I arrived early because I also wanted to have time for everything. I calmly collected the package, arranged everything in the transition zone, I wanted to know what I would find and where… and above all, I wanted to get to know the sea. Friday’s waves shook my confidence and old demons started to reappear somewhere. The waves were so big that the lifeguard started to ask everyone out of the water. But what would happen if there were such waves during the competition? Ola and I decided that I had to go back and swim for a while (of course, properly secured with a buoy).
EXPO and race-pack collection for IRONMAN Gdynia
Nowadays, organizing such an event also involves big restrictions related to COVID. Here, the organizer planned it nicely. You had to specify the time at which the package would be picked up, which allowed me to avoid long queues (or I was lucky – collecting my package didn’t take longer than 20 minutes). Everything went quickly and smoothly. EXPO was also interesting, there were companies from all disciplines of triathlon, including: POC or Northwave (my cycling shoes:).
T1 and T2 transition zone
The transition zone is huge, after all, you need space to fit racks for several thousand bikes and all other equipment. Logistically, it was well resolved, things were in bags in different places, but there was some intention and order to it.
Start day of IRONMAN Gdynia
The start was planned for 6:00, wake-up at 4:00 to make it to the transition zone, check the bike and load the bottles. I wanted to have plenty of time to complete a relaxed swim warm-up and be ready to start.
We managed to arrange everything so that Ola would be waiting for me at the start to support me mentally :).
At 5:00 I left the transition zone. 5:15 I was already at the beach and planned to use the toilet one last time, then change and go into the water. There was quite a big problem here, there wasn’t a single portable toilet near the start.
I spent time searching and then waiting in line and only at 5:40 did I start changing my clothes. When I wrote to Ola where I was, she rushed me because she knew that I had to get out of the water 10 minutes before the start. I managed to submerge for a moment, swim a bit… and then I was on my way to the starting line.
IRONMAN 70.3 Gdynia: swimming
What I feared the most was that I was convinced that the bike or run would go off without any major problems… but I was afraid that everything would actually end sooner than it started. Fortunately, that day the wind was blowing more from land, so there were no waves like on Friday. The rain didn’t bother me. I began to approach the barriers marking the start chute, with each step I became more and more focused. That first kilometer of swimming, deep into the sea… was impressive, it seemed extremely distant. Subsequent groups of people start (10 people every 8 seconds).
Even though there’s a crowd of people around, it feels as if there is only me, the sea and my fear… loud, energetic music comes from the speakers, it’s raining, and the announcer gives the final race instructions. I dig deeper into myself, looking for the strength to overcome 1,900 m of swimming, 90 km of cycling and 21 km of running. Even though my heart is starting to go crazy, I try to control my panic and find inner peace… suddenly there’s a sound signaling the start, I’m running on the beach, I’m in the water, my pulse jumps to the upper registers and the chaos begins…
Rolling start
Rolling start was a big advantage because the open-water “washing machine” was not quite as intense. I got hit several times, either on my legs or arms (yes, yes… I know it’s normal, but it’s quite unpleasant). In my first contacts with water, I tried to use positive affirmations that I was doing well, the water was pleasant, etc. I tried to focus on each movement and look from time to time where the directional buoys were. From time to time, the seeds of panic appeared somewhere in my heart – especially the next time someone tried to swim over me. However, the period of earlier familiarization with the sea began to give results… I simply tried to swim slightly to the side and continue doing my thing.
At times I passed people who started to move into breaststroke, especially with their heads above the surface… a bad sign, I know it. Tiredness… or more like the need to breathe, the same panic that paralyzed me during the previous competition was probably brewing in their heads. I felt sorry for them and kept my fingers crossed that they would survive. I avoided the nightmare of Katowice and that was the most important thing to me. I dealt with the breathing problem while swimming in two ways, regular OW training, but also thanks toAirOFit.
Around the second directional buoy I got used to the conditions. I started to feel good, but I kept looking for that red buoy where there was supposed to be a turnaround… and there were only more white ones. My strategy of trying to swim slightly to the left or right when someone was “attacking” my legs was also a bit distracting. After some time, it turned out that I was losing my goal and had to correct the course. I did, however, smile a few times when I saw someone swimming across my line. My thoughts were like, “that guy really knows how to navigate.” Such stupidity, but it improved my morale and made me feel better and better.
The coveted red buoy
It’s finally here, red – marking the first kilometer, now it was only going to get better. Yes.. it did. Some problems began to appear, as waves flowed parallel to the land, but in the other direction, from the land towards the sea. This is where I choked on water for the first time several times. Fortunately, the Baltic Sea is not a very salty sea, so it was not a dramatic experience, apart from the fact that it disturbed the rhythm. These waves also had a worse effect – on navigation. I started having trouble finding the next points to go to, which made my nervousness grow.
I passed another red buoy, behind which there was supposed to be a turn towards the land, but here I was completely lost. For a long time I couldn’t see which direction to go. I felt like I was making a big arc, I tried to follow the others. This is how I reached the last two red buoys (I had an even closer face-to-face meeting with the third one) and to the exit.
Summary: swimming
My greatest fears did not come true. I planned to swim around 44-50 minutes. Surprisingly, the first 500 meters were the best, at a pace of 2:11/100m. However, due to all these “disturbances”, the end was the slowest after 2:39/100 – which was probably below my plan. The average was 2:27 overall, i.e. 882nd out of 1,121 athletes… the biggest room for improvement in triathlon. The most important thing, however, was that I was already standing on the pier.
T1 transition zone
Quick exit from the water, rain even stronger than before entering the water. I run to the stand with my change bag. I take off my wetsuit, put on my helmet, glasses, shoes and eat a gummy snack. One, two and I’m ready – now I just need to find a bike (which wasn’t too difficult)… and then run 500 meters with a bike in my hand, until I reach the bike mount line. All in 5:36… which, considering this distance, I consider a great success ;). I run out of the zone and Ola is there, shouting and encouraging me to ride.
IRONMAN 70.3 Gdynia: bike
This is already something I like. It may still not be my forte – but unlike swimming, it’s decent… The conditions were definitely not favorable. Slippery and constantly raining. All my colleagues’ warnings also came true (be careful not to lose anything along the way – because at the beginning the cobblestones are brutal, and on top of that… the route is not easy due to the elevation gain).
As for the first warning, of course I lost one bar somewhere during the bike run (there were two left and 1 gel… it seems like not much, but it should have been enough for me, so I didn’t panic).
As for the second one, I only looked at the total amount of elevation gain over these 90 km… it didn’t seem very much to me (something around 980m up). On paper it didn’t look bad… but the climb out of Gdynia was brutal. Between 5 and 10 km almost 150 meters up. I try to accelerate, but the bike doesn’t want to go any faster, the speed is always around 25-28. I planned to finish the bike after a maximum of 3 hours… and at this pace it would not have been possible.
What do I remember about the bike?
Due to the road conditions, I tried to remain fully focused, I remember this episode rather fragmentarily. The most important things are:
- a lot of uphill… the first 15 km meant weakened morale… because it was difficult to keep the average at the appropriate level (on the other hand, I felt as if I was on a roll, because I was passing quite a lot).
- the road is full of holes – not only the cobblestones, but also the asphalt in some places is a real drama. At times there was a slalom between lost water bottles,
- sometimes very nice asphalt (only slippery :)),
- huge speed range… sometimes 8 or 9 km per hour (on one uphill), to over 55 km/h on some descents.
- nutrition – this is another element to improve (I don’t like to eat a lot while cycling, nor while running). I finished the first bar around 30km, nibbling it a little at a time, by the 60th kilometer I finished the gel… at the next nutrition point I grabbed a banana… and in the last kilometers I finished the second bar
- water – I had a lot of this, 2 isotonic drinks in bottles, and the third one was water, and I refilled it at every nutritional point,
Settling into the ride
After leaving Gdynia, the route began to become a little more bearable in terms of elevation gain. I started to pick up faster speeds – somehow the rain itself didn’t bother me too much. I tried to keep my pace, not push too hard, but also not slow down. For most of the route I felt good, my motivation was at the right level. Adrenaline also kept me going, because a few high-speed descents can excite me.
Unfortunately, due to the conditions, not everyone managed to reach the end. I passed several people who were less lucky and misjudged a corner or crashed for another reason.
Do your thing
However, I did my thing, I stayed in my own focused rhythm, water from time to time, checked the time and continued driving. Even though I ate only 1 bar and 1 gel up to 60 km, I was already fed up with sweets and my stomach started to feel sick. The moment I got this banana in my hand, I was suddenly overwhelmed with wild joy, so hard to describe, it almost brought tears to my eyes (so I guess I was running out of fuel after all). Oh, I forgot, I also prepared a sandwich 🙂 but after one bite I realized there was no chance I could eat it.
But back to driving: on the one hand, it was starting to get better, the average was rising, the rain was stopping, I was getting closer to my “crown discipline”. On the other hand, the first back pain and, above all, numbness in the feet appeared. I had to fight hard to keep the pace. One of the worst moments was between 55-60km, a very steep climb and again 100 meters up in this section. The speed was sometimes 8 km/h and in addition to the back pain and numb legs, there was also pain in my thighs.
The final kilometres
Then it only got better: between 75-80 km euphoria, average speed 41.5 km/h. This is what I love about cycling, riding fast, but unfortunately there is no such joy in running.
In the last kilometers, I tried to rest on the descents and respect my legs so that they were ready for the run. Most of the climbs took their toll and the quads were burning quite badly. On each subsequent descent, I tried to brake myself a little and say that it should be calm so that my legs could rest.
At the end, an additional energy kick came from meeting my parents (who watched the children in the morning while Ola was with me at the start). Then, still in the crowd, I managed to catch a few friends out of the corner of my eye.
Summary: bike
Despite the initial problems, rain, slippery and sometimes very holey surfaces, I consider the bike a success. I am satisfied with the result of 2:51:20 (average 31.5 km/h), which gave me 571st time. I know this is the second thing I still need to work on, because I can definitely do more on the bike. However, considering the current form – it turned out nice.
T2 transition zone
This change was also quite demanding. First, run with the bike practically to the other end of the zone to put it on the stand, then a shorter run to get a bag with things for the run. I managed to change clothes and put my bicycle things into the bag quite efficiently. Another distance to run and after exactly 5 minutes I left the transition zone and started the last discipline.
IRONMAN 70.3 Gdynia: run
Right at the beginning (still in the transition zone) I felt pain in my quadriceps muscles, which didn’t bode well. In addition, the weather began to turn. Just as it was raining while swimming and cycling, the sun was starting to come out more and more while running (as if it couldn’t be the other way around:).
Due to my current form, I wanted to keep the run time below 5 min/km, or actually closer to 4:30. Despite the pain in my legs, I tried to smile, because I heard familiar voices more and more often, and when I saw Ola with her children from a distance… I felt euphoria and great joy that allowed me to forget about the pain.
First loop
I tried to run conservatively for the first kilometers. Don’t push yourself too hard, but don’t limit yourself too much. The watch kept showing around 4:15-4:20 and I felt that this was a very nice, comfortable speed. There were quite a lot of fans on the route, their shouts also gave us strength. I don’t like running when it’s too hot, so I decided to cool down properly at each water point.
Even though I drank quite a lot at the start of the run, after a few kilometers I felt very thirsty. Fortunately, around 6 km there was a second water point. When I saw it, I first ate the gel, then drank a lot of water, and poured the rest on myself.
This point gave me additional energy and the descent was starting, pace was 4:00. I was wondering whether to slow down or not, I decided that if my legs allow it, there is no point in limiting myself.
The first thoughts began to appear in my head as to how long it would take me to be able to do it. Originally, I didn’t plan on any specific time. Unfortunately, there were several breaks in training beyond my control, so I didn’t really know what I was capable of. I figured if I was somewhere between 5:30-6:00 it would be fine. After these few kilometers of running, it was starting to become clear to me that I had a chance of breaking 5:30.
The first major problems
Around the 8th kilometer I started having problems, quite a steep uphill climb, which made me slow down a bit, but I still stuck to my assumptions. Unfortunately, the biggest mistake of this competition began to appear – poorly selected shoes. I took racing shoes, no cushioning, and I haven’t run in them for a long time. After the eighth kilometer, my calves started to hurt more and more, which definitely affected the rest of the run.
Fortunately (since I had been in Gdynia since Thursday), I knew well that it would soon be downhill again. A nice downhill at kilometer 9 and I was approaching the end of the first loop. I could already hear the scene from a distance, running past it… I felt euphoric again that I would be there in just a little while. I focused again on putting one foot in front of the other.
Second loop
The second loop was no longer a secret to me at all. I knew there would be a hill, a point with water, a downhill, another hill, a downhill and a straight line to the finish line. However, fatigue was starting to get the best of me. The sun was shining more and more and I was wondering whether to risk the last gel or not (stomach issues were making me think about it).
My heart rate started to jump to around 170 and my pace to around 4:40. Additionally, I was running in a unique zigzag, or Garmin started playing some trick on me, because it showed 500 meters more than the official markings. I began to feel more and more weak. The fight was starting to form in my mind to keep pushing forward and not to stop under any circumstances. However, such a desire began to appear… I counted the kilometers twice (because once when the Garmin showed a given kilometer… and then when there were markings). At 17 km, the second gel, I stopped for a moment to cool down – ice cubes under my clothes, water on my head and I set off, knowing that it was downhill. This time, however, I didn’t finish below 4:00. I was pushing myself more to the limits of my abilities. When I hit the hill on Świętojańska again, the pace began to exceed the target maximum of 5:05.
An unexpected rescue
There I also met an unexpected rescue… a girl, about 10 years old (my daughter’s age). They were talking to their friends while I was barely making my way up the hill. I just heard them talking to each other: “Will you outdo this man?” I looked to the side… as far as I was concerned, the girl started running… at that moment the pain turned into joy again and I started to accelerate. In the end, the girl did not overtake this gentleman… but she ran like equals for quite a long time 🙂 but she gave me great energy, which stayed with me until the end.
The final kilometres
I basically knew I had it, that I was going to finish under 5:30. However, I tried to push as hard as I could. The last descent, the last nutrition point and a shower from the hose… I am starting to feel more and more happy. The final stretch, I hear noise coming from the stage. I turn right, it’s only a few dozen meters away… I see Ola, my daughters and my parents. Everyone is screaming loudly, I get the last injection of adrenaline and I fly as if on wings. Joy mixed with pain… but wait, there is no pain for the moment, only euphoria. I’m running along this red carpet, I see the finish line, everything inside me goes crazy like on some drugs. I fall behind the line, tears come to my eyes, I can’t stop them. I get a medal, and after a while I have to sit down, calm down and catch my breath.
Summary: running
The run, just as I had hoped, was my strongest discipline. Garmin showed an average pace of 4:27, but 22 km. The official results were 4:43min/km and a time of 1:38:17, which was the 181st best time of this event.
Cheering at IRONMAN 70.3 Gdynia
Oh yes! There was cheering. Volunteers, fans along the route… amazing. If the weather had been better, there would have been more of them along the bike course. Running the running route through the city center and on a loop meant that there were a lot of fans. Every applause heard along the way, every shout (especially the personal ones)… gave me strength. In addition, volunteers at aid stations, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! You are GREAT!
IRONMAN 70.3 Gdynia: organization
I have heard several different words about this organization, some complaints, etc. etc. I can evaluate it from my perspective. I am really impressed, and above all for:
Organizational issues
- INFORMATION: we received several e-mails with instructions on what it would be like, where to register, what would be on the route, etc…. I practically knew everything (well, maybe apart from the lack of portable toilets at the start :),
- Race-pack collection: as I mentioned, it took me a while, sometimes I had to wait much longer during smaller running events.
- Medal: beautiful… although my daughters liked it more than the full one… well, I think I know what I have to do:D.
- Post-race food: here I heard complaints about some salads etc… honestly? WHO CARES 😀 I went for pizza anyway 🙂
Assessment of the racing experience
- T1 and T2: I guess the only bad thing I can say is that everything was far away, but on the other hand fully understandable, with so many participants. This is not a competition for 200-300 people, where a transition can take less than a minute, because everything is at hand. However, everything was nicely thought out. I easily understood point by point what had to be done and without unnecessary searching for my bike or my things.
- Swimming: rolling start is great, especially for me :). Apart from that, in one direction it was nice to follow the white buoys, but after the turn it was a bit worse (I don’t know if it was because of the waves or there were fewer buoys indicating the direction, but here I felt a bit unsure.
- Bike: it worked well for me, I didn’t notice anything incorrectly marked or secured. I felt good on the route and I knew where to go. The biggest drawback was definitely the pitted asphalt at times. In several places it was impossible to go fast and you had to slalom between water bottles. Nutrition on the bike – fine for me, I got what I wanted. The organizer is no longer responsible for the weather :). I wanted to write that it could be flatter… but considering how many emotions the descents gave me… well, I don’t regret it 🙂 it was great
- Run: this part was excellent, fans, loop route, “showers” at every nutrition point and lots and lots of water and other isotonic drinks or Coke 🙂
- Finish line: it deserves a separate paragraph, the IM logo obliges and finishing beneath that gantry is a huge pleasure. I can definitely compare it to the finish line, for example at the Silesian Stadium during the Silesia Marathon.
Summary of IRONMAN 70.3 Gdynia
It was my first half, and I lost a month of training in June due to a dog bite. In July, it’s more about maintenance training (although I don’t really know what maintenance:), and a vacation. During the holiday I worked mainly on sea swimming (although without a wetsuit). Coming to Gdynia, I didn’t have any special expectations, and that’s probably a good thing. Thanks to this, I didn’t have much pressure that I had to meet a specific time. 5:30-6:00 was a rather loose assumption, because I didn’t really know what I was capable of at the time.
I am most satisfied with swimming, with the fact that I managed it. Believe me – for me it’s quite an achievement, now it can only get better. Bicycle – I am also satisfied here (to the best of my current capabilities). I definitely need to work on my nutrition and just ride and ride more. Running – I think this is the easiest way to get back to better running. I probably won’t come close to the form of #crushing3, but the level can definitely be higher. However, I felt the atmosphere of this event, I am very satisfied and I will definitely come back there. This time, however, with a specific result that appeared somewhere in my head.
Ultimately, I finished in 5:26:44, which gave me 455th place out of 1121. It showed me where I stood and the place I would like to take in subsequent competitions. If you’ve read this far, thank you very much. Please keep your fingers crossed for my next attempt too :).
I would also like to thank Ola and the children, as well as my parents, without whose support it would be hard to imagine my adventure with triathlon.
I would also like to thank everyone who in some way supported my preparations, including:Adventure Sports