TheChampionship2017

I recently raced the inaugural TheChampionship in Slovakia. This is the Challenge Family world Championships over half ironman distance. To qualify you have to place 6th in a challenge full or half ironman event. Having finished 6th in Challenge Galway full ironman last year, I didn't want to miss the opportunity as I wasn't sure if I would qualify again. I knew I'd be up against some serious competition and didn't expect to come anywhere. In fact I was a little worried of being last. I set myself some ambitious time targets at the start of the year.
Swim: 33 mins
Bike: 2 hrs 40 mins
Run: 1 hr 40min

The event was held in Slovakia at the X-Bionic Sphere. This is an amazing purpose built hotel and sports facility on the river Danube including full athletics track, Olympic swimming pool, full soccer pitch (the Slovakian team were there on Saturday night) and amazing equestrian facilities.
As we got off the flight and felt the 30 degree heat, someone joked "Paddy doesn't like this heat" - we all laughed ... nervously.

Pre Race: Arrived on the Thursday before the race and was able to soak up the atmosphere around the venue. Put my bike together and went for a short spin to check all was in order. There was a serious pro field in this event with lots of Olympic medalists and lots of IM 70.3 winners. A lot of them were hanging out in the hotel that evening.

I'm sure he'll be putting this picture right beside those 2 medals!

Friday morning was swim practice in the Danube, Swim course was single loop 950 upstream then 950 back downstream. Water temperature was lovely. Did about 800m of an easy swim, marked my sighting landmarks. They had set up a coffee and snack tent for the swim practice which was a nice touch.. Did a short spin and run just to remind the legs of what was coming up. 

Had to check in my bike and my transition bags on Friday evening and caught up with the Irish crew at the Pasta party where they laid on a great spread. 

Bikes in my AG

Sat morning: Breakfast then down to transition to put water and nutrition onto the bike. I made the mistake of checking out the bikes of the others in my wave just before that start. Some serious bikes in my wave so felt slightly intimated.










Race: Had a great swim and glad to see a lot of the expensive bikes still there when I came into T1. 32mins for the 1.9k and in 20th position.

Off on the bike and blitzed the first 3rd with an average speed of 39km/h. Even at that 3 or 4 guys in my Age Group whizzed passed me. It was pretty cool meeting all the pros who were in the first wave coming back against us on the bike Settled into a steady rhythm for the rest. I felt really comfortable. Could feel the sun scorching my back and knew the run was not going to be fun. After about 30k, we crossed the Danube and then cycled on a rough dam road back upstream for 15km then down off the dam and back down and across the river again. Last 3rd of the bike leg, was back into the wind and I started to struggle a bit with 20k to go. I had to battle to stay in a good aero position and had to sit up every few kms. Also, all the relay guys who were a wave behine, started to really power past me at this stage. Did 2hrs30 for the 90k bike . Down to 28 position though.
Into T2 and tried to get as much sun screen onto me as possible, The extra minute in transition saved me a lot of sun burn.

I felt good for the first 2k on the run and actually tought I could run down some of my AG. Then things started to go downhill from there. My quads cramped up nearly straight away. I ran the first 7k lap in a reasonable time but felt awful. The sun was relentless and there was nowhere to hide. It was 32 degrees I found out afterwards from some of the supporters who said they felt uncomfortable even standing in the shade. Everyone was guzzling and soaking themselves at the aid stations. It was like a drinking and drenching competition with a bit of running thrown in. On the second lap I walked through each aid stations taking in ISO then water throwing water over me to try to cool down.  I did manage to run between the aid stations. The run was 3 laps on grass, pavement and a sand racetrack. The sand felt like it was reflecting back the heat from the ground up. By the 3rd lap, I started to suffer from severe cramps in my calfs and quads and had to walk lots of times. The last lap went on for ages in this walk run mode but eventually made it to the finish chute😎 where they had a raised up ramp to cross the finish line. Those three uphill strides dealt a killer blow and I locked up completely just past the finish line. Medics rushed over thinking I was having some kind of seizure but calmed down when I told them it was just cramp. Kind of funny.

1.58 for the half marathon which was 20 mins below my target but happy with this given the conditions and the cramp induced walking.

I was 35th in my age group which I am delighted with.
Very happy with my swim and bike splits and my transitions were pretty good too. I would have been happy with the run if I could have stayed running on that last lap and I put that down to overcooking the bike a little and largely to the heat.
Overall a super organised race and a really great experience.