Race Report 70.3 World Championship Finland, Lahti.
The WORLD CHAMPS! Sounds big – and in fact it was! Over 6000 participants on the start line was just massive. Even more massive, if you see the Finish Сity of Lahti in perspective with around 120k inhabitants only!
Pre Race
A lot of athletes had to find accommodations outside the city. Just like us – a team of 9 – living in small wooden cabins in the woods – further away from the city than expected.
The city itself is quite a rural city – not a tourist destination, but lovely situated at one of the thousand lakes of Finland.
Our accommodation was quite far (50min from race start), next time I would advise to check out the bike course and if you go far away – at least look for a place close to the bike route. OR a lot of people rented a campervan, which turned out to be a convenient solution as well. Weather was around 18 degrees and partly rainy – which means – very cold for Dubai hot-weather-triathletes. All check-in procedures went very smooth, good organization, loads of volunteers to help.
A practice swim was offered on all 3 days prior to Saturday’s race. Unfortunately, it was not on the actual swim racecourse, so it didn’t help in terms of sighting. Furthermore a few people including me got a little stomach sick before the race, which might have been due to some lake water swallowing. Apparently there was some bird flu and not the very best race preparation, but there is always something going wrong, isn’t there?
Race Day
Saturday morning was a very foggy morning, so race start got delayed by an hour until the view of the lake was clear again. First time actually jumping into the water – definitely should have practiced that before. Had to adjust my goggles straight after, but didn’t lose much time. Overall, it wasn’t my best swim due to bad sighting and a few extra meters.
Coming out of the waters, I did miss the wetsuit strippers, too focused to even see them. Bike course was a 90km loop – first 30k straight on the highway and rest of the course onto smaller streets with just a few turns. Overall, not a technical route at all, but with loads of rollercoaster hills, which I really loved. The women were luckier with the weather than the men on the next day, still it was quite cold and I did not mange to defrost my feet post swim. Other than that – I absolutely enjoyed the bike ride. Since my stomach didn’t feel great in Marbella, this time I paid attention to take my nutrition in regularly every 15minutes and mix it with some water straight afterwards.
I used my usual STEALTH Big Energy Mix (Watermelon) and consumed 80g carbs per hour, which worked well. I stayed within my target power and moved confident through the field. Got slightly distracted by all the beautiful bikes out there, but managed to catch up quite a few ranks after my bad swim. Mentally the bike is always the easiest for me – it’s mostly a plan & execute kinda thing. The one phrase in my head is quite simple: “Just do your thing and stick to the plan”. Over and out – Rank 19 for the bike in my AG – happy with that!
Now onto the run – first 10 minutes are always the most interesting for me. Do the legs show up or not? How does the stomach feel about running a half marathon now? In the races I’ve done, I mostly knew in the first 10 minutes, what kind of run I’m going to have… and this time – I felt my feet defrosted after 5 minutes and I surprisingly felt good. I’ve seen the course was quite hilly from the profile, but I didn’t test it before and well… it was indeed HILLY. Starting with a looong uphill stretch of 1.5k followed by some downhill stretches and a few more uphills. My strategy was not to go too fast uphill and then use the speed on the downhill with long strides.
It’s great to have the women’s and men’s race on different days so you can cheer for each other. Loved seeing the crowds, the team and even some finish singing and dancing grannies on all the 3 loops. When I saw my team first and they were not shouting any rank and timings, I already knew – “damn – this field is tough – you must be quite far behind”. I must admit, I’m quite spoiled and used to be at least in the top ranks in my AG, but well it’s a World Champs after all! On my second loop, at least they told me rank 30 with a dense field, so I tried my best to increase the pace and give it all I had.
I found a good pacer on the way, who unfortunately stopped just on the last lap. I tried to cheer her up (I needed her!), but in the end I had to continue alone. Crowds were cheering along the way, some Finish grandmas in traditional clothing were singing and even dancing in the garden. Very positive and nice atmosphere with decent weather (which means no rain)!
I finished my run on 29th rank in my AG and I am extremely happy with my performance (except for the swim, but a good swim, would have moved me a few ranks only). Overall, there were a few very strong AG athletes, who were able to hold up with some pros and a very dense middle field. I heard from other athletes, who participated in the World Champs before, that the level was a lot higher than it used to be. Probably to the development of the sport and a very strong European field in a convenient location.
Would I do it again?
I am still not 100% sure, if I would take a slot to the World Champs in New Zealand next year. Entry fee is quite expensive (around 750EUR) and accommodations are hard to get and will probably be pricey because of the amount of people participating… and not to forget logistics…
Getting there was quite smooth, but going back from a relatively small airport with 6000 plus bikes turned out to be a nightmare for most athletes in Helsinki. We flew back via Talinn, but from the people flying back via Helsinki – only half of them received their bikes at the destination airport. Airlines were overwhelmed with the number of bikes and were not able to deliver on time.
By Lea Mex