Switzerland 2006 World Championships

Firstly Switzerland is a magnificent country. Absolutely beautiful! A few national identities: Green Mountains, water, cows, cheese & chocolate (very deadly), watches, coo-koo-clocks, and swiss army knives. That just about sums it up.

I arrived in Lausanne on Monday 27 August- a few days before the race which was on Saturday. I thought I was going to have to acclimatize to a temperature somewhat hotter than the Canberra winter but it turns out it was cold, overcast and raining…..with a temperature and climate somewhat like….yep Canberra. It turns out I had been training in perfect weather for preparation for Switzerland. Excellent- Just the way I like it (!!?). (Although that was only the first couple of days- it was much nicer by wed arvo for the whole rest of the trip- sunny and in the 20’s). I trained with the Auzzie team swimming in wetsuits (wasn’t happy with that one) in Lake Geneva, cycling the course with Police escorts, and running the very flat 4 x 2.5km lap run course along the waterfront.

I was struck unlucky on Wednesday when watching the aquathon (which in the women’s we took out 1st and 2nd). I ate a chicken kebab which unfortunately didn’t sit well and before I knew it I had my head in the bowl and was spewing my guts up. Thursday was recovery day literally. Friday was much the same while trying to get some food and training in.

Saturday finally came around- it was a very late starting race for us age groupers. My wave started at 2pm. Which was different to the 7-8am starts that we usually have! The transition was the longest transition I had ever seen! It was 800m one way- all the bikes lined up along one road. But it was worse than that- not only did we have to run up it one way but they decided we would also run back. So T1 ended up being 1600m- which is no wonder people were all caught up wondering whether we should take off our wetsuits as soon as we got out of the water or after about 1200m of the transition.

The start was deep water- holding onto an extended pontoon. The waves were so far apart there was no one else in the water. The horn blew and we were off- I had a good swim actually. From very early there were 3 of us out the front but really spread out. One girl started pulling away and I really wanted to go with her but she was far out to the right and I thought she would have to come into the centre where I was, to go around the buoy but by the time we got to the buoy she was already too far in front. I should have moved out to the right to catch her though. Anyway after half way I was sitting in 3rd – I had no idea if anyone was drafting off me or not I felt pretty alone. But it turned out there was a girl behind me who picked up the pace when we were coming into the last 200m. We pretty much came out together. I ended up taking my wetsuit off as soon as I could- before the huge run- which proved to be a good idea. After running the 1.6km transition and having an awesome one- I came out 2nd. My ride started really well. It was a 4 lap course with a nice 10.5 gradient hill plus another hill straight after it. In the practices it really wasn’t too bad but in the race- by the 4th one I had had enough. I started feeling the gut about half way into the ride when I thought about taking my Gu. After attempting to take it-without much success (i just couldn’t stomach it) - I just faded. My stomach was churning and I couldn’t stop burping!! I got passed by a Claire Goldsmith (Auzzie who ended up coming 2nd in 20-24) and Michelle soon after on the last lap of the bike. But by then I was feeling pretty sick and weak (my lack of food the past few days had taken its toll) so I couldn’t respond and just kept ‘plodding’ along.

T2 and as soon as I jumped off the bike and started to run my gut cramped and I was thinking awesome… I haven’t even started the 10km and I’m about to vomit!! Anyway I hadn’t come to Lausanne and trained my ass off for the last few months for nothing and said to myself I was going to keep going until I finished even if I did need to spew a few times along the way (which thankfully didn’t happen). And I did finish and for that I was very proud- during the run I seriously didn’t know whether I would end up finishing. The beauty of age group racing- I had no idea where I was coming. As I suspected I was sick as soon as I stopped after the finish line. (Sorry for having to witness that shell!). When they told me I had won I couldn’t believe it! To be honest I was thinking what happened to the rest of them!? I was just lucky I was in such great shape compared to my age group before I got to Switzerland and the race. I was disappointed with my times because I know I could have gone faster. But it’s all experience and there really isn’t much you can do about it. I did learn though not to eat chicken kebabs close to a race next time. Compared to Hawaii- the beach, the sun and the life along the coast so close to the race sight was awesome and there was a much bigger tridents team in Hawaii. Although Steve, Rach, Shell and I had an awesome time it is always good to have a big team and lots of people you know. (So everyone… hint hint worlds is in Hamburg, Germany next year). But anyway… it was a beautiful country (with lots of hills that we had to walk up to get anywhere although we did discover the buses by the end)- for anyone thinking about going to Europe- it is a mixture of Germany, France and Italy- you get the best of all of them.

So whats next? Noosa 29 October- can’t wait!

Kat ;)