A Beautiful Day in the Office.

After such a warm welcome and beautiful course last year at the XL Triathlon in Gerardmer, (Vosges region of France) I knew I had to return but I hadn’t banked on so many others making the same decision!  It is a credit to the race organizers and people of the town that so many professional and age-group athletes decided to come to Gerardmer, when there are a multitude of other races to choose from.  One of the things I really liked about the race last year was that it has the professional feel and running of an Ironman race but it is more friendly and low-key at the same time.  This year, the race on Saturday was also the French Long Distance Championships and the weekend long triathlon festival is finished off with an Olympic distance race and kids races on Sunday morning with relay options on both days, so there is something for everyone.

My race season has been slow to take off this year with a serious back injury forcing me to take four months off and my training started very slowly again in January.  It is so easy to think you are invincible and will bounce back within a couple of months but combined with the pressures of work, it really has taken me a good six months to feel race ready again.  After a couple of ½ Ironman races in Germany through the summer, I was now feeling ready to compete again plus I was excited to have my parents visiting from the UK and my boyfriend over from Germany to watch me race this year.  I finally looked at the start list a few days before we drove over to the race and couldn’t believe how many athletes were racing.  Nina Kraft was always going to be the favorite especially after her convincing return to racing at the German National Long Distance Championships a month ago in Klumbach.  She was closely followed by Lisbeth Kristensen fresh off winning the European Long Distance Championships and Bella Comerford, (who placed a second), Nicole Klinger last year’s XL winner,  Mariska Kramer (Ironman France champion 2005 & second 2006) and this is before you even start to list the French women gunning for the National title.  Estelle Leroi must have been confident after her win at Embrunman early this summer and Alexandra Louison, last years ½ Ironman Monaco winner was also ready to show her 5th place at Ironman France in June was no mistake.  All in all there were 28 professional women on the start line which I think is the largest pro field I have raced against in a long course race… it was going to be a good day of racing.

After some thunder clouds threatened when we arrived on Thursday night, Friday morning was all clear blue skies and perfect weather. All my pre-race preparations went well and I was feeling fresh and ready to go.  It is always hard to tell how you will feel come race day.  I had been a little nervous on Thursday as I had been running around all week following my coaching commitments at World ITU Championships in Lausanne the weekend before and having lots of people in town but by Friday evening I felt good.  Race morning dawned clear although it was really chilly first thing as we all headed to transition and the race start.   The swim starts halfway up the lake from the boat club and it takes you to the end of the lake before zig-zaging all the way back down to make up the 4km swim.  

As appears to be normal in France, we had a nice start of running across some stones to make a dramatic start photo, but I got away well.  The pace was pretty solid and a couple of times, I wondered whether I was going too hard but by halfway, I started to feel strong and went to the front of the group finally emerging in 58minutes……6th female out of the water.  Nina was way up the road 6minutes ahead of me together with Joanna Daumas (FRA) and there were 3 other women 2minutes ahead.  Bella came out just behind me so I was in good company.  The best part of my race ended up being my transition (quickest of the day) which is something I have been working on…clearly time to focus on the bike now!!  I felt pretty good going out onto the bike and the first climb comes really quickly, although it’s really beautiful and climbs for about 3km up through the forest.  Bella had disappeared by this point but I managed to pass one of the girls who came out of the water ahead of me on the climb and I settled into my own pace.  A quick thanks to the efficiency of the local government in re-surfacing one of the only flatter sections of the loop with big chips making for tougher riding than it should have been combined with a nice headwind.  As always, it’s the same for everyone as I kept reminding myself.  I had a couple of chain issues and had to get off the bike twice so I took real care changing for the rest of the bike as I definitely didn’t have time to spend on the side of the road.

Last year at this race, I remember a lot of women going past me by 20km and it was a relief to get over the second climb which was also about 3km and still be in the same position.  There is a nice 11km descent in La Bresse although it wasn’t as quick as last year with the headwind…still trying to work out why we seemed to have a headwind all the way round the loop?  The final climb of the lap is about 6km and I remembered feeling horrible here last year and getting passed by even more women so it was great to feel strong and be holding onto my place.  Coming through town is always fun as there are so many spectators and it was cool to see my parents and Christian as I flew past a coffee shop…(note to self, give them some abuse about not passing me one!)

The second and third lap were pretty uneventful except I was passed by a couple of girls including Nicole who had out-biked me by a good 20minutes last year.  I managed to hold onto her for a lap and finally got back past with 30km to go….that felt good.  I finally came into T2 after 4hrs23 on the bike and in 9th place.  I really wanted to hold onto a top 10 and set out at a good pace but by 5km I wasn’t feeling so light on my feet and focused on trying to hold my pace and do the best I could to hold some form.  The run is four laps which is mentally tough as one lap seems to take ages and you just keep thinking, man still three to go!!  I like the course though as it goes around the lake and has an out and back at the far end.  Most of the run is under the trees so it never seems really hot even though by the look of Christian and my parents rosy faces that night, it was clearly really hot out in the sun. 

I pushed as hard as I could on the run and even though I had the 7th fastest run (1hr27) out of the women it wasn’t enough to hold off 3 women, who got past me.  I finished up in 12th place completely spent as normal and straight off to lie in the medical tent……My Mum eventually found me and I had one of the best and longest post-race massages ever so thank you to the girl who looked after me…awesome.  Nina ended up winning the race with Bella a close second and Joanna hung on for third place and the French title.  Full race results at www.triathlondegerardmer.com

After an up-and-down year racing, I was very happy with my result despite missing my top 10 and at the end of the day, you can only do the best you can and can’t control your competition.  I still need to work on my biking but it’s getting there and the course climbed 2500m this year so was anything but the flat/rolling courses I am normally stronger over……maybe I will be able to turn into a bit of climber after all especially now I am spending more time training in Europe.  One of the other great things about this course is the lack of drafting partly due to the staggered start this year but also all the climbing and plenty of marshals out on the course…thanks to them for making it a fair race which is never guaranteed these days.  Time to bring on more training in the mountains and see you at the races………

Happy Training

Claire

Support crew all ready to go.

Swim start.

Out of the water.

Heading out on to lap 3.

It’s a tough life supporting these races!!!

Finish shoot finally!!!