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[austria2016]

How to eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

[austria2016]

Pirassununga Race Report

Pirassununga is a city located 212.6 km from São Paulo, there are three events in the same weekend, short distance triathlon, half marathon and a long distance triathlon. All the events occurs inside a military air base, situated a little bit far from Pirassununga downtown.

Pre Event

The long distance race is on Sunday, but the registration should be done Saturday. You can ask someone to do it for you, so it’s possible to spend Saturday resting. Anyway, registration is very well organized and shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. Bike check-in should be done on Sunday, between 6AM and 7:50AM, race starts at 8AM. I get into the event site 6:15AM, more than enough time to park the car, assembly the bike and transition bag, prepare the nutrition, talk with friends and for a swimming warm up.

Swim Leg

The swim leg occurs in a lake, the water is clean, the temperature is very comfortable and definitely a wetsuit isn’t needed. Before the race starts, it’s a good habit to swim a little bit to check water conditions, it’s easily done. Then the gun goes off, and all hell breaks loose - definitely not - the beginning of the swimming leg was so peaceful, one by one the athletes started to swim towards the first buoy. There were two buoys and the route is composed of two laps. In a surprising turn of events I was rather enjoying it,  I was relaxed and trying to live in the moment. My Swim leg time: 39:55

Bike Leg

The route is almost plan, it consists of 4 laps (22.5km each), there is only one climb where is needed to slow down, it’s easy to identify, there’s a church at the beginning of the climb (thanks to a gym friend for the advice). It’s not difficult to go fast, but attention is needed cause in some places there are many failures into the asphalt pavement and also some speed bumps (lot’s of people losing their water bottles in these). There is only one aid station with water and gatorade, the volunteers were well trained to hand over the bottles. I love riding my bike and the feeling of the wind touching my face, this is my favourite (and strongest) leg by far, it’s me and my Cervélo against the world. My Bike leg time: 2:45:27

Run Leg

Image that you believe in heaven and hell, you are not a good person and you die. What happens then? You go to Pirassununga for a half marathon, at 12PM (I don’t know about the temperature, but it was very hot). There’s a small climb at the beginning, then the route is all the way plan and consists of two laps. The visual is very strange, sometimes you run across dirty roads, surrounded by sugarcane (or corn, not sure), without any shadow to cool down. There are aid stations at each 2 km, most part of the water goes to the head to cool down instead of the mouth. I was feeling great at the beginning, but after 10km some cramps forced me to walk, then it was a fight until the finish line, walking and running.  My Run leg time: 2:09:05

The race data is available under the following: Strava Swim, Strava Bike, Strava Run or Garmin MultiSports

[austria2016]

What does your body really need to do the repair after an awesome workout? Nutrition, massage, sleep? I think words or phrases expressing love and affection do a great job!

I'm joking but I’m dead serious.