Sprint World Triathlon Champs Race Report

Hello all

Sorry that i am only now posting last weeks race report. It’s been kind of crazy what with an extremely long bus trip back and going straight into some hectic training.

Last weekend was the first ever Sprint World Championships as well as the Team World Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland and I am proud to say that I was a part of it.

We departed Radovlijca, Slovenia for the 3rd weekend in a row to go race in another European triathlon. By this time I was travelling fit and a 10 hour bus trip felt like nothing. We arrived in Lausanne at about lunch time, we checked into the hotel and then crashed on the beds for a while before going off to race venue for a swim to loosen up our muscles. The water was amazingly clean and very refreshing.
After our swim we made our way to the Olympic museum which was where race briefing was to be held. As I entered the auditorium it dawned on me that I was in the place that I have dreamt about for so long and that this was the start of an amazing journey that will one day, hopefully, take me all the way to the top.
At race briefing Daniel Unger, the 2007 World Champion, sat in front of me, on my right was Tim Don and on my left was Greg Bennet. I started stressing a bit when I saw all my triathlon heroes around me and knowing that I was going to be racing against them the next day was pretty daunting to say the least!
It hit me then that I am now one of the big boys.

Race day was going to be an opportunity to see how I would fare against the best in the world and I was up for the challenge. The mens race was to start at 10h15 and it was going to be very important that I was properly warmed up because the race was going to be so fast.
I started with my warm up about an hour and a half before race start and after a run, swim and cycle I felt like I was ready.
10min before the race start was the athlete presentation where they line you up and announce your name and country. You then run out onto the pontoon and wait for the starting horn. While all this is going on they play the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song. This really makes me stress. Then when everyone is lined up on the pontoon they play an extremely loud heart beat and you think “Oh my goodness- this is it!”
I started on the far right of the pontoon which is a bit out of the way of all the hitting, kicking and grabbing. It means that you swim a bit further, but you stay out of most of the mess and have a bit of clear water ahead of you. I had a good start, just a bit of hitting and then I was clear. Around the first buoy and I was hardly touched. This has never happened to me before and I worried that I was behind the pack, but actually I was in the top 15!
I exited the water in about 15th position and when on the bike I realised that there were only 4 athletes ahead of my pack. I made sure that I was always near the front of the bike pack to stay out of trouble.
There was an extremely nasty climb in each lap – it was about 800m long and 10% gradient – this we did 4 times. On the second lap another pack joined mine and the group swelled to about 40 athletes.
The course was very twisty and technical and it was crazy with so many triathletes cycling at top speeds, but I really enjoyed the entire bike leg.
On the final bike lap everyone was fighting to get to the front so that they could get into transition first. I managed to get myself into about 10th place just before the dismount and next thing I knew I was running with the best in the world. I really tired to stick with those guys, but slowly I started dropping back. I ended up not having a very good run and I finished 41st.
I was happy with my result as I had had a fantastic swim and bike, but then I was told that I had missed ITU points by only 2 seconds. Boy, was I bleak!
After I had forgiven myself I realised that my goal for the year had been to make front pack and then stay there on the bike. This is exactly had I had done. So I think that I can tick that box.
Next year my goal will be points, points and more points.

The next day was an extremely exciting race: World Team Championships.
This is how it works: a team is made up of 4 athletes from each country, 2 girls and 2 guys. Each member of the team completes a super sprint triathlon: 260m swim, 6km bike and a 1.3km run before handing over to the next team member.
We entered the race just to get experience and to have some fun. Andrea Steyn was starting, I was second, then Carlyn Fischer and Wikus Weber was finishing.
Andrea gave us a good start with her fantastic running ability and then I was off. I ran to the pontoon and dived into the mess. I swam like a fish and came out of the water in about 10th spot. We were a small group on the bike and during the first lap I worked too hard and when we hit the hill for the second time my legs just gave up on me. I dropped from the pack and lost about 20 seconds. As I made my way through transition I told myself “Now I’ve got to run like never before!” I ran so hard that I really and truly thought that I was going to die. I was catching the USA athlete and I sprinted past him in the hope of breaking him and I did. I handed over to Carlyn and Wikus finished off the relay. We ended in 14th place.
Well done team!

Now it’s back to training. Only 2 weeks left before World Champs.
Keep on

Jesus Loves you

World Sprint Triathlon Champs

Race Report on ETU Cup in Geneva, Switzerland.

A cold, miserable race in Switzerland

We departed Radovljica on Friday morning in a crazy European thunder shower. The drive to Geneva took us 10 hours and we drove past some picturesque scenery in Italy and France before arriving in Switzerland.
We were staying in a very nive hotel close to the race venua. It was nice to be able to relax and just concentrate on the race.

We arrived quite late afternoon/ evening and immediately went down to the amazingly clear lake for a swim. The water was pretty cold- I get cold very quickly most probably because I am just skin and bones.
I enjoyed swimming in the lake with the swans, ducks and some very big fish. I had great fun during my swim, but didn’t enjoy getting cold.

Race day:
Woke up in the morning and looked ou the window to see what the weather was doing. The roads were wet, but it had stopped raining. Had a good breakfast- put in lots of fuel for the race.

As I was packing all my race gear before leaving the hotel the heavens just open up and God blessed Geneva with rain.
That night the water temperature had dropped below 20 degrees and so it would be a wetsuit swim, which is not an advantage to a good swimmer.
I arrived at race venue, racked my bike and set my transition area up. Then I went for my normal warm up routine.

Warmed up and ready to go. Off we went in to the clean lake. I think the swans and fish got a fright when 77 athletes went running and splashing into their lake.
The first lap of the swim was okay for me as I was in the front pack, but as I went for my second lap I was really freezing. My teeth were chattering violently and slowly I dropped all the way to the back of the second pack.
I got out the water way back and I made my way to my bike shivering all the way.
Out on the bike and I was all by myself in the freezing cold rain. I thought that I may as well make the race into a hrad brick session as I was already out of the race being so far back.
I got so cold on the bike that I was struggling to change gears and pull the brakes. It was not cool!
On the 3rd lap, just over the hill, I got a puncture so I was forced to stop. That was the end of my race or should I say training session.
I started the long walk back to the transition area. I was so icy cold and now my teeth were chattering as though I was using a jack-hammer. My whole body was shaking. Luckily a van came by and picked me up. Back at the start I met Emma, the HP manager, she saw me shivering on my way to her and she went and got me something warm to eat and I felt a bit better after that.
I went back to the hotel for a shower and stood in it for about 40min just trying to defrost. I was so pleased to see my fingers and toes as I thought I had lost them along the road.
Oh well, that was one of those days that you can do nothing about. You just try and learn as much as you can from the experience and maybe now I will cope better with a cold race.

You know what I say: “Praise God when you win and praise God when you lose”.

Well done to Richard Murray who finshed 24th and Carlyn Fischer 20th. I am proud of you. Well done.

Keep on

Sorry i dont have photos of the race but here is some of me training in Geneva.

Big Race, Big Hill, In Switzerland Geneva

After a long drive over the swiss alps we got to the city of Geneva. The water in the lake is so clear i think it is were all the drinking water in the world comes from.

We have a BIG and Long Hill on the bike course but the rest of the course is flat and fast.

Here is some photos of me doing some training on the corse.

Swimming

Swimming

Keep on

My 1st ITU World Cup, Tiszaujvaros, Hungary.

Hello

Our long journey began on Friday morning at 3:45 when we departed from our training base in Slovenia.

It was a long 10hr bus trip to the small town in Hungary that loves triathlon. When we arrived the vibe was just pumping and all the townspeople were so amped. I was getting so excited for my 1st World Cup race and the idea of racing with the big boys.

My race got off to a good start; I was standing next to a Russian and when we hit the water I saw this speed boat start accelerating so I threw my ski rope around him and enjoyed the ride. I held on until about 50m to the first buoy and then I dropped off his feet, I just next to the big pack of guys. Around the first buoy was chaos as usual as I just got feet and elbows in the face. I was in the top 25 at the start of the second lap. During the second lap I slowed down a bit, but I pretty much held my position and exited the water in the top 30.

I was happy to be in the front pack on the bik and I just made sure I was in the top 20 guys to stay out of the chaos of the big pack. 5 guys made a break pretty early on and pretty much all the groups joined together to make a huge pack of 60 athletes. I was very comfortable on the bike- the only time that I got a bit nervous was during the last lap where everyone wants to get to the front for a fast T2. I was close to the front of the group when I dismounted, had a quick transition and off I went on my 10km run. The front guys seemd to go off extremely quickly, but that was the pace that they would hold for the whole run.
I just settled into a rhythm and I was building the pace and started reeling in some of the athletes. On my second lap I saw my number on the penalty box which meant that I had been given a 15 second penalty. You can choose when you want to take the penalty and as I was starting to cramp in my left hamstring I decided to stop then and stretch it out while taking the penalty. It seemed to work pretty well as I then bolted off and ran my fatsest ever 10km in a triathlon. It turned out that quite a few of the guys had received penalties for mounting their bikes before the bike mount line.

I was extremely happy with result. It seems as though the last 5 months of training have really paid off. The best thing about the race was that I had so much fun and enjoyed the entire race. i think the reason that I enjoyed it so much was that I just went out to praise God and thank him that I was able to race.

Here are my results and the results of the other South Africans who raced over the weekend. Congratulations to all of them.

17 Claude Eksteen RSA 01:50:16 :18:26 00:59:29 00:31:35
53 Theo Blighaut RSA 01:52:32 00:18:31 00:59:26 00:33:47
61 Wikus Weber RSA 01:54:20 00:18:42 00:59:16 00:35:31

It is back to training this week before heading off to Switzerland for a European Cup race. I hope to enjoy that race as much as I did this some!

Thanks to all of you who were supporting me from South Africa. I heard you all the way in Hungary:)

Keep on

Jesus Loves you

Radovljica, Slovenia My New Home For 7 Weeks

Hi all

After a long 20hr trip we finally arrived at our training base
Radovljica, Slovenia. When we got here it was pouring down with rain.
It was so nice to see water falling out of the sky again. I just
wanted to jump out of the bus and baptize myself, coming from Pretoria
I haven’t seen rain in months now.

I woke up the next day nice rested from the long travel. All the
athletes went for an amazing swim in the 50m swimming pool. When you
look up to the clock you see forest and mountains surrounding us. Now
that’s the way to start a day of training!
I was very glad to see that my bike had made the trip in one piece and
that my CycleOps power meter is working.

I didn’t join the group for a ride as I am keeping to my usual
training program and also trying to be a bit rested for this weekend’s
race. I just took my bike out to have a look at the town. Then in the
afternoon I went for a run along the river.

We going to be here until Friday and then we head of to Tiszaujvaros,
Hungary were I am going to race my first World Cup. I am so keen to
race now.

It’s so hard not to go out and train in the amazing mountains before
my big race this weekend. Oh well, I still have 7 weeks here to do all
the training that I want.

Here are some photos of my new town and my house.

Keep on

EUROPE HERE I COME

I am all ready and packed for my Europe trip (well almost). It was a hard and cold end to my winter training block. I couldn’t be happier with how I have improved from the beginning of the year. It is so nice when you work so hard and you can see the improvement in your training. But I need to say that it is not easy to drag yourself out of your warm bed in the freezing cold and go suffer 4-6 hours of training every day. The getting out there is hard, but I honestly enjoy every minute of the training.

My running training has been going very well. I have been doing some crazy track sessions lately. My hardest track session that I have ever done in my life was a week ago. It started off like this: 4x1000m, 2x2000m and to end off a killer set I did a 4km that caused me the most pain I have ever felt in running. My body was so sore after that session it felt like a 10 ton truck has driven over me and then reversed only to repeat that about 5 times. This is just one of the crazy sets that I have been doing. My coach Lindsey Parry didn’t care if I was dying or if I was already dead. He just said, “Bru, that’s good running”. Thanks to Lindsey for being there when I was dying and when I was dead he was there to pick me up and say “Good session”.
This past week I did my 3km time trial and I am getting faster every time I do it. I ran a 9:26 in a big wind.

I will be leaving the country tomorrow night. I will first spend a week at our training base in Slovenia and will prepare for my first World Cup race in Tisaujvaros, Hungary. It’s going to be a hard opening race for me but I believe I am ready.

I will try my best to keep my blog updated and you can follow me on twitter (TheoBlignaut)

Thanks for all the support. I will race hard over there.

Keep on

Here is a photo from today’s mini tri brick session