Photo by Nigel Roddis/Getty Images 4:07:18 1st
Swim 27:17 2nd
Bike 2:14:29 1st
Run 1:20:44 1st
Race morning was cold, windy and rainy but the location and backdrop more than made up for the weather conditions. Set in front of the historic Kronberg Castle, the ominous weather set the scene for a dark and fierce European Championship. The women were allowed to jump into the water after the mens race started - 3minutes before our race start. Take away the time to pee in my wetsuit and the minute sculling on the start line, there wasn't much of a 'warm up'. The course was one of the best swim courses I’ve done. It was a tight and twisty course with turns every one or two hundred meters. The entire 1.9k swim was inside the boat harbour making for an awesome spectator-friendly swim. The windy conditions made the water surprisingly choppy considering you'd expect it to be protected in the harbour. Even though I'd studied the "drunken child's crayon drawing swim course" as Paul Kaye described it, several times before the race I still had to stop a couple of times to double check I was heading for the right turn buoys.
Swim 27:17 2nd
Bike 2:14:29 1st
Run 1:20:44 1st
Race morning was cold, windy and rainy but the location and backdrop more than made up for the weather conditions. Set in front of the historic Kronberg Castle, the ominous weather set the scene for a dark and fierce European Championship. The women were allowed to jump into the water after the mens race started - 3minutes before our race start. Take away the time to pee in my wetsuit and the minute sculling on the start line, there wasn't much of a 'warm up'. The course was one of the best swim courses I’ve done. It was a tight and twisty course with turns every one or two hundred meters. The entire 1.9k swim was inside the boat harbour making for an awesome spectator-friendly swim. The windy conditions made the water surprisingly choppy considering you'd expect it to be protected in the harbour. Even though I'd studied the "drunken child's crayon drawing swim course" as Paul Kaye described it, several times before the race I still had to stop a couple of times to double check I was heading for the right turn buoys.
Out of the water in second place, I heard I was about 2:45 behind Helle, which was about what I'd expected. The run from swim exit to bike was a loooong way. Half way to our bikes we got to have a sit down though (if you chose to) on the benches at our transition bags. I quickly found my goodies, replaced my helmet with wetsuit and hung my bag back up before I continued on the long journey to bike transition. Out the back of Elsinore, around the grassy field, by Kronberg castle, past the little remote pebble beach, and then finally into the back of the bike transition compound. Once in the compound, it was only another couple hundred meters to my bike and I was finally on my way to the scenic bike ride through the Danish country roads.
Photo by Suunto The bike course started out heading North along the coastline, reasonably flat for the first half hour before we headed inland through some awesome rolling hills and tight windy roads. The roads were wet and it was lightly drizzling so I tried to ride a little more cautious than usual especially after I nearly overshot the first tight corner. That sign saying "get off your aero bars" was legit! Then a little later on I'd taken my eyes off the road for a second and found myself in the gravel on the side of the road and had to make the decision of when to safely bunny hop back up onto the road. The bike course was enjoyable. It was interesting scenery, challenging terrain up and down short punchy hills, and constantly changing direction. Never a dull moment.
At 50k I heard a split that I was still 2min behind Helle. I was surprised that I hadn’t made much ground back on her yet so I began to push the pace for the final 40k. Over the next 20k I got more and more splits yelled out at me as we came back into town to begin our second shorter bike loop. This was helpful and relieving to hear the splits coming down through 1.30min, to 1min, to 30sec. With about 3-4k to go, I was happy to get a visual on Helle up ahead. I continued pushing passed to take the opportunity to get a jump on T2. It was a quick last couple k’s as we winded back down into town.
Photo by Søren Damving T2 had bike catches which was a nice change for a 70.3 and meant I didn’t have to dirty my socks any more running a mile around transition in the grass and dirt. Straight to the transition bags, change to run shoes, I was out on to the run course. It started with a lap around Kronberg Castle. Crushed gravel trails, tight turns, weaving in and around the old castle walls. From there the run course took a series of snaking turns all through the old down town streets. Cobble stones and old buildings, heaps of spectators, even people cheering from tiny windows high above the streets. I never knew where I was on the course as we winded up, down, in and around but it made it go by pretty quickly. 3.5 laps made the course heavily congested on the last couple laps so I got some good side stepping practice (since it's Soccer World Cup time and all) but all-in-all still a very enjoyable course.
The weather had cleared up by the end with the sun starting to shine through. The last couple of km's finished with one last trip around the castle before heading into the finish. By now the course was so packed I had to signal to the age groupers I was turning off... " this is my turn" as I put my left arm out to indicate I was heading for the finish chute while they continued straight on. I ran down the red carpet to grab the winners banner. I was stoked to win my third European Championship. Denmark put on a great event on an awesome course and I hope to be back again some day. Now that my last hard brick session is done, I can put my feet up and recover for Ironman Nice in 7 days times.
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