World Championship Yokohama, 2nd!
28 August 2009
Dam its hot in Japan!!
Fun in the sun took a whole new meaning over the weekend in Yokohama. Really though, an amazing race in Yokohama with the course, and all the people of the city that came to cheer us on as we suffered in the extreme conditions.
I love Japan! I've raced there so many times before in my triathlon career and always enjoy heading back there. It sure was a difference in cultures going from London directly to Yokohama, But that is also part of being a professional athlete and traveling and racing around the world week after week.
I had struggled all week to recover from the hard race in London 6 days before. I tried to do everything to help my body recover as fast as I could. I had Japanese massages (interesting to say the least!) I drunk so much Powerade, I think you could see it running through my veins. And I had movies going non stop in my room all week long.
The weather had been warm all week, and the humidity was brutal. You just stepped outside the hotel and from one moment to the next you were sweating everywhere. I guessed "warming up" was a bit of a waste of time so to speak, I mean I was already melting from the inside out just to keep cool.
All the boys were here this weekend and a lot were race fresh as they had skipped London. I knew it was going to be on right from the go in the swim, and I had to stay in touch or it could be game over very early on. I found myself back early in the swim but in the front group none the less. Actually, I didnt have to fight too much at all which is always nice. As I exited I noticed a gap had formed and I had to hit the burners a bit heading onto the bike. It took me a bit to bridge up to the front group which formed. But all the key players were in there so it became a case of just waiting for something to happen.
There were a lot of attacks in the first few laps, but they were all short lived. That was until Courtney Atkinson escaped off the front. My plan on a day with these kind of conditions, was to conserve as much energy as I could until the run. I thought this would be the best thing for myself considering the hard run I had in London. But Jan Frodeno and Maik Petzold had other ideas. When they also slipped off the front, and then bridged up to Courtney the race changed. The three of them worked really well over the last 15k and put our big group under pressure. We were not working well at all, and the chase was on and off. The gap just kept going out and out and I started to wonder if I missed the big move. Finally we entered transition 47 seconds behind with just 10k in the sun to go.
I went out early in pursuit of the three in front. Quickly the big group of 30 off the bike was down to just 4. Myself, Javier Gomez, Laurent Vidal and Bevan Docherty. We pushed hard to try to make some time to the front guys. Maiki and Courtney came back pretty early. But Jan just kept his pace high and didn't look like wilting a bit. Javier and I started to surge a lot after 5k, and this hurt all of us, including ourselves a bit I think. At this point we stopped making time to Jan. With one lap to go Jan was still in front by 30 seconds to Javier and Myself. I could see that Jan was looking too good to be caught today. I turned my focus to preparing for the sprint with Javi for the second place on the podium. I knew if I could just hang on, my sprint finish would be strong. The last lap was really hard but I hung on to Javi with everything I could. As we went into the last corner I could see Jan celebrating his win ahead. Now it was my turn! I waited to the last moment and then started to sprint. I think both me and Javi were already to smashed to make a real go of it. But I managed to sneak ahead of him for the silver medal on the day.
It was great to see Jan get up after some bad luck during the year. I knew he was in great shape it just hadn't shown as much as He would have liked it to. It was also great for myself of course. To back up so well after London was a real surprise. And how I felt during the race, and especially on the run was a great feeling.
So another podium in the World Championship series which is great. It also lifts me to 3rd overall for the year before the final in 3 weeks time on the Gold Coast.
I said from the start of the year, I just wanted to stand on the start line in the Gold Coast knowing I had a chance to become a World Champion. Now I have this opportunity, I must focus really hard over these last weeks to make it happen.
Tomorrow starts this last critical training block. Im on the Gold Coast already staying with Bevan, Jan, Laurent and Andrea in an apartment. Its going to be a lot of fun, and I think we will all be able to help each other out in these last weeks for the best.
Hope all is well with everyone these last weeks will fly!!
Kris
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