First short track ever, and this happened at World Champs. Super excited about my first short track ever qualification I had to take the after party a little bit easier.
Sunday 2nd of October, I got up at 8 in the morning to checkout the short track race course. It was 2 laps of 200m swimming, 4 laps of 2km mountainbiking and 2 laps of 1,5km running. The course was awesome, some technical features like a sandy beach section, some jumps, a log-garden, a pump track and some big ramps. I checked in my bike and running shoes in transition and watched the girls race. Such an intense racing but extremely motivating.
The mens short track race took off at 3pm, 25 Elite men ran into the water to fight for the front. I found a good pace, much better than the day before and managed to exit the water in 19th position.
Took off my wetsuit quickly, put on my helmet and jumped onto my bike. Pushed the pedals hard straight away and overtook 2 guys exiting transition. It was a big pack, and the pace was so high and intense that it was hard to overtake. The beach section was slippery and I had to be careful to stay on the track. The little steep uphills were pain in the legs, I wasn't sure if its better to stand up or to sit in the saddle. I had a solid bike performance with 18th, came back into transition and changed into my running shoes.
Now it was all about the run, and the pace was once again very high. As I never did such short racing before it was a completely new experience for me. The heard rate was high and I was aiming for air. The legs felt good and 90% of the run I couldn't overtake someone in front of me, but also didn't loose a spot. 200m before the finish line I felt some pain in my chest and couldn't run my pace anymore. Got overtaken by a few athletes and finished 22nd, just like the day before.
This was fun, I love short track and I am looking forward to do more of them next year.
