Eilat Triathlon - before the race...
This is the pre-race report. The race report will follow later on...
I arrived in Eilat on Thursday. This year, teammate Ronit and I were lucky enough to get our room right away. Or at least we thought we were lucky until we saw the room... This year's room was much smaller than last year's. Last year, we'd had a king-sized bed, this year, we had a standard double. Last year, there had been plenty of room for the two of us, Ronit's daughter and our two bicycles. This year, we had to move things around a bit just to be able to fit the bikes in the room. Ok, this was no big deal, but in addition to the smaller room, we also discovered that this was actually an adjoining room and in the other half, there were three boys from the team. These kids are around 13 years old or so and they were staying together -- either their parents hadn't come with them or they were in another hotel. 13-year-old boys are very loud...
I decided to skip the short workout meant to get us familiar with the course (the course that hasn't really changed in the last four years...). Instead, I rested a bit. Later on, I went to the briefing, checked out the expo and then went to our team briefing to get my number. At around 10 p.m., Ronit and I were ready for bed, as our race was on Friday morning. Unfortunately, the three kids in the adjoining room had other ideas. Their race was on Saturday and I guess they thought that Thursday night was a good time to "let loose". Ronit went to their room and asked them to keep it down, but that didn't work. So I went in and in my best "teacher voice", I told them that if they didn't stop screaming and slamming doors, I was calling their parents. That shut them up very quickly and we didn't have any more trouble with them that night, although this scene repeated itself the following day when Ronit and I wanted to rest after the race.
Although it was fairly quiet, I didn't get much sleep on Thursday night. I wasn't feeling at all nervous, so maybe it was just the unfamiliar bed or the fact that the room wasn't completely dark. Or maybe it was Ronit's daughter's watch that beeped on the hour. Whatever it was, I woke up at around 2 and I only got bits and pieces of sleep after that.
At 5:45, my alarm went off and I got out of bed. When I went to turn on the light in the bathroom, I discovered that it didn't work. Neither did the light outside the bathroom or any other light in the room. I somehow managed to find the right button on the phone to call the front desk, but the guy there told me it would be at least 15 minutes before anyone could come to fix our electricity. Note that this hotel was hosting the race and just about everyone in the hotel was racing or officiating or whatever. I told the guy at reception that we didn't have 15 minutes because we had to get into the transition area. He apologized and said that he understood but that there was nothing he could do. So we fumbled around in the dark, trying to light up the bathroom a bit with our cell phones (that didn't help much). Ronit later told me that she dumped an entire tube of toothpaste into the sink.
After getting dressed, I went downstairs to fill my bottles. When I got back up to the room, the lights were on. That evening, long after the race, I discovered what had happened. Some time before dinner, I went up to the room to read. When I opened the door, I noticed that all the lights suddenly came on. I sat on the bed for half an hour or so and then I suddenly found myself in the dark. Because I remembered that the lights had gone on when I'd opened the door (and that they'd been on when I got back from filling my bottles), I tried opening and closing the door and that did the trick. I called reception and the woman there told me that the lights in the room worked on movement sensors. However, she also told me that they were supposed to come on as soon as someone moved in the room, which obviously was not the case for our room. I described what had happened to us earlier in the day and she promised to take care of it. We didn't have any more electricity problems.
Back to race preparation... Once I was ready, I took my bike down the elevator and headed for the transition area, which was pretty much right outside the front door of the hotel. I got checked in and got my stuff ready. We had assigned positions on the rack and I couldn't have asked for a better spot -- I was right next to the bike exit, meaning that I'd hardly have to run at all with my bike. Cool. After getting set up, I went back up to the room for a final trip to the bathroom and then discovered that because we'd taken so long getting ready in the dark, I really didn't have any time for a warm up. I went to the beach and ran maybe 100 meters or so and then did a very quick swim, mainly to see how cold the water was (it was actually pretty pleasant). My stroke felt very "sluggish", but I haven't been swimming well, so this didn't really surprise me too much. Whatever -- it was too late now to even bother thinking about such things. I just got myself together and went to stand on the starting line.
I arrived in Eilat on Thursday. This year, teammate Ronit and I were lucky enough to get our room right away. Or at least we thought we were lucky until we saw the room... This year's room was much smaller than last year's. Last year, we'd had a king-sized bed, this year, we had a standard double. Last year, there had been plenty of room for the two of us, Ronit's daughter and our two bicycles. This year, we had to move things around a bit just to be able to fit the bikes in the room. Ok, this was no big deal, but in addition to the smaller room, we also discovered that this was actually an adjoining room and in the other half, there were three boys from the team. These kids are around 13 years old or so and they were staying together -- either their parents hadn't come with them or they were in another hotel. 13-year-old boys are very loud...
I decided to skip the short workout meant to get us familiar with the course (the course that hasn't really changed in the last four years...). Instead, I rested a bit. Later on, I went to the briefing, checked out the expo and then went to our team briefing to get my number. At around 10 p.m., Ronit and I were ready for bed, as our race was on Friday morning. Unfortunately, the three kids in the adjoining room had other ideas. Their race was on Saturday and I guess they thought that Thursday night was a good time to "let loose". Ronit went to their room and asked them to keep it down, but that didn't work. So I went in and in my best "teacher voice", I told them that if they didn't stop screaming and slamming doors, I was calling their parents. That shut them up very quickly and we didn't have any more trouble with them that night, although this scene repeated itself the following day when Ronit and I wanted to rest after the race.
Although it was fairly quiet, I didn't get much sleep on Thursday night. I wasn't feeling at all nervous, so maybe it was just the unfamiliar bed or the fact that the room wasn't completely dark. Or maybe it was Ronit's daughter's watch that beeped on the hour. Whatever it was, I woke up at around 2 and I only got bits and pieces of sleep after that.
At 5:45, my alarm went off and I got out of bed. When I went to turn on the light in the bathroom, I discovered that it didn't work. Neither did the light outside the bathroom or any other light in the room. I somehow managed to find the right button on the phone to call the front desk, but the guy there told me it would be at least 15 minutes before anyone could come to fix our electricity. Note that this hotel was hosting the race and just about everyone in the hotel was racing or officiating or whatever. I told the guy at reception that we didn't have 15 minutes because we had to get into the transition area. He apologized and said that he understood but that there was nothing he could do. So we fumbled around in the dark, trying to light up the bathroom a bit with our cell phones (that didn't help much). Ronit later told me that she dumped an entire tube of toothpaste into the sink.
After getting dressed, I went downstairs to fill my bottles. When I got back up to the room, the lights were on. That evening, long after the race, I discovered what had happened. Some time before dinner, I went up to the room to read. When I opened the door, I noticed that all the lights suddenly came on. I sat on the bed for half an hour or so and then I suddenly found myself in the dark. Because I remembered that the lights had gone on when I'd opened the door (and that they'd been on when I got back from filling my bottles), I tried opening and closing the door and that did the trick. I called reception and the woman there told me that the lights in the room worked on movement sensors. However, she also told me that they were supposed to come on as soon as someone moved in the room, which obviously was not the case for our room. I described what had happened to us earlier in the day and she promised to take care of it. We didn't have any more electricity problems.
Back to race preparation... Once I was ready, I took my bike down the elevator and headed for the transition area, which was pretty much right outside the front door of the hotel. I got checked in and got my stuff ready. We had assigned positions on the rack and I couldn't have asked for a better spot -- I was right next to the bike exit, meaning that I'd hardly have to run at all with my bike. Cool. After getting set up, I went back up to the room for a final trip to the bathroom and then discovered that because we'd taken so long getting ready in the dark, I really didn't have any time for a warm up. I went to the beach and ran maybe 100 meters or so and then did a very quick swim, mainly to see how cold the water was (it was actually pretty pleasant). My stroke felt very "sluggish", but I haven't been swimming well, so this didn't really surprise me too much. Whatever -- it was too late now to even bother thinking about such things. I just got myself together and went to stand on the starting line.
posted by bari | 21:15
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