Tristar 200 Andalucia was my last event of the year after I decided to skip Ironman 70.3 World Championships. The Tristar race was something totally different than what I or anyone has ever done.
Starting with a 169km bike, the race was draft legal and very competitive from the beginning. Obviously I had an advantage from my cycling background as the format was basically a bike race followed by a short 1km swim and a deathmarch 30km run down a beach. The bike section I knew was where I had to leave my mark.
Lining up on the start, I took the front row and basically kept that same position all the way to the finish. When the race began, it was still completely dark! And with about 200 athletes in the group, I was not risking anything and immediately went on the attack. It took a few tries but after about 15 minutes, I had established a group of three that built a significant advantage before the sun even came up. That was an experience I will never forget, racing out of the start town into the rolling hills when there was NO light. Crazy experience.
During the bike, there were four sprints for money. 500, 300, and 100€ for each sprint. I took this very seriously as I knew my fitness might not keep me going all the way to the finish for a overall placing. My goal was to clean up the sprints then hold onto my advantage as long as possible and suffer to the finish.
Everything went EXACTLY to plan as I won the first, second, and fourth sprints plus finished 2nd in the third bike sprint. There were also sprints just after the swim and 10kms into the run. Both of those I managed to get 2nd or 3rd.
By the end of the bike, I was pretty tired from working so hard to get the sprint money. And when I entered the water ever muscle in my lower body started to cramp. I was able to swim ok until about 3/4 of the way through the cross river swim, but then the cramping really started. 'Oh shit' I was thinking. I came to a complete stop and started to scream. I was sinking and was honestly nervous I would need to be pulled from the water. A boat came over to help but I tried to relax so I could complete the swim. After a couple minutes sitting in the water, I managed to start moving again, although the legs were still completely cramped.
I saw one guy pass me when I was standing still and I wanted to catch him again so I could get the swim sprint money. I swam super hard just to catch him then tried to run up the beach to the sprint line. OUCH... what a deadly slow sprint. We were both cramping so badly. I still do not know who won that sprint but after we both were lying on the ground in extreme pain from all the cramping.
Sitting in the transition tent floor trying to get shoes on was the next challenge. It took another couple minutes to get the shoes on as the legs were still completely cramped. However, once I got started on the run, things starting to loosen up a little.
Having won so many sprints already, I felt like champion. In fact, I had already decided my day was done and I just needed to get to the finish in order to get my sprint money. I took my time at every feed station on the brutally hot run along the beach and even walked for a little while when my stomach started to have problems, but going into the last 10 kms I started to feel better and picked up the pace. Basically I was bored and wanted to get to the finish faster.
I had been calculating how many people had caught me on the run and I believed I was already outside of the top 5 which were eligible for final placing prize money. I did try to keep my pace solid during the run in case someone in front of me started to have problems. But I never believed I would get into the top 5. To my surprise, after finishing, I found out the a couple of the guys who had passed me were disqualified for missing some of the course. I ended up in 5th place because of that!
The day was filled with incredible suffering but I was immensely happy to finally take home some decent prize money. I had worked very hard for that and it felt great.
Now I am on my fall vacation and wondering what adventures I will find for next year. The Tristar 200 event opened my eyes to the triathlon world outside of Ironman. Now I am hoping to find similar events for next year that are competitive but still offer a chance to make a living. With a young child and a house loan (still in the process of buying the house now) I would love to make a basic living from racing triathlon but it seems quite difficult to do so. Finding a sponsor from Finland is basically impossible, so I either need to win every race I enter, or keep a 2nd job, which is also hard to find in Finland these days.
I will try to keep writing about how my plans for next year come. The off-season this year will be a busy one with my wife finishing up medical school, our attempts at buying a house, my attempt at finding reliable income, and my everyday job of taking care of 15 month old girl.
Best,
Darby
