It's been raining for 2 days, the route is soaked, and the water and outside temperatures are cold. I've been competing at the state championships again for 6 years. 3 days before I visited the running and cycling route at the “Baggersee Rossau” in Innsbruck. The trails were dry and fast, the route wasn't very demanding and I knew that I had to really accelerate to be at the front.
But then the rain came and the cards were reshuffled on race day. The precipitation turned a fast and easy route into a technical and slow route. Concentration was required not only on the downhills but also on the uphills. Due to the temperatures, the cycling and running routes were shortened by one lap each, so we had to complete 2 laps in the water, 4 laps on the bike and 3 laps in the running shoes.
I started the race quickly and really pushed myself while swimming. I was able to hold on well for the first 300m, then I had to take it off and came out of the water in 6th place after the 1000m. I quickly switched to my mountain bike and everything was still nice and clean, but the mud fight began within the first few meters. Constant dirt on my face made it difficult to find the perfect line. On the flat sections I reached speeds of over 40kmh - very unusual in cross triathlon. I even made a mistake: I lost my handlebars and fell, which briefly took my focus off the race. After that I found a good pace again and came back into the transition zone in second place.
I lost almost 3 minutes to the leader and was 4 minutes behind at the start of the run. I knew that my legs were fast on the run and started to catch up. With the fastest running time of the day I was able to make up a lot of ground, but in the end I was still over 1 minute short of overall victory. However, I am really happy with the runner-up national championship title (2nd out of all participants), and as an extra bonus I won the Austrian championship title in my age group (M30-34) and second place in the team ranking with my teammates Martin Rhen and Petra Rhen.