Spain – Part 1: The Race

Hola peeps! Other than my luggage being lost for 12 hrs and a nasty cold I brought home, we had a fantastic trip to Spain.  (as documented by a bajillion pictures we took….)

The catalyst for the trip was so the hubs could complete in the World Duathlon Championships held in Gijon.  I don’t think I mentioned this but he has been injured (tear in his hip) and had to limit almost all of his run training and had to drop to the sprint distance for the race.  Anti-inflammatory meds have been a staple in his diet for the past month.

The event started with the opening ceremonies in the town square.  There were over 1100 athletes who competed from around the world, approx 50 of which were from Canada.  Our uniforms were awesome…post race, we had tons of people asking to trade their jackets for the hubs. 

Canada of course had the beach ball out at the ceremonies:

Team Canada:

Race day dawned to cloudy skies and cool temps…perfect for racing in.  The event itself started/finished in a soccer stadium so we had perfect seats for viewing the days events. 

Race Venue – bike transition and finish line:

Duathlon:  5km run:

20km bike (including a 3km hill):

2.5km run:

Into the finish.

(side note about runners/duathletes have nice butts…especially this one but I am biased)

Finished! 

The hubs did great…with no speed work, track work, intervals etc. he netted out at a 4:23 per km pace on his runs.  He wasn’t happy with his bike time…but he never is so we stopped listening.

We were all very proud of him and it was an awesome experience.  If you want to be motivated, go see an event like this.  These guys are FAST.  The guy who won the hubs age division ran 3:30/km pace or 5:30/mile. FAST I tell you.

Instead of a medal, they received a very cool small commemorative….plaque for lack of a better description.  Yes, we have joked he should turn it into a belt buckle.

Next up…part 2 of the Spain recap:  The places we visited: Gijon, Elciego and Rascafria.