Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Budapest 2010 ITU World Championships

After a long flight and then a 6hr wait in Heathrow but I made it to Budapest Hungary around midnight. I got a very expensive cab ride to the hotel where all the other Canadian paratriathletes were staying. I was pretty wired so I unpacked all my gear. I thought I was going to be sharing a room with another athlete but when I got to my room, I was the only one in it. After unpacking, I realized I had forgotten my pedals and my swim goggles in my other back pack. I frantically searched twitter and facebook for people that I knew were coming to Budapest and messaged them. I received a message from a friend from Portland and he was already en route but he had an extra set. Whew, one thing already fixed. I went to sleep happy after that.

We had a meeting at 9am to head out to swim. The pool was very interesting. It was not very obvious what we were supposed to do. Most people don’t speak any English and none of us speak any Hungarian. When we finally got to go inside, the change room was co-ed but with individual stalls. Our pool was outside and the place was so huge that we had a difficult time finding a 50m pool, hard to believe I know. We had rented 4 lanes plus had to pay for each of us and the bill was somewhere around 20,000HuF which is around $100. Nothing is cheap here, especially food. Afterwards, myself and a team old timer went walking around. I got a few pics of some of the old buildings and some of the scenery. Lunch consisted of a bun, some yogurt, some almonds and some water. We were supposed to have a meeting to talk about some mental skills but I got a message from a friend about lending me his spare pedals. I figured that was much more important.

I asked my hotel front desk where the Marriott was and they gave me directions and I decided to walk. It was a little longer than I expected and my hip was starting to bug me. I got to the Marriott and found out it was the wrong one. I got directions to the next one but I decided to cab it. I was able to run in, grab the pedals, and get in the same cab, and get back to my hotel, right around the tune of 5000HuF. That was one less thing I had to worry about.

In the later PM, we had a one on one session with our coaches, Vincent and Carlie. We talked about our goals for this event and our camp. We also discussed any help I might need in transition or any motivational cheering along the race course. I am pretty self-sufficient so I really don’t need anything but I always love a little cheering.

We had a great team dinner that night and it was nice to get to know my fellow team mates. Towards the end of dinner I was starting to fade due to the face that I just arrived at 1am and had 6hr of sleep in the past 48hr. When I got to my room, however, I turned on my computer and watched some videos til almost midnight.

Wednesday was supposed to be an 8AM bike to run transition practice but at dinner the night before, we decided to ride at 6AM as there are fewer cars on the road at that time. We rescheduled the T2 practice to mid afternoon. The ride down to the TZ took a little longer than normal due to the hand cyclists and some of the obstacles we had to go around to get there.

Three of us went on our own way mostly due to the fact that we lost the others. We met up again at the TZ and looked around. We rode part of the bike course but the traffic was starting to pick up so we headed back.

After breakfast, a group of us went back to the event expo. I found everything to be much more than I was willing to spend on an event tee shirt so I went home empty handed. We were able to watch the men’s 40+ Aquathon and one of the competitors took almost 45 minutes to do the 1000m swim so we stayed at the swim exit to cheer him on as he exited the water. I think all of us knew what it was like to finish dead last at least one time since our prospective challenged athletic career so it meant a lot to us to be there for him. He was an Aussie and he made a point of smiling and thanking us as he went to his run transition.

Afterwards, I went back to the hotel for nap time and a 6PM mental skills session.

Most of the others had eaten before that but I wasn’t hungry so I went afterwards. The mental skills session included visualization practice. I had not done this since I attended UVIC in 1987 and I remember how well it worked.

I went back to dinner at the same place as Tuesday night. I brought my lap top but it was for not as they had no wireless. I ate a great dinner called “paprikash” which was veal in a spicy sauce and what looked and tasted like the German pasta type dish, spatzle. The dinner was great but it seems that everyone in this town smokes. Two ladies next to me at the restaurant lit up as soon as they sat down and continued to do so all throughout my meal. It was kind of disgusting but I guess we are lucky at home where it is not allowed in bars and restaurants anymore.

When I was done, it was pouring out. Luckily there were many overhanging ledges that offered a little protection from the rain but I was essentially soaked when I walked the 3 blocks back to the hotel. I watched more videos and then had a great sleep.

More to come.....

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