I was at the sea

This post is the continuation of I'm going to the sea :)

Friday morning at about 8 I started my journey to Mamaia. First I dropped off my bike and then I headed to the bus station. My bike traveled with the car and I traveled with a lot of vehicles. I was twice in a taxi, I traveled with a bus, with a smaller bus, with the subway and with a train. I arrived to Mamaia at about 12. I liked very much the ride from Mamaia to Neptun (where we slept) with a Skoda Fabia rs. I didn't sleep so good, the bed was bad, the storm was loud and in the morning it got cold. After I woke up I recovered my bike and had a good breakfast. I had to go to the start on the bike because nobody had room for it in the cars.

At the start there was a huge crowd. I left the bike in the transition area and I went to search for a swimmer with Bogdan because the swimmer of Splash, Flash and Dash Team, Ionut Bizau couldn't get to Mamaia. Andra was chosen to swim for our team, she was in the winnig ladies team from Fara Asfalt triathlon. This motivated me and my team mate Mihai Teodorescu (who had to run after I finished my race) even more.

The race was very intense. Until the first competitor came out of the water I was calm but after that my adrenaline level started to rise. I got more anxious when the first blogger came out of the lake and I started to search for our swimmer. In the race there were 5 blogger teams so there was a separate race between these teams. Although it seemed like a lifetime after a few minutes Andra came out of the water. As she stepped on the ground I was already at her feet getting the chip and then I run to my bike.

I started my run very fast and I was pushing hard. I felt the lack of the warm up very fast, first my legs started to hurt then my lungs. Until I warmed up I figured out how the wind was blowing on the race course and I finalized my tactic. When I had head wind I was trying to maintain my speed at around 35 kph and with the tail wind I was going at above 40. I passed a lot of people, and I passed a few competitors twice.

I've finished in less then 31 minutes with an average speed above 35 kph. After the last turn I was pushing so hard that I had to slow down so I could spare some energy to run to my team mate and give him the timing chip. After I've finished my run I needed some time to recover, I didn't think that I would get so so tired in about 18 kilometers (the organizers said 20).

My team mate had an excellent run so we finished in 1:13:24 on the 12th place in general and first in the blogger race. Every contender from the first three blogger teams won a weekend at Predeal at the Casa Bunicii pension.

Unfortunately I couldn't stay at the awards ceremony, after a short wash in the sea I headed home. I couldn't get on the stage with the other blogger but at least I got home until midnight.

This was my first triathlon, my first race on the road, my first race with a road bike, my first race in a team... and my first race were I have won. Besides winning a short vacation I won a few friends to: Rares Cojocaru, Liliana Mercan, Dana Dulea, Florin Rusanu, Andra, Gabriel Ciobanu, Vlad Dulea, Elena Ciric, Roxana Bursuc, Claudia Sofron, Mihai Teodorescu, Florea Cristian,Valentin Bosioc and Cezar Vasile. I'm very happy that I had the chance to race with you guys :)

I want to thank a few people, first I want to thank Mihai for pushing me to complete the signup form, I want to thank Chinezu for choosing me, I want to thank Bogdan Antohe for working a lot for us (and for the sandwich), I want to thank Master Ski & Bike Club for helping me with the transportation and a lot of thanks for my team mates!

The picture that I liked most from this competition and probable the best picture from this year:

A lot of thanks to the photographers, more pictures here.

You can read this post in romanian here.