Back in November I heard that a "tennis club" from La Paz was going to organize an olympic distance triathlon (1,5-40-10 km) at Lake Titicaca. Club Tenis La Paz is a very exclusive club located in the best residencial area of La Paz. They have really nice facilities that include at least multiple tennis courts, 25 meter pool indoors and outdoors, a gym and a sauna, some social facilities and I don't know what else. Sometimes they organize swim meets and at least once a year a half marathon. So I thought I wanted to participate in their triathlon. Since fall 2015 I had only done some cycling races.
Originally they planned to have space for 80 or 100 participants (I'm not sure of the exact number). I was quite sure I had plenty of time to sign up later, but one morning about 6 weeks from the registration deadline I saw that this was the last possible day to sign up. The options were to fill out an online form, then go to a bank to pay and finally bring the receipt to the tennis club offices no later than that afternoon, or you could go there and sign up and pay in person. So I went there and signed up. I asked how someone could become a member of the tennis club to have access to the facilities. The answer was that you just have to pay 48 000 USD and get recommendations from 2 people who are already members. There is no monthly amount you could pay. But still, it was a normal late Friday morning and there were about 50 cars in the parking lot.
That was in the beginning of February. In mid-February there was an uphill cycling race from La Paz center to neighboring El Alto, which is 400 meters higher. I had a really good race except that I had to fix a flat tire 8 minutes into the race. Very good legs and watts were higher than last time on same route.
Sometimes I managed to swim 2 times a week, but on average just once a week. I have dumbbells at home so they replaced some swims. Running progressed quite nicely while doing 2 workouts each week, all of them at over 3800 meters elevation or 12 500 ft where I live.
Six days before the triathlon there was a 60 km cycling road race outside El Alto. I got away by myself from the gun and time trialed on my road bike all of the distance. One very good 43-year old cyclist also got away from the group and was about 300 meters behind me for the last 40 km but luckily he didn't quite catch me and I won by 15 seconds in the end. It was my first win here after having done 14 of these races.
3 days before the tri I finally put my wetsuit to use for the first time since November 2013 and did 3x500 hard in a 50 meter pool. On Friday I took a bus from La Paz to Copacabana with a friend. The trip took 4 hours and it rained in the city, but in Copacabana it was sunny so I decided to swim in the Titicaca for the first time. The water was super cold and I used my neoprene cap. I only swam maybe 7-10 minutes because I just wanted to know how the water felt like. Then we rode easily the bike course that would be 2 laps and a bit extra.
I had always thought that it would be terrible if it rained during the race. Here in the Bolivian highlands that include La Paz and Titicaca, it can be quite nice when it's sunny, but as soon as it's cloudy it feels chilly. Add rain, and it's cold. Always. Saturday morning came and before I wanted to wake up I heard it was raining outside. The rain stopped but it was totally cloudy. The race start time was 8.30 so there was no way the temperature was going to be even near comfortable at that time with the cloudy sky. There would be an individual triathlon, team triathlon and also a bike+run race, and all participants combined there were over 160 people racing that day.
It was truly cold with a bit of a breeze, I think before the race the temperature was around 7 degrees (45F) and in the transition area everybody were shaking while getting ready and putting their wetsuits on. When it was time to get in the water, there was a lot of hesitation in the air and once we were on the "start line" in the water, everybody were screaming "VAMOS!" I believe the water temperature was barely over 10 degrees (50F) and no way it was more than 12 (54F).
Without any warm up, the cold water and high elevation made for really difficult first 200 meters, and on top of that the we had to swim straight into the waves. The swim was 2 laps on a triangular course. After the first turn it got a little easier but swimming parallel to the waves made me just a little bit dizzy. I think my neoprene cap was a big advantage and quite quickly I almost forgot about the cold, but sometimes I would try to move my fingers to see if my hands were ok. It never got difficult to move my fingers, so it looked good. The swim went quite good overall but I don't know what my time was because I didn't wear a watch and no one told me my time. No one also told me how far behind the leader I was. Usually at least someone would be there to tell racers what the situation is. A guy who won one of last year's national championships quit in the swim.
It was raining when I got out of the water so I knew I had to put some extra clothes on even though I knew pretty much no one else would do that. I knew I would lose time but I wanted to be comfortable during cycling. I could not imagine getting out of the cold lake, into the cold air and riding at quite high speeds that would make it feel even colder. Being quick in the transition seems to be kind of a priority so almost everyone else just started riding in their triathlon suits or shorts and a top. Only those who were in the team competition doing the cycling seemed to have clothes on. Of all the participants in the triathlon and bike+run, 27 individuals did not finish, and the cold conditions may have a lot to do with that.
I got my wetsuit off quite quickly but then I put on my hat, long sleeve shirt, a light jacket, a vest, long tights to keep the legs warm, and also gloves! I put on my cycling shoes right there, because after the transition area there was about 300 meters long hill that was not exactly cobbled, but the surface was made up of kind of stones so I thought it would have been difficult to get the shoes on while on the bike, especially in the wet. Again, I think I was pretty much the only one who did this, based on the race pictures I saw afterwards. Most wanted to be quick in the transition, but I chose to be able to pedal properly in that hill. The first kilometer in the town was on stoned / cobbled streets, but after that the surface was ok. Now it was raining only very slightly and at some point it stopped. We rode to the Peruvian border two times (Kasani village) and then did some extra. The bike course was closed to traffic! The profile was nice with a bit of flat riding and some hills. There were some sharp speed bumps.
Cycling felt very strong and by the end I was just 50 meters behind the leader of the individual race. I think that after my slow transition I may have been up to 5 minutes behind. On a short cobbled section just before the end my chain dropped on a slight uphill and I had to stop to put it back on.
Before starting the run I took my jacket, vest, hat and gloves off. The run was 2 out and back loops on Copacabana beach. Now it was raining again. After maybe 4 km I caught the leader and we ran side by side for a while. This is a guy from La Paz that I know well and who has represented Bolivia in the 2015 Pan American games in Canada. Another Bolivia's top triathletes participated only in the team competition and did the run segment. At one point there was a police officer on a motorbike who said that this is where the turnaround is. There was also a table with water mugs and a girl there, but she didn't say anything, so we assumed the policeman was wrong and decided to run all the way to the finish area where we believed the turn around point was. We got there, but there it did feel like we were not supposed to be there and we stopped for a while to ask where the turn around is and then just headed back for the second loop. Soon I got away from the other guy and eventually managed to finish over 1 minute ahead of him. I'm glad that the 3rd place guy was not very close to me and 2nd place because it turned out that we really did at least 1 kilometer of extra. My finish time was 2.21 but it would have been maybe 4-5 minutes faster without the "extra mile" but anyway it was expected that at this elevation especially the run would be quite slow.
To my surprise was given a nice Huawei cell phone and 1000 bolivianos ( over 140 USD ) for my win!
