DEAUVILLE TRIATHLON – Olympic distance – 25th of June 2017
Race reporter Bettina
Deauville was my second triathlon and the first one in open water, but this is not the only fact that made this race very special to me. My mum came all the way from Germany to support me along the way and to understand what the hell this triathlon thing is all about. Why is her daughter all the sudden spending all her time and money on this crazy hard sport? All those good looking trained guys must play a major role in her opinion. The atmosphere during the race and the chills when 1500 penguins jump into the waves did the rest to pass the virus on to her. She can’t wait to join me for another race.
The swim was without a doubt the hardest part of the competition. I’m not an experienced swimmer and the choppy water and the currents didn’t help either. Nevertheless, I was very happy with it as I was going slowly but surely. A big help to accomplish the swim were probably 2 training sessions in Deauville the weeks before the race that allowed me to get used to the waves and the salt water and gain confidence. I couldn’t image doing an ocean swim on race day with only pool sessions as preparation. After 57 minutes, I 
left the water and sand behind me and jumped on my bike for part 2.
The first difficulty came after a few minutes, the famous Côte de Saint-Laurent with its 15% of elevation at the beginning which passes to 17% on the last part. This didn’t leave a lot of time to breathe and eat my energy bar. I found myself with a mouth full of peanut butter crunch when I had to face probably the hardest part of the bike race. Lesson learned: check the course before and remember where the difficult parts are. Besides this first hurdle it was a very enjoyable ride. The nicest part was when an amazing view of the ocean opened up and the end of the bike part was in sight.
Once I finished the bike part after 01:31:38 I was quite relieved, no technical issues or time constraints could stop me now to finish this race. The run consisted of 2 laps along the water side and supporters were encouraging the runners all along the way which helps to make those tired legs forget a bit. I finished the run in 01:03:49, an improvement of 6 minutes compared to my last race.
All in all, I would recommend this race for its very professional organization, the atmosphere and the site itself. See you next year in Deauville!
