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| Image: Stefan Drexl |
The disappointment about what I consider to be an unjustified 8-minute time penalty still prevails, but in retrospect I'm glad I didn't give up.
Swimming was under all cannon. Although I swam really well, the clock ended up showing 58 minutes. I haven't swum that slowly in years. But when I quickly picked up the people on my bike, who usually come out of the water a long way in front of me, I realized that swimming in general was very slow yesterday.
The first cycle lap was terrific, I had really excellent legs! Shortly before Solar I overtook a larger professional group and pulled them behind me for 10km until just before Hilpoltstein. When an athlete in the group overtook me and cut in in front of me, I immediately received an 8-minute penalty without any warning. Even two athletes who drove to the referee and tried to explain to her that I was leading the entire time couldn't change anything. I wasn't shown a map or anything. If I hadn't actively asked her, I would have had no idea why she whistled at all.
In the penalty box I wasn't up for it anymore and wanted to get out. On the other hand, I wanted to at least finish the race because I had great support from my Julia, family, friends and acquaintances on the track all day. I also continued for the team classification (Team Arndt).
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| Image: Jan Prchlik |
Afterwards, however, the motivation on the second bike lap was completely gone and was more reminiscent of a training ride. Out of sheer anger in my stomach I started the first 8km at a 4:00 pace. At some point I (of course) noticed that I couldn't keep this pace until the end, I slowed down a bit in the middle and was able to accelerate again from km 25 to the finish. In the end there was exactly a 3:00 hour marathon and a new personal best of 8:47 hours, which at least made me a little bit more comfortable with the race.
I'm still angry. Lying awake all night thinking about this situation on the bike every minute.
Enough of that now, I'm back to focusing on my own athletes.
Thanks to everyone who cheered me on yesterday, it was a real home game! Without you I would have got out.
wish you a good week!
krelli
It is a shame that such a decision takes away any fun in the competition of the year. I also can't understand it when even the athletes say who were supposedly disadvantaged there say there was nothing and then such a decision is made anyway. Is it the fear of admitting a mistake or a kind of self-expression? Good luck to you, I hope you can do the 8:30 again!
Good Morning,
my congratulations on the impressive performance!
... and for the next book there's a lot of fuel for a whole chapter 🙂