Challenge France 2008 - race report
May 29th, 2008 by Lucie Zelenkova
The first Challenge France was amazing. Fantastic course, great Venue (Nierderbronn-Les-Bains is some kind of a Nature’s paradise) and perfect conditions for such an event.
At 9:30am Professional athletes and all woman were off for the 1.9Km swim on Motherhouse lake. I had a good start and found myself sitting on 4-5th place. At this moment swimming pace felt easy and comfortable. But 300 meters to go, my arms started to feel heavier and heavier and I lost comfortable feeling and struggled with the pace.
I lost 2 more places, one of these people was Nina Eggert, so I finished swimming part only as 2nd woman, not a great start and not good for my “swimming reputation”.
With faster transition I started bike leg as a first female again. Good. Now was time to show what my legs are able to do on my lovely Guru bike! The bike had a long climb right on the first 10Km. It was like a 2km climb with 6 maybe 7% average. Not HARD but enough to make some damage. And opposite what I expected, my legs felt flat and on the beginning of the hill Nina passed me and on the top Belinda Granger too.
I tried to stay with her but her pace was just too fast and strong for me, so I was left alone. At this moment I even doubted how I will be able to finish and thought that maybe to stop and enjoy the race as a spectator would be better idea… Ok, it would not be me! I still tried to find and go my own pace and after while I started to feel better. On 60km I caught Nina and continued to chase Belinda.
It was really nice surprise when I found myself in 2nd transition only 40 second behind her. Wow, race wasn’t over yet. And with Nina not even 1 minute behind, it promised some hard racing coming.
Let me tell you about this run course.. it is hard. Each lap goes all the way up for the first 4-5km and then it’s all downhill with some really steep section from there. Two laps. I don’t know which was worse: the up or the downhill. As I had Belinda on eye contact I was able to caught her already after 2km just before long hill started.
I felt good, for the first time at that day, strong legs … ok not for long, once uphill started I started loosing time to Belinda again. And it was like cat and mouse game, Belinda run away from me, I caught her and it continued like this for whole half marathon. She made final move 3,5km to go and let me tell you, she pushed really hard.
I wasn’t able to follow her but still I saw her not far away. And I didn’t want to give up, so I was again able to caught her 800 before finish line. Oh good, my mind was strong at this moment … only my body said no anymore and Belinda found bit more energy in last few meters. But we both had to dig so deep that we collapsed immediately after the finish line. What a race!
Even if I didn’t win, I was able to race and give hard time to one of the best long distance female athlete on the world. I’m really happy and satisfied and cant wait for more training and another race – Ironman Austria 13 July!
Results
Women
1. Belinda Granger (AUS) 4:35:05
2. Lucie Zelenkova (CZE) 4:35:10
3. Nina Eggert (GER) 4:37:27
4. Monika Feuersinger (GER) 4:40:00
5. Dagmar Matthes (GER) 4:44:26
Men
1. François Chabaud (FRA) 3:51:47
2. Rutger Beke (BEL) 3:58:10
3. Patrick Bringer (FRA) 4:00:10
4. Maik Twelsiek (GER) 4:00:28
5. Luke Dragstra (CAN) 4:04:34
