TOMÁŠ MATERA - GORALMAN 2018
06. 06. 2018
I had been looking forward to this weekend the whole year. :) GORALMAN 2018 was the first race of this year's triathlon season. It is a part of the Oravaman Extreme Tour and the Half Ironman and takes place in the beautiful Orava setting with hilly mountains and the race passed over the Babia Mountain. The race was organized by an excellent team around Peťo Paľa.
On Friday evening, about all 180 competitors met in Saltwater Cottage near Oravská Polhora, where we had to enrol and turn in our running equipment. We learned in the discussion that the water was warm and had over 18 degrees, so this year we were to swim the full 2 km long track for the first time. After the discussion, we went to our favorite pizzeria in Oravská Polhora, prepared our bikes and went to bed. We woke up at 5:45 in the morning, had breakfast and coffee, then packed everything into the car and moved to the Orava dam to the starting point. We got GPS trackers at the depot, so you could watch the race live on the website; a short swim and then we went for it.
Swimming went smoothly
At 8:00 we jumped into the water to swim the two one kilometer-laps. A little while after the beginning, I was in 5th place and all that time I did not compete in the water with anyone. This has never happened to me at a triathlon :). I was a little afraid of the second lap, but I swam 2 kilometers at a reasonable pace without any problem.
I did my best on the bike
I did not waste my time at the depot. I took everything that was important and went to ride the 83 km / h by bike. For this race, I changed my old Author bike for a great BMC model from Jirka, whom I had to thank once more for the loan. On the first straight from Námestovo I already had overtaken one competitor and a little later, Honza Francke with another racer, was waiting at the traffic lights. For a while, we went smaller distances, and after a few miles, we all met again at another traffic light. Fortunately, this was the last one, so we could ride full speed. In the first, steep climb, I pulled ahead of those other racers, trying to catch up with the last two riders in front of me. You must be on the alert because in this country you never know when a tractor will drive out of a farm or some regular customer comes out from the local inn. My borrowed bike zoomed and I noticed only a problem with the sole of my left foot, which I had probably hurt in the water. On the next pass, through the city, I got to the lead of the race and climbed up to the Polish border. At the top of a hill, a short way behind the turn, Vašek Holub caught up with me and we made a little head start. We rode up from Oravská Polhora to Saltwater Cottage and spaced out at short intervals to the second depot.
Running with my leg injury I think I'll give it up
Because of my leg injury, I put socks on at the depot to survive the race and ran out a moment after Vašek. I ran about 5 km on the asphalt and gravel roads, but I was not well and my head was spinning. Vašek was out of sight and I climbed up Little Babia Mountain. I could only trot on the straight, but whenever the road began to rise the hill, I broke into walking. Even thoughts ran through my mind as to whether it would be better to give it all up, but the next was, what the hell am I to do and I will not give up. With such an internal struggle, I "enjoyed" the way to Little Babia Mountain and more or less waited for other competitors to overtake me. I drank three cups of Coca-Cola at the refreshments and poured three cups of water over myself. The journey began to rise toward Babia Mountain – at first, it was a gravel walkway, which then changed into stone stairs and then into a few demanding sections with chains and a few cramps.
Tourists dodged us in most cases and some encouraged us. Finally, I began to run faster and reached the top where I repeated the ritual as in the first refreshment stand. I was surprised that nobody overtook me and so I set about the final rocky 8-km rundown. This is where my thighs had to make an effort and symptoms of convulsions sometimes appeared. The last two kilometers went along an asphalt road with a gentle hill and I looked forward to enjoying the last part of the race. About 500 meters before the finish line, I saw the third competitor Kuba Meszaros, who did not seem to want to leave me in second place. I set a hot pace and muscle cramps occurred in both my legs. I had to ease up and pray to get through this. I staggered up the final hill and was glad that the race was not 100 m longer.
I'm on the winners’ podium!
This year's second place is a great result for me after last year's victory, and no matter what it looked like, i am very satisfied with. This year it really hurt, much more than last year, but thanks to the beautiful weather, we enjoyed it. Thanks a lot, Oravaman team, it was a terrific experience and maybe again next year!
Tomáš Matera, Kilpi Racing Team
Photos: Martin Cintula, Katka Kozáková
Tomáš Matera