The hunger games - IM 70.3 World Championship 2021

The Land of Endurance / The Hunger Games

The long-awaited World Championship for those of us who qualified before the first lockdown, since this race that was initially intended to be in Taupo, NZ in November 2020. Finally it took place this past September 18, 2021, in St. George - Utah.

As many of you know, only athletes that qualify get a slot to participate in the World Championship by ranking in the top places in one of the IM 70.3 races.  In March 2020, I won my slot in Bariloche-Argentina, along with my dear friends from Peru. If you’re curious about this race you can search the entry of that blog.

Usually, the world championships are famous for having a challenging course and 2021 was no exception. Since St. George is a dessert, we were expecting extreme heat for race day. Little did we know the weather was completely unpredictable, we had a windstorm, rain, hail, and then a full-blown heated sun.

This is why we named the race experience “The hunger games”.

The Swim - 1.9km

The swim took place at the beautiful Sand Hollow Reservoir, since the water was considerably warm it was a non-wetsuit race. All age groups had an allocated start time to avoid crowds, which made the race very different for all athletes.

My age group is incredibly strong, from the moment we started I could feel how the girls went all in, passing the previous groups ahead.

Even though we parted in waves of five athletes, I was never alone during the swim, I was either passing or being passed. However, that last stretch after seeing the exit arch was so refreshing, it gave me the boost for that final stretch.

Transition – Bike 90km – The storm

From the moment we stepped out of the water, running into the transition we started to feel a change in the weather. It started to get cold and windy.

As I was reaching around 15 km, I felt a strong wind on my bike and I noticed that without much effort I was going at 55km/h, at that moment I knew that once we did the U-turn that wind would be in my face. In fact, it did, from the curve on the speed was around 15km/h with a feeling of a 15 % elevation.

If the wind wasn’t enough, the storm officially began, the black clouds poured on us, and then the hail started. I remember seeing some of the girls start screaming and stopping. However, in the middle of the stunning red rock canyons, there is no place to cover from the storm, so we just continued hoping the wind would not make us fall.

In that moment I started to recall all the times that I trained under bad weather conditions and thanked myself for doing so, because in a way I felt this was something that I had already gone through. I specially recalled cycling under the pouring rain in The Netherlands, managing speed and stability.

The bike part was by far my favorite, I felt like having such a challenging course - united all the athletes in a feeling of complicity, knowing that we would not give up, “we would RISE TO IT”.

Course Summary

The Run 21km

Don’t get me started with this half marathon, I came down from the bike feeling strong and pumped up. However, I did put a lot of effort into the bike, so by the time I got down to run, my legs resented it. Within the first 5kms we had another heavy rain come down to us, which made it seem as if we were swimming. The elevation gains during this part of the race were of 400mts, so you can imagine how tough it was on the knees coming down.

The run course had 2 loops, when I reached the second one the sun came out evaporating all water in record time and drying us up.

The best part of the run was that last stretch where all our family and friends were cheering for us, giving us that energy boost to cross that finish line.

 Lessons Learned

Races are so much more fun when you go with a group of friends.  This time around many of TRIMONSTER friends, whom I had not seen in a year came to race at St. George, making this an amazing experience.

Also, having my dad join me was such a big motivator.  Having a support crew makes a HUGE impact on the performance of race day.

This race taught me, that training under different weather conditions does impact how to react to unexpected climate changes. 

Pacing and distributing the energy during the race is needed, so often, I go strong on the bike knowing myself stronger on this part.  Consequently, transitioned with tired legs for my run. On this occasion, my legs were tired and at the time I started to run my knees started to hurt.

The Summary

Special Thanks

Thanks to my boss, CEO of IA Group Mr. Hertzberger for supporting an active lifestyle and going above and beyond in all areas of life, not only work. It was an honor for me to run with the company´s new logo and embrace our values in such an important sporting event.

Thanks to my parents for always encouraging me to pursue my dreams and teaching me through his example on leading an active lifestyle combined with work. Specially, my dad I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to have had him be at the race cheering me on.

Thanks to my coach Chris Harrison and the TRIMONSTER family, for helping me qualify and making the event such an amazing experience.

Thanks to my current coach Giorgio Spadola for guiding my way from the moment I moved to Italy, encouraging me to continue racing and keeping strong.

Thanks to Massimo Stolfi for challenging my cycling skills and joining me on the long bike rides in the months before the race.

There are so many other people I have not mentioned, but please know that all of you reading are already part of this journey and if you are reading this thanks to you too.