Kalmar Triathlon 2007

Report by Konrad Steinert

Why Kalmar? Kalmar is a small town not much bigger than Chorlton and Didsbury together, located on the East Coast of Sweden, facing the island Oland.

At the End of July 2007, Kalmar was hosting the Swedish long course championship over the ironman distance. What could be better than combining an ironman with a fortnight 'tapering' in Sweden.

The start and finish was a five minutes walk away from the busy town centre, which was convenient for the participants but not convenient enough for the Swedish folks to come out and watch.

The race briefing happened in the impressive Kalmar Saalen (Convention Centre). We were very lucky to meet the only person in the whole of Scandinavia who didn't speak English, the race director. Briefing in Swedish - Tough. Anyway, the small contingent of 'non Swedish' athletes managed to work out what would happen the next day. A long swim followed by a long bike ride followed by a long run. And three laps of each. What else do you need to know? To look on the bright side, the race doctor spoke English as well as German. Nothing to worry about.

Just before we left the briefing, we got the good advice to watch our salt intake... after completing my first competitive sea-swim the next morning I wouldn't need any salt for the rest of the year.

On Friday, apart from registration and race briefing, there was not much else to do than to watch the mini triathlon. The Mini Triathlon was a mixture from taster triathlons for young and old as well as a competitive sprint triathlon. In transition, parents were helping their kids into dry clothes after the swim while elite triathletes were racing thru' T1 in seconds just to meet first timers on shopping bikes on the bike course. It was fun to watch...

Kalmar Triathlon is a kind of NO NONSENSE triathlon. The entry fee is approx. £100, that gets you a well organised long distance triathlon - nothing else.

On race morning, after bike racking, there was still an hour left to reorganise my box for T1 and T2 again and again. How much time can one spend to check if you haven't left your trainers at home...

The swim start was a running start. For reasons unknown, everyone who had registered in an age group rather than the open category starts in the first line. Hurrah, 400 people behind me and in a couple of minutes the majority of them will just swim over me. Due to the wind, it was a choppy swim, always up and down but at least I could do something for my salt intake.

T1 was smooth with a new PB of just under 4 min, followed by a pancake flat bike course. It was a bit windy and there was a thunder storm and some heavy rain during the second half of the bike leg, but that was no excuse for my off-day. After all the training I couldn't even get a sub-six-hour on the bike. I was frustrated.

T2 was smooth again, and I couldn't wait for the run. The sun came out and I had a very enjoyable run. Most of the running course was sandwiched between some 'upmarket' housing and the shore; there was always something to see. At the feeding station those Swedes had salted cucumber on offer, they were quite delicious. Apparently, its good for your salt intake...

After the second lap I spotted Anna within the spectators and had to break the bad news that there is still another lap to come. Although, it would have been worthwhile to hurry up a bit, podium finishers apparently got kissed by blond, long-legged Swedish beauties - so I was told.

The lesson to be learned, a finishing time of 11hrs38min14sec is not good enough to get kissed. I would have tasted a bit salty anyway...

More info at www.kalmartri.com.

Results (3860m swim, 180km bike, 42km run)

Name	Club	Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run	Total
Ted Os	Team Tenant & Partner	00:59:26	00:01:27	04:25:49	00:01:32	03:06:18	08:34:32
Konrad Steinert	Manchester Triathlon Club	01:35:25	00:03:50	06:05:18	00:04:06	03:49:39	11:38:18

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