Riviera

Riviera’s Adam Davidson has achieved two of his biggest goals at the 2010 Triathlon World Championships

Adam was among 125 competitors from across the globe and placed in the top 50, was the 8th Aussie over the line and did the course in two hours, beating his goal by five minutes.

He said it was an amazing experience and he was grateful for the support from Riviera. To thank Riviera for their encouragement throughout his training and in the lead up to this event, Adam wanted to have Riviera branding and boat images printed on his uniform, bike and bag. The Riviera branding attracted a lot of attention from people who shared their Riviera experiences with him and asked questions about the company.

Adam has written a race report detailing his thoughts, feelings and experience.
In his own words…

After 30 hours of travelling from the Gold Coast in Australia to Hungary, Budapest, where the 2010 Triathlon World Championships were to be held, I was finally in my apartment, relieved to have my bike with me. I got changed and put on my running gear for a light jog to turn the legs over after such a long trip.

I met up with a few guys that were also competing in the race and headed off through a city that I never thought I would be in after such a rough journey throughout the year, dealing with the pain of a major stress fracture which caused me to have inconsistency with my running and the loss of my best mate (training partner), Renee, after an accident while we were both out training.

I just could not believe I was here, and lost already! None of us were paying attention to where we were going. Instead of a 5-6km jog that my coach Matt wanted me to do, it ended up being 16km. Not a good start to the taper a week before the big race.

The run took us up and down stairs, through tunnels and over bridges all around Budapest city where only the worst was about to happen, I slipped on a step and injured my knee and pulled my quad muscle. Weird but my heart did stop for a few seconds as I knew that this was not good.

As soon as I got back to the apartment the ice came straight out and I became a regular at the bar, and not for drinks! My wife, Jen, was going every chance she had to get more ice throughout the days, that is when she wasn’t shopping or trying the Budapest cakes!

The next day Matt had me out for a ride and swim session. My knee was still tender after this so I emailed Matt to break the news and like always he was positive about the situation, his answer was “Rest is best at times like this and so close to race day all the hard work has been done mate.” So I looked back at all the training I had done, sucked it up with the help of my wife and started to think positively again.

Wednesday and Thursday came around fast with no running at all, only ride and swim sessions. Thursday’s swim session was open water with my wet suit. I put my wet suit on, dove into the water and Oh my God, instantly my breath was taken from me.It was absolute ice, I couldn’t believe I had another hurdle to get over. I started swimming out to the first buoy which was about 400m in the distance but I had to stop part way there to roll over onto my back, as I was totally out of breath. The icy cold water was playing its part on my body, making it very hard to breathe, nothing I had ever experienced before. It took me at least 15 minutes to get into any sort of rhythm but I couldn’t warm up. During this time all I could think about was if I had to stop for air now, only 400m into my swim, how the hell will I cope on race day?

I took the time after my swim and sat on the shore line to look back at things Renee had told me during our time together on tough training sessions to try and get my head around a few issues. I remembered one of the things she told me was that triathlon was not just about the racing but also the obstacles and the journey along the way that makes it all worth it, and it’s so true. Whenever I was about to give up during some tough times she would always say ‘harden up spaz’, so I did.

Friday was my rest day so I used this time to try to get my leg 100 per cent. TV and ice were my two best mates today!

By Saturday morning all I could do was laugh, I had a bad leg which was on the mend at least, ice cold water for the swim leg that I was worrying about and now on top of that, nerves, oh yes, and rain, heavy cold rain.

I did a light 15 minute jog in the morning and a light ride with a few of the other guys along the bike course to see what condition the road was in for race day. As we were riding along we saw a few Council workers fixing the road that we would be racing on. There were huge pot holes and bits of metal sticking out everywhere in one section of the road. Fixing the road the day before a race in the pouring rain – we just looked at each other with stupid looks on our faces, nothing was said, we were all thinking the same thing.

After the ride we put our bikes into transition where they spent the night and that afternoon I got all my gear together had a light stretch and tried to relax as much as possible. I got an early night so I would be fresh for race day.

The alarm went off at 4am Sunday morning, no rain and for once before a race I actually felt fairly relaxed, well compared to some of the other guys racing, some of them would not even look at me as I passed them at breakfast.

At 5am my cousin from Slovenia arrived at the hotel to meet me and catch the bus to transition to watch the race. On the bus it was so quiet as everyone was so focused and doing their own thing to stay calm and focused for their race. But me, I can’t stay quiet for that long! Talking away but staying calm to save energy, it takes my mind off the race. I like to stay that way until I hit the water – asking stupid questions about stupid things. It’s at this point that I realised not too many people like this way of attacking a race, but it works for me!

I finally get to my bike in transition (the area, which is also part of the race course where a triathlete keeps his/her bike and belongings during a triathlon) and start setting up all my gear for the race, pumping my tyres up, making sure my bike is in the right gear for a fast take off, laying my running shoes out and gathering my thoughts. I have a light jog to warm up before the race as we were not allowed to have a warm up in the water, for what reason I still don’t know. I think it’s because the water was so cold they wanted people to spend less time in it.

I start getting my wet suit on, smearing baby oil all over my legs and arms for a quick exit out of the suit in transition (where the athlete changes for the next leg). I give Jen a kiss, get my swim cap and goggles and make my way down to the first holding pen where we have to wait for five minutes before entering the second pen where we waited for another 10 minutes. After that we made our way onto the pontoon where all 125 athletes are waiting for the all clear to enter the water. The music was pumping and the adrenalin was kicking in fast.

The whistle went for us to enter the water and as soon as I did my breath was taken from me by that icy cold water. We had 10 seconds to get used to the water and put one hand on the pontoon, then the horn had blown and we were off getting pushed under the water trying to come up for air and then getting a mouth full of water, I managed to bash my way through and find my own bit of space for a little while.

The lead group of top end swimmers were at the first buoy and I was among the second pack, not far behind. This is where I usually am in my races but this time I was feeling stronger than most other races. At the second buoy, about 700m into the swim, my body had finally warmed up and I was sitting on a great pace feeling strong. I hit the sand in 21 minutes for the 1500m swim, my fastest swim so far in this sport. My wife was yelling the time out to me as I ran past her and into transition.

I got to my bike, ripped the wet suit off, put on my helmet and sun glasses and I was off for the 40km bike leg. The first thing I noticed was the road was fixed, what a relief, so I put my head down and started to catch those top end swimmers with a speed of 40kmph+. My hamstrings were very tight at the start from the cold water but they finally ended up loosening off. At the 20km mark I really started to push and I saw my speedo reach speeds of 45kmph at a few points. I saw a large group of riders about 500m in front of me on the last lap and I knew I could get at least 10 places if I caught them so I pushed as hard as I could on my pedals and started to gain on them and passed the pack 2km from transition. I looked at my speedo and it read 34km, cool only 6km left and the bike leg is over. Once I hit the transition point it had 36km so I went past transition thinking we had to do a half loop somewhere, as it was supposed to be a 40km bike leg. As I looked back to see how much I had gained on the pack, my heart dropped when I realised they had gone into transition. What a bummer, I did 2km more than everybody else and lost about 15 positions. I was so angry and disappointed but quickly got over it as my swim was the best ever, I had an awesome bike leg apart from the mistake, I was not going to stuff the run leg up as I had worked too hard to throw it in now.

I got into transition and dumped the bike, threw my helmet down, got my running shoes and hat on, and I was off for the 10km run. I passed my wife and cousin on the side line at the 2km mark yelling out what had happened as I went passed. My wife yelled back, ‘you still have heaps of time to catch a few, now push hard, go, go, go!’ So that’s what I did.

My knee and shin felt great as I passed a few Aussies and I felt like I was running pretty well. Through the city of Budapest, over bridges and following the main river we had a 5km straight run to the city with two loops around the city where people from all over the world were yelling and chanting Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi as I went passed. It was such a great feeling and something I will remember for the rest of my life.

I crossed the line with a 38 minute run. What a feeling – I achieved my two biggest goals, making the Australian side for 2010 and placing in the top 10 Aussies over the line for the World Championships 2010.

What a great journey and feeling!

I am grateful for the support from my wife, coach, and Riviera who allowed me the time off to train for this event.