My name is Benjamin. I am from Switzerland and live in Toronto at the moment. This is my outlet for everything endurance sports related I do.
I love running and cycling, dabble in triathlons, have been spotted on a mountain bike and speed skates – and when I'm living somewhere cold, I like cross-country skiing.
I can be e-mailed.
Yes, yes, it’s been forever… but I still haven’t given up on chronicling all my races! Luckily, I took it a bit easier recently, so those 20 or so reports will be written in no time. Let’s go, then!
After the Cayman Island duathlon marking my return to racing, the “Cinco de Mayo” 5k was the perfect first pure running race. The course was two laps through Camana Bay and the Cayman International School:
I wasn’t too sure about the turnaround point at the North end of the course, so I asked and double and triple checked. Still not quite clear. Anyway, off we went:
This is about half a kilometre into the race. As usual, a lot of people went off way too fast and had to pay for it later.
Running through Camana Bay:
The view of the support crew with their well deserved liquid snack while waiting for the runners to return from the first turnaround:
There was a bit of confusion at the turnaround: the guy who was supposed to mark the exact spot stood in the wrong place, and the leader didn’t see the traffic cone, so he (and everybody else) turned around about 50 metres early. That much for asking about it ahead of time!
Returning, about 800 metres in:
I don’t remember if the guy dropped me or the other way around.
Here we come back past the start for the first time, after about one kilometre:
The loops around the school were hard: long straights and not much going on. Each kilometre was slower than the previous one, except for the very last one, where I managed to reel in one guy.
Coming back past the start, after the first lap:
And finishing:
There was no official timekeeping, but a ranking. Because it was Cinco de Mayo, 5th place (me!) got an award as well:
And this handy t-shirt:
With the support/film/photo crew:
And the loot: five bottles of mayo.
I think we gave most of those to friends. Who needs this much mayo?!
As for the race, I was quite happy! I averaged a bit below four minutes per kilometre (see Strava). The course was short, so no 5k PB for me – but at least an okay performance.
After a considerable time away from running due to IT band issues after Berlin Marathon, I started my year in the Cayman Islands with physiotherapeutical exercises and a very slow buildup back to normal mileage. At first, I was allowed to run for just five minutes per day, and it took three months to get back to relatively normal!
During that time, the closest I came to racing was watching a cruise ship 5k as my first taste of the local racing scene.
By the time I was ready to get back to races, the local competition calendar told me that it was duathlon time! I’d never done one before, but having just recently acquired my TT bike, it was a good fit.
With close to zero intense mileage from my long buildup, I was prepared to be slow and suffer for it. The duathlon is an event of national importance in the Cayman Islands (as is every other event – there just aren’t many events!), so it featured prominently in the newspaper.
If one looks very closely, I can be identified right at the start, behind Mr. Broad Shoulders:
Even though it was 8:00 in the morning, it was already hot and humid. Some people took off like crazy, but many of them were part of relay teams and could look forward to a break after the first run.
The course consisted of two out and backs with only slight confusion as to where people cross each other:
Despite a semi-conservative pace, my legs were definitely not fresh for the bike, but at least the flying mount didn’t end in the ditch. The bike course took us along the East-West Arterial Road, which has a convenient wide shoulder, and there wasn’t much traffic to begin with. We had to do two out-and-backs, one to the east and one to the west:
I felt okay on the bike, but didn’t make up much ground on anybody. On the way back from Savannah, I passed one guy with whom I’d end up playing back-and-forth for almost the rest of the bike leg, but never properly got away from.
The second run was almost the same as the first:
Just after I started my run, the overall winner was about to finish. The heat was relentless by now and I felt like going at a snail’s pace. I got passed by DJ from the locally famous “Flashy Nation Sports Club” shortly before the end, and there was no way for me to try and hang on, I was just happy to finish.
I think I got 8th overall, but the results database is not showing pre 2015 events at the moment, so I’ll update this once it does. As a first taste of Cayman racing (and being able to participate), this was an awesome event, and the Cayman Islands Triathlon Association crew around Trevor did a great job. I even won a pizza voucher at the raffle after the race, a welcome element of most Cayman races! I think it went unused, though.
Time to start proper training, it was!
Update: found the race results. Yes, 8th overall. The 2014 race page is now being built up!
And with that, believe it or not, I have written all the race reports.
For the year 2013, that is. Still a few more to catch up with! But, having finished 2013, I can finally publish the page with the race overview for 2013. It joins its older siblings for 2012, 2011 and 2010.