Swiss

Its done and in my opinion, well done.

The goal for this race was doing the best with the least as possible. Having done IM Nice 2 weeks before demanded that.

The race venue in Zurich and Zurich itself is a lovely city, too bad i dont have time to really see the city...
I started feeling better this past week so i was expecting to have at least a decent performance although you can be sure, i had a small portuguese crew in site including my coach that was in the course to check the race and his 2 Sergio´s, me and Sergio Costa. Arriving on thursday left not much choice other than taking the most time possible to rest as those are the only days i dont really have to work ;)

The swim in Lake zurich was awesome, the buoys where hard to spot, they where too far away especially with the sun coming out, speaking of sun, the weather held pretty well except in one part of the run where we caugh some nasty thunderstorms, we had some nasty weather these days in zurich. Anyway the pros left at 6:55am, after the first buoy, probably 700m i was with riesen at my side along with others, i now live confortably with the fact that my starts are slow to actually hang the most i can in the faster groups and just hope i can catch someone faster than me like it happen in Nice, i started leading that group already with my "cruising" speed but the next group was already to far forward. i tough i had every one in my feet but when i exited the water for the small run to the second (and longer lap) i saw anyone... so that made my swim a lonely one again, i eventually passed a guy in the second lap but it really was an solitary effort, i left the water with Helder already mentioning that the times where slow at the lead and ishould be worried about the time i had in my watch.

After a beginner T1 with some extra meters and making sure i didnt loose my gels i got into the bike, i was sure that i was in front of good guys so i just cruised in the first kms trying to settle down from the swim. Mr Riesen passed me at around 15km and i tried to follow, witch i did for 15km then i dropped  with the feeling that i needed to take of the entire race. Somewhere in 50km Chris Brader and mike Shiferle came by in an dowhill where i was taking easy because i really didnt know the course, i did the rest of the lap with them, i was feeling good legs at that time but i wasnt worried about going faster. Mike eventually took of just before the first climb in the second lap and Brader droped in the beast climb. I got to T2 with a decent but not great ride and wasnt sure how i would feel with the zoots on my feet.

I felt pretty bad at the begining, slugish and with not much energy but after 3-4km i started feeling my running legs. there where some guys to catch since i was running outside the top10. Helder Krepe and Sedi where keeping me updated all the way since the course had just so many spots where i passed like 20 times. I was moving in the field with Helder always screaming something like "Get them but go easy" words of wisdom??? ;) i ran so confortably the whole way (except of course the first kms) that i got bored in some ocasions. in lap 3 i got into 6th and at that time Helder "ordered" me to roll to the finish, not wanting to get him angry in the first race he watches as a coach i did so, i was safe at 6th but had a big gap to 5th so i rolled to the finish. This was by far the "easiest" marathon i ever done, never really suffered to keep a good rithm arounnd 4min/km and if someone can chime in and say bad things about that, i felt really well doing so and besides i can always say i did an ironman 2 weeks ago ;).

At the end, job well done 6th place, 8:47 is great for what i expected, another well executed race, this one with different goals than the usual "get to the finish line as soon as i can" that i so often say. the morning after as i write this i feel pretty darn well for someone that did an ironman.

more....soon