The title has been defended.

Now I can say that the season 2010 had officially started. The first big race took place in Japan passed weekend, it's All Japan Triathlon, Strongman. One of my favorite courses. It is a really huge event for such a small Island like Miyakojima with population just 55.000 people. 26 years old race has it all: the sun, the wind and the sea. Although this year one component was missing, we didn't see much of the sun. It was raining a few days before the race with a strong windy condition of the weather. I was double excited to go to Japan this year: for me and for my new coach, Wolfgang Guembel, who is a professional triathlete as well and who got an invitation to compete in the race too. It always nice to have somebody, meeting you at the finish line and share a good or not so good race day with you, like I usually have a Timex crew or Team mates at the races in North America. After a long trip I had 5 days to adjust to the time difference, which is 12 hours with East time zone. Not everything went smooth before the race: I was getting excited to try my new Orbea Ordu bike on the long course, but I couldn't put it together, something was wrong with a headset. I gave up on trying to fix it and it was time to find a mechanic. I was very lucky that the mechanic, who supports the Japanese Olympic team was there with all his tools. My advice to the athletes who travels with bikes and take them apart by themselves: if you need to replace the handlebar or an aerobar do it from the side of a stem where it connects to the bar, not to the headset tube. I don't remember the mechanic name, but he fixed the problem and really save me. The weather on the race day wasn't different from the previous couple days: 20% of rain and 30-40 km/h wind. Glad I was training in Florida this winter, no kidding the weather in Florida this year was the same. Swim: I got a front spot at the start. It's a mass start (1500 people is a limit for this race). Actually it wasn't too bad until after the last buy, suddenly I was surrounded by big pack of people trying to heat me and crawling on the top of my legs. Actually someone did get to the target and heat me in the head so badly that I heard a bell ring. When I exited the water I was pleased with the time splits on my watch, I swam 30-40 second faster when last year. Bike: I was listening to my coach and I've tried to hold back a little bit during the first our on the bike and control my Power Wats and I thought I did. But the middle part of the bike course didn't feel like I was going with a good afford. Or maybe it just was in my mind after I saw a leading girl drafting behind two guys. It took me a while to catch her, 120 km. At the last part of the bike course I felt better. Run: It's a hard course and the marathon run is not an exception (it's out and back with rowling hills). I didn't want to get excited and get cared away because I was leading the race. I needed a strong, steady run to hold my position and when it comes to the run I usually know what to do and how to control my pace. After turn around I saw Emi, second girl and it looks like she was very close, so I've tried to run a bit faster on the way home. Miyakojima people are very supportive, it looks like at list half of the Island population were out there on the course. 3-4 km to the finish line we ran through downtown and hundreds of people were screaming "Gumbate" , "Vydo". I was talking to myself: "don't get excited, don't get excited, you still have more than 3 km to go".

Finish: It's a great feelings to win the race and to defend your title. But even better feelings are when someone is waiting for you at the finish line. It was my coach and a good friend, Wolfgang Guembel, who also had a great day and won the race.

I think had one of those races when you don't make any mistakes and your plan has completed on 100%. I got two fastest time splits (bike and run) and went faster in all three disciplines compare to the last year. Although I screwed in T1 a bit, went to the men's changing tent. My friend called me back 3 times and I couldn't understand what he wants from me until I looked around :). I wish that was a worst mistake during the race I ever have made.

That was a really great and fun trip. First of all I didn't feel like a stranger any more in Miyakojima, I saw some familiar faces, some people remembered me from the last year and I wasn't alone. Then I've met new people and made the new friends, most of them are Australians (several athletes from this country did the Strongman race too). I think Australians are really cool people and they are a lot of fun ;). Spending last day of the trip in Tokyo, walking with an umbrella during a rainy day was something to remember too. During the race I thought that I don't really want to do the race again (it's a tough course), but now just writing this post and bringing up still fresh memories I am already thinking: I really want to go there again.

Race results