Lukas Siska - Race Report

Slovak National Triathlon Championships

I always get a stirring of special feelings inside when I get blessed with a chance to travel to Europe, even more so when that European destination is Slovakia. Getting ready for this trip was tough because I had to work up till the day I had to fly. So a big thanks to Rob who helped make that crazy travel day a lot less crazy by taking care of all my bike needs, couldn’t have done it without you man! My flight left JFK Tuesday evening at 7pm bound for London. We flew in a 747, the biggest plane there is. I had never been on a plane that had 2 stories before it was great to walk around in. The extra space on the plane really helped keep the legs from getting stale. Once in London I had a few moments to pound a huge English breakfast before catching my connecting flight to Vienna, Austria. Once I hit Vienna everything went like clockwork. As soon as I stepped out of the Airport within 30 seconds I was on a bus bound for Bratislava, the capitol of Slovakia. During the hour and a half bus ride I was soaking up the fact that I was actually there again. There again after so many years, what I was feeling is hard to describe, really something special. As soon as I got to my hotel in Bratislava around 3pm I was met by some of my family that lives there. After we exchanged the love, we talked about meeting up for dinner that night. In the few hours I had before dinner I decided to go for a little shake out run through the city. I ran a nice easy four miler and it felt good despite the fact that by this time I had already been up for about 24hrs. The next day after a good night’s sleep it was time to get myself to the race town, Zilina. The bus ride to Zilina took nearly 5hrs, but I didn’t care I was getting a sweet tour through the beautiful Slovakian country side. We must have past the ruins of at least 3 castles on the way there, all of them seated on top of their own respective mountain; you could feel the intensity of the history. I finally got to Zilina around 7pm. Once settled into my room, quickly got some food, put my bike together and went out for some late evening training on the race course. You couldn’t ask for a better course, not a pothole in sight, clean water and spectacular scenery. The next day was the last before race day so I won’t bore you with the usual pre race day prep. I had a little chance to do some exploring which is always a blast, but mostly just tried to relax, I looked forward to seeing more of my family and possibly some of my old classmates at the race the next day. Well day three in Slovakia rolled around and race day was finally here! Maybe finally isn’t the right word, because 3 days of trying to adjust to the time isn’t really enough, but anyway I was ready to race. The men’s start was scheduled to go off at 3:10pm so I had plenty of time to get myself ready. I spent the morning chilling in my room watching Slovak fairy tales, (there wasn’t anything else on!)Around noon I went to get myself my second meal of the day and then headed to the race to check in. At the race site I was surprised to meet one of my Dad’s old friends from their village, who had come there to video tape me in the race; It was crazy good to see him again. Shortly after meeting him I met the president of the Slovak Triathlon federation, which was good because that was one the main points of making this trip. He gave me a nice little scoop on all the race details, wished me his best and said he would be on the sidelines. Well now it was time to get ready to race. I warmed up well on the bike riding one loop of the course. After the ride I prepped my transition and headed out for my 10min warm-up run, which felt good as well. Lastly, I got my wetsuit on and jumped in the lake for a warm-up swim. The good thing about getting to a race early is getting everything done; the bad thing is if you’re not careful you’ll be sitting around before go time getting stale. Unfortunately this is what happened to me I swam too early and wound up sitting around way to long. When the horn went off I came out swinging I sprinted like a mad man for the first 2 hundred meters breaking away from the mess. I don’t know if it was the sitting or the jet lag or a combo of both, but after those 200 meters the monkey really jumped on my back. I thought “man I’m ready to be done and I still have 1300 meters to go!” I had to really go within myself and just tell myself no matter how bad I feel, I am fit and I should still be moving at a descent pace. I held on and came out of the water in the front pack with about 5 other guys. Once we hit land the monkey hit me again and I just didn’t have that pop that is needed going into transition. Though my transition went smooth that lack of pop caused me to have a 10 second gap going into the bike from the guys I had been with on the swim. I was so close to them yet so far away. I could see them already rotating and working together as I was desperately trying to catch them. I kept the same distance behind them for most of the first loop, but then I began to slowly get left by them. It’s just too hard to go solo and keep up while they are working together. After 2 loops of hammering by myself a pack of three guys working together sucked me in and finally I had some help. In our little 4 pack we began to rotate beautifully. We were led by Slovak Iron man Champion Karol Džalaj, who the weekend before won the Slovak Iron man in record time 8:24, splitting 4:15 on the 112 mile bike portion! He kept us organized and we started to really move. After 6 laps of the 40k bike course it was time to run. Going into T2 I was pumped to try to regain some ground on the guys I lost in the beginning. Karol Džalaj, myself and Tomáš JURKOVIČ (another guy from our 4 pack) came flying out of transition. I my legs were heavy but my soul was light! The adrenaline was flowing. We picked off our first guy from the front pack after about 3k. Then we got another a few minutes later and another immediately after him! The first 5k felt good, but the bastard monkey jumped on my back again. I was really suffering after that 5k, I just prayed I could hold on to the position I was in. Karol and Tomáš slowly started to move away from me, I could tell they were hurting as well, but just not as bad as I was. At about 7k I heard some familiar voices cheering my name I looked right and there was some of my family! I got a little burst and picked it up a little. I got a little further down the course when I heard some more familiar voices, I looked right and it was some of my old classmates! They were pumped and once again so was I! I was able to pick it up the last lap a little and cross the finish line in the position of being the 4th Slovak and 7th over all. The mission was complete! It was one the most painful races Ive ever had the pleasure of doing but it was also one of the most special races I have done thus far. It was great to be embraced by family and friends at the finish line. I just stood there trying to catch my breath and thanked the good Lord for that amazing experience that was going on. One small step towards my dream! After regaining some feeling in my lungs and legs it was off to the 4th leg of the triathlon with some good Slovak beer. Once properly rehydrated I stumbled of for my cool down. While cooling down I ran into Pavel šimko , the winner of the race and 2008 Olympian. We exchanged high fives and went on our way. The awards ceremony was a classic European affair filled with drama and flare. They announced šimko as the champion and gave him a white dove to release into the air. As he released it, a big cage of doves were opened and they all flew dramatically into the Slovak dusk. It was awesome to be a part of. So thanks bikeway for helping make this possible and I hope I have more exciting news to tell everyone in the future as God willing I make a trek to Colombia for more ITU action. ;)