Lukas Siska ITU Columbia tri race report

ITU COLOMBIA SEPTEMBER 26TH 2010

Had a sweet trip down to South America racing in Guatape, Colombia! I’m blessed and honored to have the opportunity to do this. The picture above is me on the only flat portion of the wild bike course. Colombia brought my first legal ITU finish! My first ITU attempt was in Mexico in May where I had a high speed crash taking me out, my second attempt was in Montreal, Canada where I disqualified! This wasn’t the ITU season debut I had envisioned, but that doesn’t matter I still can’t believe I’m on the ITU circuit; it’s a dream come true. I had smooth travel from NY to Miami to Medellin, Colombia.
From Medellin I as well as a handful of other athletes were picked up by the Colombian tri federation. They took us on the 90min ride “up” to Guatape. Looking out the window I could tell I was in a whole new world. You could see donkeys walking around loose on the streets just like we see squirrels here. The country side was spectacular; we were in the mountains so it was pretty cool temps. We were also at 7000 ft so the air was a little bit thinner. The people and the country were great, though there were reminders of the instability with armed Colombian forces on many of the town street corners. They all looked happy though, maybe it was because the head “terrorist rebel” fighter had been brought down only days before. Anyway I could go on and on about Colombia.
Lets cut the chase to the race. My race was scheduled to go off around 11 in the morning so I had plenty of time to get ready. I slept pretty good, but I was already feeling some minor effects of a stomach virus that I had picked up from my younger sister earlier in the week. The body felt alright though, so I didn’t think much of it. For breakfast race morning I forced down some eggs with a traditional Colombian flat bread, as well as a real Colombian banana(that nanner was mad good) and half of a power bar…. I was set. I rode the 2miles to transition and began warming up. During warm-up I caught a glimpse of the pro women, they looked good… I mean they looked solid out there! Being an international race it drew quite a bit of interest from the locals, it was neat to be a part of it. People were asking if they could take your picture and wondering what was this Slovak kid was all about. The clock ticked down to 11 and was time for the starter to line us up according to our ranking. Then all the athlete’s names and country were announced as we ran down to the pontoon. When I heard my name over the loud speakers: “Lukas Siska representing Slovakia” I got a surge of adrenaline as I headed down to find a spot on the pontoon. The trouble is when you are a rookie, finding a good spot is tough as you are one of the last people called to take your spot. The only spots available were smack in the middle of the pontoon….I thought to myself “here we go son, don’t wuss out its battle time.” The horn went off and we dove into that clear... cold… turquoise water. I had a good start and sprinted for open water. I saw an opening to the left and went after it. This was a bad choice as there was a current to the right where a solid group was swimming. At the time I thought I could swim just as good as the guys in the current if I had room to swim…..wrong! That group stayed together and put a solid 30 seconds on me and some of the other guys who chose to go left. Another valuable lessoned learned in pro triathlon, pack swimming is not a bad thing, like it usually is in age group swimming. Once out on the bike course, I had about 3 minutes to catch my breath before I began riding straight up. I rode with a small but hard working pack, we did work and were able to suck in a few guys throughout the bike. There were four laps to do and the last three were all done in pouring rain. The rain made things really tricky, especially on the hair pin turns on the down-hills, but thankfully we made it alive. I couldn’t wait to hit the run as we left T2. The last ITU “T2” I was in, I was told my race was over, this time as left T2 without a word from any ref I felt like I was running home free. On the run I had my eyes on a guy from Costa Rica who was 5 meters in front of me, I was giving everything I had to close the gap but it was just staying the same. After 2 laps we past a couple of guys from Brazil and Chile, but that 5 meters from the Costa Rican athlete was not getting any smaller. Finally, towards the end of the third lap I pulled even with him, he attempted to surge and leave me, but I sucked him back in. Once I pulled even with him the second time I tried to give him some of his own medicine, I threw in a surge…It worked, I gapped him and didn’t see him again. The surge hurt because It was now the last lap and my quads were remembering the punishment they took on the bike, they began threatening to cramp, I tried punching them with my fist as I was running and it actually helped a little. Thankfully by this time I had less than a mile to go and the legs held up. I even had a little kick the last 50 meters to the finish…my first ITU finish!
When you’re a rookie to ITU you cant help but have doubts every once in a while. You wonder if you can hang with those “pro” boys or not. You ask yourself “am I kidding myself trying to chase this dream?” All these questions have been plaguing me all this season. So with this race I gained self confidence, I feel more like I belong. Despite those tactical errors in swim I was happy to be able to finish close to mid pack and close to ITU points. It would have of course been better to grab the points, but this race was a great learning experience and hopefully I can take what I have learned in Colombia and apply it to a “point winning” race in the near future! Take care everybody…Lukas here wishing you all the best and a happy fall!