First season: Before my debut in triathlon I did some cycling with my scout 🦉 troop and I ran 🏃 a little bit to prepare for the 20km of Brussels, but I didn't know how to swim the crawl 🏊. 4 years ago, after changing my studies and ending my scouting career, I started triathlon. I joined a club next door, but unfortunately there was not much structured training 🙅♂️📈. In January 2019 I met an athletic team 🎽 who taught me to love to run a lot of km and with whom I made a huge progress in running. As for my progression in cycling 🚴♂️ and swimming 🏊 I did that season by training by feel with one to two training sessions per discipline per week without real progress. I finished my first season with the Belgian championship 🇧🇪 where I came last out of water which gave me a big blow to my morale and after that I looked for a swimming club to improve my technique, but unfortunately I couldn't find one near my home. After this big disappointment and the fact that I'm not progressing in swimming, I decided to stop triathlon 🥲 and to switch to duathlon 🏃🚴🏃 until I get older to start long distance triathlon again (where swimming has less impact on the final triathlon time).
Second season: Finally I didn't miss much this season because at the beginning of March the lockdown 🏠 started and we didn't have access to the swimming pools anymore anyway. In running this season I continued to progress well and beat my personal record in the 5000m with a time of 16'43" (3'21"/km) 🎉. On the bike I didn’t make any real progress, but I also didn't regress. During this season there were not many duathlons because of the covid, but I still participated in the Belgian championships of my age category where I just managed to make a top 10.
Third season: End of 2020, I chose to start training with the help of a bike coach which helped me to make some progress, but still not many more duathlons on the calendar 🗓 . June 2021 after seeing some videos of Xterra formats and with the lack of competitions I started swimming 1 to 2 times a week again after a 17 month break. At the same time I decided to stop my studies of industrial engineering 🥸 to start studying nautical sciences 👨✈️🚢 in Antwerp. In October 2021 I took the difficult decision to leave the athletic team after these several enriching years both on a sportive and social level and also to leave my bike coach to start training with 1 coach for the 3 disciplines. Maybe a hard decision to take, but I don't think it was a bad one considering my triathlon season that followed. 1 month after starting to train with my new coach I joined another triathlon club in Antwerp where I do my new studies. In that new club I received a lot of advice by the pool from the club coaches which allowed me to make huge progress in my swimming technique 🏊.
Fourth season: This season I have been training regularly with my new triathlon team 🫶 and I have made a lot of progress in swimming. I participated in several Belgian second division triathlons and at the Belgian sprint and Olympic championships which allowed me to gain a lot of experience in a very short time 😄.
August 13th 2022, Xterra Ardennes at the lake of Gileppe...
The D-day, I lined up on this Xterra for 2 km of swimming 🏊, 63 km of mountain biking 🚵 and 20 km of trail running 🏃 with no experience on such a long format except the Olympic triathlon I did 1 month ago, nor any experience in Xterra.
Once the 152 participants are in the water, at 10am the gun goes off 💣. I had taken care to position myself well on the starting line to have the shortest trajectory to the first turn, it paid off because after a good start I took this first turn in the top 10. The first 1000m are made in the sun ☀️ and my glasses are not tinted enough to see where the next buoys are, so I stay in the feet of the concurrents (it also allowed me to save some energy). Once we arrive at the 1000 m we turn around and I see very well where I have to go, I decide to move a little bit from the pack behind which I was and I manage to better my swim technique which allows me to take even a small advance. After these 2 km of swimming I get out of the water with an average of 1'26"/100m (I had never swum so fast in triathlon before) and to my biggest surprise I am announced that I am fourth 🤯!
I have difficulty believing it, but I hurry in the first transition not to lose a second gained in water. After putting on my shoes, my helmet and my camelbak I jump on my bike and have only one thing in mind, the day is still long, don't get burned. During the 63 km of mountain biking 🚵 that will follow, I will be careful not to get too high in cardio and to eat and drink regularly. I manage to control myself 🧘♂️ and not burn out. Unfortunately it will cost me a few places and I finish the bike part 16th. However, thanks to this I don't start my run completely blown up 🧠.
The trail run is a real pain in the ass and keeps going up and down ⛰🗻, thanks to my relatively light weight I manage to catch up with some competitors. But from the 8th km I feel that it starts to be difficult. On the climbs I do like my competitors and I opt for the fast walk which doesn't make me lose too much time, but saves a lot of muscles. On the downhills I manage to gain a little time compared to the others by simply disconnecting my brain 🤪 and let the gravity do the work 🚀. A little after the 10th km the tip of my foot snags in a root on the way down due to the lack of lucidity after those 4h of effort and I fall on my knees and forearms 🥴. With the adrenaline shot that the fall gives me I get up instantly and start running again. The fall didn't really make me lose time, but even gain time with the adrenaline, fortunately it was only a few scratches. To finish the 20 km trail, it was a bit of a mental game, but I still managed to gain 4 places on this part.
In the end I finished 12th out of 152 participants and 2nd 🥈 in M20-24 as the youngest participant overall 🤷♂️. This great result allows me to qualify for the Xterra World Championships 🌍 which will take place on October 1st in Italy in Molveno (Trentino)! 🎉
To conclude I wanted to share a message that matters a lot to me 🫶: When you have a passion, live it to the fullest. When you have a goal, surround yourself with the right people, do everything possible to achieve it, but above all: NEVER GIVE UP, WORK WILL ALWAYS PAY OFF!
If you want to support me and follow the rest of my adventures don't hesitate to follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thobou_tri/