I don't know if I'm allowed to say this as a person, but I've never had a bedside lamp in the last 26 years, and if I did, it was stolen from my parents' bedside table, but shhh! You're probably wondering why I'm writing a whole blog about this. Did I buy a lamp like this in IKEA? I've never done that in the last 26 years, so why would I do that in the next 26 years? Yes, I know, if I ever have a flat, I might have to go to a furniture store. But not for a bedside lamp, I can tell you that.
Let me start from the beginning.
The morning
The alarm clock rang early that Sunday morning and the weather forecast wasn't exactly encouraging for a triathlon, to say the least, as there was still snow in the garden at home that Sunday. I travelled with my parents to Dielsdorf in the canton of Zurich to the indoor swimming pool in Erlen, as I wanted to test myself again on a smaller scale before my first big competition. When I arrived at the indoor pool, lots of people asked me how we were going to do it today, because it was going to be very cold - 1 degree Celsius. We swim in the indoor pool, but the cycling and running take place outside. I had decided to just do my thing and approach the whole thing with a certain amount of composure.
Transition zone
When setting up the transition area, I noticed that the meadow where the bikes are parked for the transition looks like a Sunday afternoon at the Open Air in St. Gallen. Luckily for me, I've experienced this with 2/3 beer in my blood, so I can manage it with lactate in my blood. For others, this is a real problem :-). I left my running shoes and bike at my place and went into the changing room of the indoor swimming pool. The special thing about this race was that the first transition was neutralised. So the first transition took place in the changing room of the indoor pool. As usual, I got my clothes ready so that I could change during the race. My aim was to get my engine revving properly for the first time so that everything felt like a triathlon.
The start
The start in the indoor pool took place at 15-second intervals. I opened the race by jumping into the water. After a few months without racing, it was like waking up at three in the morning and trying to sprint out of the cold. Not that I've ever done that before, but you wake up and your body wonders what's going on. After 2 x 8 lengths, I jumped out of the warm pool and ran into the changing room. I stood there with a pulse of 180 and sweating, if my body had known that I would be entering winter in the next minute or two, it would definitely have said stop. But I got into my clothes and out into the cold. As I sprinted into the transition area, I first felt the hard stone slabs and then suddenly the mud before I grabbed my bike and stormed out of the transition area. With mud on my feet, I jumped on my bike and set off. I think my body felt an open-air flashback at that moment, but what happened in the Sittertobel stayed down there.
Cycling
On the bike I then realised: Oh perfect, I hadn't connected my power meter to the bike computer, but I knew that my feelings in sport rarely deceive me. I rode as hard as I could in Dielsdorf. The whole time I imagined myself sitting on the roller on the Australian veranda and overheating, I don't remember how warm I got, but it was over 40 degrees body temperature. So I never got cold and I just rode so hard that my head couldn't even think about whether it was cold or not.
Running
So off the bike again, out onto the muddy meadow and into my running shoes. That's when I noticed for the first time that it was starting to rain and this is when normal people would say that I would never do that for a bedside lamp if I could run through a shopping centre with dry feet and then eat a hot dog for a franc. I didn't realise that the main prize was a lamp. My motivation to run was stronger after the tough bike ride. For the first few kilometres, my feet felt like two planks of wood and I thought with every step that they would break like rotten wood. When it started to snow in the last few metres, I was looking forward to a dip in the whirlpool and a warm shower.
The trophy
So after a Sunday in winter, I earned myself a beautiful, handmade bedside lamp and was able to receive a trophy that has found a good user in me. I don't know if there will be any more trophies, because the next time it's "On your marks" and the horn sounds, I'll be competing against the greats of our sport. I'm really looking forward to it. If you're thinking about buying a lamp now, don't forget that there are other ways to buy them, or rather, to acquire them.
See you out there