Moraviaman 2016

Date: June 18, 2016

Place: Otrokovice, Czech Republic

Race: Moraviaman, full "ironman" distance triathlon (3.8 km swimming, 180 km cycling, 42.2 km running)

Story by Himadri:

It was a very nice Saturday when nine members of Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team: Ekalabhya, Purnendu, Namitabha, Pragadata, Prasannateyu, Smarana, Shilanyas, Udayachal and Himadri decided to complete Moraviaman - a full distance triathlon in Otrokovice, Czech Republic, located only 10km from Zlin.

From left to right: Pragadata, Himadri, Udayachal (down), Prasannateyu, Smarana, Ekalabhya (down), Purnendu and Namitabha.

Altogether 275 men and 19 women came to the starting line of the race on that morning. It was a sunny day and the lake in Otrokovice was already warm and pleasant. But almost everybody took on a wetsuit to take advantage of its added swimming speed.

The swimming was two laps, 3.8km total, in a beautiful lake and I had a great swim with a time of 59 minutes, which is my best swimming time ever on an ironman.

Just minutes before the start.

Then the cycling started: 180 km with 1400 m elevation gain on the course. We had to complete four laps in a beautiful local countryside and in each lap we had to climb two fairly hard hills. I have to admit that I greatly admired Czech cyclists for their amazing speed. In Hungary I have participated in many, many triathlon races, and I believed that I have quite fair cycling speed. But on Moraviaman 2016 I realized that Czech cyclists are much faster!

So in spite of having a great swim, quite a few cyclists passed me. Because of that I pushed myself too much during the cycling. As a consequence already on the 120th kilometer I started running low on energy, which was definitely a great mistake. I should have preserved my energy and not give out everything on the bike.

Anyway, I was very happy when I got off the bike and started running. It was so great relief to change the movements! We were running in the same charming countryside surrounded by forests and fields.

The beginning of the running went pretty well, but the second half of the marathon became as difficult as usually. It was already quite hot by that time. At the last lap of the marathon I had to walk a lot because of the stomach pain. But this is already a "normal" experience for me on every ironman.

I finaly crossed the finish line with my new personal record of 11 hours 21 minutes, five minutes better than last year on ExtremeMan in Nagyatad!

This was my 3rd completed long distance triathlon. I feel I am better on shorter distances as my best time on half distance is 4:50. But it was a very inspiring race, with perfect organization, gorgeous landscapes and good weather. It felt good to compete together with so many triathletes from Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team! We had great time together and in spite of the "usual" difficulties during the race I really enjoyed the experence!

Thank you Moraviaman!

Official results of Moraviaman 2016:

Finisher list

Results per category

Overview of SCMT members' results on Moraviaman 2016 (absolute place and place in age category in brackets):

105 (32) Shilanyas Andrej Bielik, Trencin, Slovakia, 11:08:58.9

119 (36) Himadri Czaba Kavai, Budapest, Hungary, 11:21:03.8

185 (23) Ekalabhya Zoran Bozhinov, Skopje, Macedonia, 12:15:16.1

194 (7) Namitabha Aleksandar Arsic, Nis, Serbia, 12:24:29.5

231 (33) Purnendu Dusan Knezevic, Podgorica, Montenegro, 13:31:42.8

245 (36) Prasannateyu Dejan Kakonji, Subotica, Serbia, 14:01:49.5

254 (7) Pragadata Grgo Skenderovic, Subotica, Serbia, 14:52:46.8