Hi Everyone
The Triathlon Calendar came to an end on Sunday 12th October with the
Grand Final, The National Triathlon Championship, the most important race of
the year. I trained hard for this race during the last summer. The training I
had to do through was so demanding that in my life I never trained so hard
before. At one point I was training close to 35 hours a week and training this
amount of hours in the heat we had was very hard but I was determined to end
the season with some great performances
I started the swim as usual going immediately in front and
trying to open a gap. I knew it was going to be a bit more difficult as there
were no relay team swimmers to push with so I had to do all by myself. I was
feeling strong and was swimming really well. I decided to push as much as I
could in the swim to open a good gap on my nearest rivals whom were going to
give me some tough time. I completed the 1.5km swim in a good time of 21.29
We had to run a lot to go to transition area. I really
sprinted to T1 and change as fast as I could as I wanted to gain more seconds.
I started the bike immediately at a fast pace in order to get immediately in
the pace. It was a complete different route from the usual coast road at the
aharax tal mellieha. I lapped a lot on the race course during this summer as
the course did not suited my characteristic so I knew what pace I had to go in
order to leave some energy for the bike. I was keeping an average of 37.5km/hr
which was the pace I settled to keep before. At 15km to go I was starting
feeling a bit tired. I was feeling the energy I had before and my rivals
started closing the gap. I kept calm and kept on with my pace till T2
As I started the run, I was not feeling that energetic as I
wished. I don’t know why but I was feeling my legs tired. However I was running
a respectable pace and tried to keep up with it. It was very hot and the humid
conditions were killing me. I think that is why I was feeling a bit without
energy. I tried to hydrate myself and concentrate on my pace. I noticed that I
was gaining ground again on my nearest opponents. To try and push myself more
and forgot the tiredness I had in my legs I used the backmarkers as an aim to
run faster.
In the end I managed to win my 4th National Triathlon
Title. I won the race in 2.06.01 with the fastest run of the day of 37.38. It
was a hard and a very tough race and the humid conditions did not helped me. I
pushed so much and fought with myself in order to push more that soon after the
race I was not feeling so well as my blood pressure went low. This race is so
special for me as it was after the 1998 championship that I decided to start
triathlon and winning the race that I love most for the 4th time is simply amazing. It was a great season for me winning the Triathlon titile for
the 4th time, the Duathlon title for the 2nd time, the
Aquathlon title, the BSJ Series title for the 7th time, the
triathlete of the year award for the 6th time (equalled my brother’s
all time record) and represented Malta at the Commonwealth Games.
All this was only thanks to my brother/coach Dermot Galea
who is a great honour for me to follow the footsteps of the best ever Maltese
Triathlete, my swimming coach Catalin Stan whom under his guidance we improved
my swimming a lot, my parents and my wife’s parents for the support they give
me in every single race, my masseur Owen Attard, my sponsors Garmin Malta, BBB
Bike Parts Malta, Starbene Sports Nutrition, Malta Challenge Marathon, Jaycee
Malta, the Malta Triathlon Federation, my club Birkirkara St Joseph, my Kunsill
Malti ghall- isport and the Maltese Olympic Committee for all the support they
gave me throughout the whole season.
Most of all I would like to thank my number 1 supporter, my
wife Elizabeth. She is the only person who knows what I have been through this
summer. She was by my side during the heavy training I had to do though. At one
point I was training 35hrs a week and sometimes I was training even if my body
was knackered but I was so determined to win the last races of the season with
some great performances that I wanted to go through that pain. I managed to do
all the session I had thanks to my wife who was by my side helping me in
everything. Thanks a lot my love, love you so much. Without you I am lost. You
are the Adrian I always wished to have. Love you my “Adrian”.
Thanks a lot for Now
Yours in Sports
Keith
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