Many races require an overnight stay, sometimes several nights, in a hotel near the event location. The logistics of racing usually focus on early morning and award ceremonies happen later in the evening, and these early/late times never seem to fall in line with flight schedules. Plus for bigger races you usually need to arrive and collect things the day before, or check in your bike and other race essentials the day before, or purchase that one missing piece of gear the day before… something like that. So, you end up staying in a local hotel for at least a night.

I recently did a race with my team on one of the neighboring islands. We left GC early in the morning, arrived at La Palma, took a bus to the hotel, did some bike warm up, got our race materials, had lunch, a nap… and the race was at 6pm. No problem, it went well, I ended up on the podium, had dinner, then back to the room at about 11:30pm. A bit past my bedtime, but hey it was a special night – I was on the podium!

But I am one of the older ones on the team. The majority are in their 20s, and are Spanish – and 11:30pm means the night is just getting started. So there I was, in bed, with the window open (because it was stiflingly hot, no breeze) and with earplugs (because the kids were out and about). The pool was nearby, and I could hear people down there, and groups going from one room to another. Then it was 12:30am. I finally fell asleep around 1:30am.

The next morning, we had a ride scheduled for 7:30am, meeting in the parking lot at 7:20am. I was up early, around 6:15am, as I am a creature of habit. It was pitch black and dead quiet, so I went out to the balcony to get what little breeze there was. 7:20am rolled around and it was still dark outside, so I decided against the ride. After the late night, I didn’t see many (any) of the kids out there either, ready to ride. We put our bikes back in the travel van at 9:00am and then all went to breakfast.

The kids were all right. None of them seemed too tired, at least at breakfast. By 11:00am we were checked out of the hotel and on the bus back to the airport – this is where they started to crash. It was a quiet ride to the airport that morning, and not many eyes were open to enjoy the beautiful scenery. I felt ok, but I wondered if I would have done the same thing all those years ago when I started racing. Then I realized that I was already older than most of them when I started the tri thing at the old age of 27.

It was a good experience. I can keep up with some of the kids during the race, but for the after hours stuff I am woefully out of shape.