Padina Fest - Bolboci Race - Semimarathon Fagaras

It has been some time since I last posted and a lot of things happened. First of all the first edition of VeloCompass was held. For me it was a real success, and the fact that everyone liked the concept and would want to do it again, it means that MTB-O can have a future in Bucharest and Romania.
After VeloCompass, me and my friends (Dan, Adi and Alex) started planning a trip to the mountains. The idea was to leave Bucharest on Friday, stay in a tent at Padina and compete in The Bolboci Race on Saturday, and then leave for Fagaras to run the semimarathon. This was the idea but in the end we left Bucharest Tuesday around 12:00. We did some really good trainings at Padina, also long and with a lot of climbing. The weather was not that nice but the overall atmosphere created by the good runs and by the festival (Padina Fest) kept our mood really high.

I trained good even though I was having a awful cold since I left Bucharest. Also after 2 days there, I started having some pains in my left foot, just between the knee and the fibula bone, but I could run with the pain.

On Saturday we went to run the Bolboci Race. A 9km race with 350climb. It was a nice day, probably the first warm day of our stay. I have lead the race from start to finish and felt very confident about my run. I was in first place and Daniel was second, around 20 seconds behind.

We moved to Sambata de Sus (the finish of the semimaraton). There we also stayed in a tent, but this time the weather was nice so we could really enjoy the night.
In the morning we started the race early, because the organizers wanted to avoid the heat, but that was not possible. The sun was up and burning. I started fast and was leading after 50m. Even though I missed the path for 200m, loosing the lead, I pushed a bit and was once again in the lead. I had a big advantage after 15km and I was confident that I will win the race without a problem because I was feeling really good.

But at 16km, I stopped for some water (big mistake) and when I wanted to start running again, the pain appeared in my left foot again, this time it was so big I just couldn`t step on the left foot anymore. I sat down for some minutes until the others passed me. I got up and started walking because I didn`t want to abandon.

After 21km and some rest in the next control point I started running a bit again, real slow, and probably I was looking like Forest Gump with his casts on! I was very dissapointed because if this injury that I could not talk for some hours after the race. Now I have to take a break until it heals. I will visit the doctor tomorrow to see exactly what is the problem and what does he recommend for my problem.

P.S. more photos are available in my Picasa Album and also the GPS tracks from the training are in My Garmin Connect Account!