Olympus Man Triathlon

At the start of November I took part in Activate Cyprus's Olympus Man Triathlon.

It is a half Ironman distance triathlon based in Cyprus. Although each of the disciplines were slightly short on distance!

You start with a 1.9km swim in Paphos Harbour, before cycling 90km up to Troodos square in the mountains, and then finish with a half marathon finishing on the top of Mount Olympus.

Here is my account of it all.

Swim:

Nothing too exciting to report here. It was nice calm waters with 2 laps of a triangle course before a straight section to get you out where you had parked your bikes. Clear waters as is always the case out in Cyprus and despite it almost winter, the water wasn't too cold.

Actual distance was 1.6km completed in a time just short of 29 minutes, for an average pace of 1.50/100m - which I was content with.

Bike:

My typical leisurely transitio remained here as with every other triathlon I have completed, so at least I am consistent.

The bike course heads north out of Paphos for about 16km on flat roads before turning inland for the rest of the route.

I'll jump ahead to the stats, it was 82km with 2,300m of elevation. So basically just a constant climb from that 16km mark. I settled in for the slog but thanks to the breathtaking views, up until about 60km, it was largely good fun and I felt very lucky to ride such an awesome route.

However by the 60km point my right foot hurt from the constant pressure of the cleat, and morale was low thanks to the incredibly frustrating 10km/hr climbing speed. Despite putting in a lot of effort, I was going nowhere. It was pretty demoralising knowing I still had a couple of hours riding when all I wanted to do was change to the run.

I fuelled well on the bike with a mix of flapjacks, gels and glucose water, and the weather was sunny without the heat, and no wind or rain. So really I couldn't complain - but towards the end I was!

For the final 3km it was downhill, and I have never felt so quick cruising at 30km/hr after roughly 4 hours of cycling through uphill treacle!

I made it into transition after 4hr 30mins of riding, very happy with my time, as after all my training rides I had expected to finish in 5 hours.

Run:

The run was really a tale of two halves. I have a habit of cramping on these longer triathlons when I get to the run so I made a conscious effort not to go off too fast, which seemed to work as I didn't get any cramps, which was ace.

The first 10km went really well as I overtook about 8 people and felt like a pro. I didn't feel like I was trying too hard and I was confident I could maintain this for the entire course. However, from 11km it took a massive dip. I was absolutely shattered, I just wanted to lie down and go to sleep.

My prep the night before was pretty poor with less sleep than I would have liked, which certainly was contributing to my urge to have a mid-race nap.

The run is just over 20km with 440m of climbing on what at times is quite technical trail. As the run progressed I had more and more little stumbles as I caught my trailing feet on the protruding rocks, too lazy to actually lift it over.

The end of the route is scrambling up to the peak of Mount Olympus which is a killer way to end a triathlon, but I got there in the end.

Stats:

I was 13th out of 49 finishers and even managed to snag 3rd place in my age group which I was pretty happy about, my total time was 7hr 30mins, around 1hr 45mins slower than the K1 route I did earlier in the year. Which goes to show how tough the course.

Conclusion:

It is a beautiful yet tough course. If you are in Cyprus you should definately check it out, and I would argue it's even worth making the trip across. I really enjoyed it and hopefully will get another crack in the future at it.