It’s already a tradition. The beginning of October brings to the city of Porto some triathletes to honour those who in 1978 joined John Collins to perform a triathlon race that brought together the 3 main events in Honolulu, “The Waikiki Rothwater Swim”, with 3.8 km in length, “ The Around-Oahu Bike Race”, which went around the island with a perimeter of 180km and ended with the completion of the Honolulu Marathon.
This year was no different, at 7 o'clock in the morning of October 3, 38 athletes anxiously awaited in the waters of the Douro for the beginning of another adventure, representing 4 nationalities between Portuguese, Spanish, Brazilians and a Russian, many of them dressed like in the seventies, with full mustaches, speedos, tops and some bicycles of that time, made of steel with changes in the frame, one of the Spirit of 78 Triathlon's brand images.
Unfortunately, this year what was waiting for the athletes was a little different than usual. The 2020 restrictions as result of the pandemic caused by Covid-19, forced a lot of changes in our habits and the Spirit of 78 Triathlon was no exception. The Spirit of 78 Triathlon is not just a triathlon race, it is much more than that, since the first minute that the most important part is the party that always accompanies the race. This year the organization had to make the difficult decision to cancel this second part.
To avoid agglomerations and crowds, the athletes had to give up their assistants at the supply’s area and had to do the race in total autonomy. They could not have any kind of help. The number of people was reduced to a minimum, with only a few volunteers ensuring that everything would go well.
In its fourth edition, the Spirit of 78 Triathlon had everything to take another big step towards its recognition. The number of registered athletes reached the hundred, with the number of foreigners being a quarter of them. With the situation getting worse in the month before, with the limitations and need for quarantine imposed by some countries, it led foreign athletes to be forced to give up. Fears, associated with the situation, led many others to do so as well.
The day started very cold with temperatures below 10 degrees. The first athletes arrived still dawn at the central location of the event, in front of the Press Museum. They all had concern marked on their faces, concern about the cold weather and the rain that was expected for the first hours of the race.
It was still nighttime when the last briefing was held, with safety instructions for the swimming segment. The athletes were anxious to get into the water. Even with the neoprene suits on, the cold felt like trying to get into the bones. The water was much better and the temperature around 18 degrees ended up bringing some calm and encouragement to the athletes. While waiting for the first rays of sunlight, a light mist began to settle over the water, in the sky you could see the full and bright moon reflecting in the calm waters of the Douro, the scene was set and at 7:19 am the race started.
Swimming in favour of the current turns out to be easier, although it is necessary to make a good navigation, the currents do not have the same intensity across the width of the river and swimming outside the area where the current is strongest can make a difference in the time when leaving the water.
From the beginning, swimming was led by Filipe Baptista from SC Espinho, with the first 3 athletes leaving the water with 20 seconds difference between each one, with Bruno Pinto from Paredes Aventura being the second and Manuel Menéres from Cães D'Avenida the third. In women, Maria Andia from the Viseu Triathlon Club was the first to leave the water in fourth place in the overall, leaving Laísa Diana from the Marvila Oriental Triathlon Club in second and Carmen Lima do Boavista in third.
Cycling is held in a 6 laps configuration on a 30 km course. It’s not an easy circuit, as there is no big climb, but several short climbs that accumulate in the legs. In the end the athletes end up with an accumulated climb that passes 1000 meters. To make it difficult, the temperature during the first 2 laps was around 10 degrees and the rain that ended up falling at that time did its damage, with an athlete giving up with principles of hypothermia. The wind also didn’t help, and it was a constant, getting stronger as the hours passed.
At the front of the race, on the first lap, the athletes from the first two places reversed their positions, and shortly behind Tiago Amaral do Paredes Aventura started to occupy the third place. Gradually the first two start to break and Nuno Abreu from Clube Zupper, who maintained a very consistent cycling, starts to get closer, going to the front on the 4th lap, never leaving this position until the end of the bike. In the transition to the run, António Salgado from SC Espinho and Bruno Pinto came shortly after. In the women there were no changes in the classification, Maria Andia was very consistent and the distance that separated her from the other athletes increased.
The race is also done in 6 laps configuration with 7 km each and with a single supply point in the middle, so that athletes are able to supply every 3.5 km. In the direction towards the source of the Douro, the course has some small slopes while towards the side of Ribeira do Porto it is completely flat, making the run quite fast.
As soon as Nuno Abreu started the run, he realized that only if a mishap happened the victory would escape him, taking into account the distances involved that could easily happen. The dispute was fought between the remaining places of the podium, with António Salgado and Bruno Pinto taking them at the beginning of the run. On the fourth lap António ended up breaking and was overtaken by Bruno. In the women despite some break on the part of Maria at the beginning of the run, the positions remained unchanged.
This year's champion was Nuno Abreu, with a fantastic time of 9h34, breaking the former Spirit of 78 Triathlon record, which has belonged to Rafael Gomes since last year, for 20 minutes. The second was Bruno Pinto with 10h08 and António Salgado finished third with 10h38.
In the woman, the champion was Maria Andia, also breaking the Spirit of 78 Triathlon record, belonging to Margarida Reis, with the time of 12h04. The second classified was Laísa Diana with 13h50 and the third was Carmen Lima with 14h42.
In the end, the balance was very positive. Despite the limitation in the number of people in the supply area, friends, family and the public complied with the organization's request and, with the necessary distance, ended up making some party even though distributed throughout the courses.
34 athletes took home the replica of the first trophy offered to those who completed the first race in 1978, the visible face of the experience they had during Spirit of 78 Triathlon, an experience they will never forget.
For 2021 the Spirit of 78 Triathlon will return on its fifth edition, and if the situation normalizes, to compensate for this year's limitations, with an even bigger party that no one will forget.
