Mirek Fliegl M65 at the ME Masters in Madeira golden and in the heat on a 30km walk on the road 3: 13: 42h. 

Here is an authentic look at the thirties as Mirek Fliegl saw and felt her:

The more I relaxed after Thursday's ten, the more I looked forward to Saturday's 6th. Also because all registered opponents had poorer performance and I could go according to myself to feel. I wanted to go at a pace of 15:13, fine, race with whoever is coming. The benchmark for me was Mirek Luniewski. But as the race approached, I became nervous, which escalated until I left. At 05:2, 2 buses were to go to the dock. We went with Sasha and Vítek. The bus didn't come, so we preferred to walk the 30 kilometers. The sun was shining hard. We reached the start an hour before the shot. The competitors who came earlier hid from the sun in the shadow of the building. No one wanted to warm up in the heat. 20 and XNUMX km, respectively, required saving energy. Stretching in the shadow was enough.

The starting procedure was similar to the ten, only all about 25 men and about 15 women standing behind them started in one wave. I started from the back row, so I had an overview of my opponents. Right at the beginning, a group of about 7 was formed, which was formed by Mirek and from which the Frenchman David Durand-Pichard escaped very quickly. Apparently he lacked experience from such a race, because after a kilometer he had a 100 m lead. Maybe it suited him to be the main star of the camera in front of him. It was obvious he was exaggerating. In the second lap he slowed down, at the end of the 12th km I went in front of him, in the finish he gave him a ¾ circuit. I was tempted to keep in touch with the front group, but my decision to go relaxed felt. Even so, the first two laps were almost half a minute faster. Mirek walked 50 m in front of me, which suited both of us, because both of us were refreshed by his wife, and by appointment he had priority. As a result, she chased everything. But in the 5th lap he slowed down and I ran out a kilometer before the snack bar. Knowing that I did not want to break the agreed I kept 10 m behind him. I told the lady what I wanted in the next round and I went in front of Mirek. I was still doing well. I refreshed myself regularly (with water on my face, hands and thighs, the rest in a cap) and refreshed. Energy 75g gels: before the start, at the beginning of the 8th, 16th and 22nd kilometer, in the meantime 6 times the ion, at the beginning of the 18th km a strong solution of table salt.

About 8 km before the finish, my right hip started to hurt and the race started to hurt. However, I was still able to be faster than my opponents, even those who were not a round back. About 4,5 km before the finish I reached Mirek Luniewski. He was on a towel, almost walking as a tourist. I encouraged him to come together and not give up. He missed it almost half an hour behind me. I also had enough in the penultimate round, but I went ahead of the Spaniard Jose Fructuos Calva, who still looked good. At the beginning of the last round, it helped me a lot that the Germans Borsch shouted at me to straighten up and Udo Schaeffer to put more hands along my body. In the last kilometer, I gathered all my strength, I didn't notice the pain in my hip, and I accelerated to the finish line. When I saw the finish gate 300 m before the finish, it kicked me to a nice finish, I had already flown from the turn to the finish (80 m).

I went each round at 12:03 - 12:03 - 12:17 - 12:21 - 12:38 (I reached Luniewski) - 2:34 - 12:52 - 12:58 - 12:50 - 13: 10 - 13:24 - 13:30 - 13:56 - 13:52 - 13:15. Already in the 3rd kilometer I received a reprimand from the same referee as at ten. Therefore, especially in the second half of the race, I pulled up in front of him and walked as relaxed and swinging as possible, which made me noticeably faster at 50 meters. Another example of how the psyche affects sports performance.

What pleased me the most was that although 3:13:42 was not one I could brag about, I took 3rd place in the absolute standings.

For the sake of completeness, I would like to state that after a normal, rather lighter breakfast around half past eight, I had a semolina porridge of 12 deci of milk for lunch at 4 o'clock, followed by coffee with Mila. The diet of that day and the subsequent refreshments and refreshments seem to me to be optimal.

Results:

30 km WALK RACE - MEN

20 km WALK RACE - WOMEN

And in conclusion we add:

preparing for this race in this sci-fi covid season, when nothing can be planned in advance and you don't know until the last minute if your dream race will take place at all and not be canceled, requires a really big dose of patience, determination of the psyche, not to mention add to that the veteran age, when everything you find young, somehow easily, automatically and almost without problems, so in veterans it is just the opposite. And Mirek managed to combine this, so that even the view of the overall result list and his 3rd place overall out of all the brave ones is really great.

Congratulations to Mirek!