Hola todos,
Getting to Klagenfurt am Wörthersee
So, my main issue with early morning trains (and planes, and buses) is that you run the risk of oversleeping or missing an alarm. With afternoon and evening transport, you have the “What do I do with my bags all day?” problem, of course, but right now I think I’d prefer the latter, since I basically woke up every hour last night dreaming that I had overslept and missed my train to Vienna! When I finally got up, it was because the sun had already risen and so I had a mini-panic attack. Until I realized it was 4:30 am! That’s how early the city gets light out. Makes me wonder how dark it gets in winter...
As I made my way to the train (via metro), people were already out and about—but many of these folks were coming home from the night before! Even though the area around my hostel got quiet around 11 pm (I’m guessing a noise regulation), there’s clearly plenty of nightlife in other quarters.
After asking a few locals for directions from the metro to the train station (It was right there, I was just too tired to notice it.), I caught the train without any drama.
But unlike the trains I’ve been on before, this one had Harry Potter-like carriages that sat groups of people and had closing doors. Very European!
I found a car with two other women in it and promptly fell asleep.
We crossed border into Austria without much fanfare and got into Vienna. I had a short layover at the train station where I bought a bit of a breakfast and some coffee. (I was back on the euro! I knew how to say please and thank you!)
I got my new train (which was nicer regional one, much more similar to an Amtrak) and got to Klagenfurt am Wörthersee after a few hours. It was roughly 6-6.5 hours of total travel.
While getting to Klagenfurt am Wörthersee was no problem, I had trouble finding the bus I needed to take to get to the race park where I was meeting my parents. I needed help from no fewer than 3 train/bus station employees and a random man to finally get me to the bus I needed. When the bus arrived and I asked the driver where he was going (in very stilted German showing a screenshot of the stop I needed), I realized I hadn't even purchased a ticket yet! I was able to buy one on the bus, though, (cash only; fortunately, I had cash!) and I was finally able to get to the race park and lake.
Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, in the Karnten region of Austria, is about 3-ish hours outside of Vienna by car towards the Slovenian border. It's a smaller town that seems to primarily operate on summer tourism by Austrians and other Europeans. The region is beautiful--tons of green and farmland and random castles on hills. Klagenfurt itself has a stunning lake and tons of rivers and creeks running through the town and along the houses.
And wow wow wow-- small town Europe is where it's at! The lake water was beautifully blue and the temperature was perfect. The racers were going to have a great day tomorrow!
It was the day before the race, so we didn't do too much. (My parents have been in Klagenfurt for a few days, so they have seen the local sights a bit.) We went back to the Airbnb and just chilled with an early dinner in so my dad could carb-load and get plenty of rest.
My mom and I also made sure we had everything planned and packed as our race spectator prep—we take that job seriously!
It's Race Day!
It's hard to believe that the whole reason for this trip is already here! My dad has put in so much time and energy into training, and we're so proud of him.
Race mornings are early. We had an early wake up, about 4 am, so that my dad could get all set up at the race venue before it started. My mom and I even managed to accidentally get front row seats to the start of the swim: we were just going to situate ourselves up on the pier overlooking the swim, but at the last minute they opened up some of the beach right along the swim start. We were even able to spot my dad before he went off for the swim, which can be hard to do when everyone’s wearing the same thing: a black wetsuit and a green swim cap.
I'll save you all of the details from that day: my dad was racing for about 14.5 hours and my mom and I managed to see him multiple times on both the bike and run, even though the course was unfamiliar (and all of the checkpoints and race distances were in kilometers...) [And while I have a lot of videos, I don't have a ton of pics to share. We mostly all look sweaty and tired--to varying degrees, of course...]
And because the Airbnb was so close to a portion of the bike course, we were able to have breakfast and lunch at the Airbnb instead of fast food and we had access to nice bathrooms--a key race day commodity!
He looked great all day, even through the final stretches of the marathon. Before we knew it, it was time for him to finish! We saw him at a final spectating point and then ran to the finish to try and beat him there. The IM Austria finish line vibes were awesome. We were able to watch my dad have a super strong finish. He was so full of energy despite his long day and excited to cross the finish line.
This was his 19th Ironman-distance race finish and we couldn't be prouder :') The real question is how mobile he will be when we head to Vienna next? We still have plenty of walking and touring to do!
Besos,
Tina the ExploraDora
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