Winter Aquathlon for everyone

New year, new season and new experiences. As many of you might have noticed last year, I had the opportunity to document the journey of my friend on his triathlon path.This year the tables have turned. Well Lubos, what do you mean?

This year, we were little bit inpatient, you see we couldn't wait for the triathlon season to start, so we decided to attend aquathlon. Triathlon, aquathlon what's the difference you may ask? Well, the main difference is that there is no bike part of the race. The athletes swim, then take a break to get dry and then they run. I couldn't say no to this opportunity as I love photography and I try to take as many chances I get to photograph people, plus in this case the event is taking place in Bratislava, so it's not a big deal to attend.

Now let me walk you through the before race stuff. There is a small addition to my setup. I bought a new lens for taking pictures of larger groups of people, plus I also want to capture different perspective of the race as previous year I got feedback that people are also interested in more wide photographs where they can see multiple athletes all racing at the same time. I won't tease you any longer, well you have most probably already guessed the lens, it's Sony 35mm F/1.4. 🥳

The good thing about events in Bratislava is that I know where to go to eat, so even before the race starts I meet with my friend Karol, who also happens to live in the same city district where the race is taking place and we start the day by having a delicious breakfast at Mint restaurant.

Now, let's get to the race itself, it takes place at one of the Primary Schools in Karlova Ves city district, to get inside you have to take off your shoes as you are entering the pool area. Pro-tip: if you are a photographer, make sure to bring slippers with you, I am for sure adding this to my gear list for any future aquathlon.

Inside I am being greeted by familiar faces from thriathlon, guess what? A lot of Triathletes races aquathlon as a part of their training routine before the triathlon season starts, so basically it's all old faces just without their bikes. Well, now is the time to scout the location, talk with people and see where I could get the best shots, plus I am also taking some behind the scene photographs for the candid look.

Time flies and we are at the start of the swim. Another observation I make is that make sure, when the race is taking place in 25m pool, at the start when all the racers jump into the water there will be a flood wave coming out of the pool. Don't leave your photo bag on the ground as your gear gets wet! This happened to my fellow photographer.

After the swim we had a break, so we went to the nearby bakery to get coffee and some cakes. Once fully refreshed, I went for another location scouting, this time to the outside field, same routine look for good angles, think of composition where to stand, where the races go etc. I was especially looking for this as the race takes place at the end of January which means that the golden hour happens relatively soon in the day. Which means epic shots from the run stage of the race and indeed the Sun delivered.

With that being said, please enjoy the rest of the gallery. From my perspective this was one of the best of start of years, as I quickly jumped into the photography hobby.