Notice the nervous guy in the middle...
Swim: 40:09 (245th place)
Bike: 2:46:56 (165th place) includes both T1 and T2
Run: 1:57:20 (220th place)
Total: 5:24:24 (196th place out of 1191 finishers, 19th out of 140 age groupers)
Swim: The swim went as planned. I was glad that the water temperature
was a smidgen below 26 degrees C., which allowed for wetsuits. The ocean
was clear and smooth, good swimming conditions. I wasn't able to draft
effectively as it was a mass water start and the fast swimmers pulled
away in the first 100 meters.
I tried to relax in the water and keep myself straight, checking my path
every 2 or 3 strokes. 2 x 900 meters around 3 extremely
well-camouflaged buoys and I was on the beach in 40 minutes. My plan was
to do 40-45 minutes, so I was happy with 40 minutes. Next time I should
be more ambitious....
Bike: The bike was 2.5 laps of about 36k loops running along the shore
and back inland. The course was rather flat with a few small hills,
dogs, and cows. Other than these minor distractions, I had a fairly good
ride. I rode with Stan for the first 10k or so, than with Jay for the
last 30k. My time was 2:42 which was almost exactly my bike split in
Singapore half-IM 4 years ago so I was pretty satisfied with that.
Singapore was a flat fast course in 2008 and I hadn't done much bike
training this year, only 1 long ride over 90k. For Singapore I had come
off an ironman 2 months prior while this time I had a rather low
training base. I could feel the lack of training in the last 20k, and
the stronger winds and heat also contributed to my fatigue. Despite a
daunting 21k run ahead of me, I was happy to dismount my bike and record
a 33.8 kph average speed.
Run: Suffice to say, I had very little in the tank for the run. (my
average training week last month was 6-7 hours). I had originally
thought I could do 5 minute per k pace, but that idea soon went out the
window. The run course also lacked aid stations during the first 3-4k,
which I badly needed. I doused myself, chugged several sports drinks,
took salt, and averaged about 5 1/2 minute Ks for the first 10k. I was
pretty exhausted but it was fun to pick out my teammates and friends
along the course.
I guess I slowed a bit during the second half of the run, but picked it
up with 3k to go. I could hear the music and Whit's voice at about 1k to
go, which gave me the energy for one final spurt.
The following day Jay and I embarked on a rather post-ironman bike ride around the southern tip of Taiwan, which had breathtaking views. We ended up doing 80k the next day...not much of a recovery day!
