Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championship - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

My swim was average. My sighting was pretty good and I started running into the earlier waves about 5 minutes after the start. Must admit that I was not highly motivated to push 110%, so I just kept a nice strong stroke. The run up-and-over the beach throws off your timing and sends your HR through the roof. The lagoon was about 30C - way too hot - and loaded with algae (yuck!).

Headed into the changing tent and took a few extra seconds to put on a jersey with my nutrition as I did not want to swim with pockets and my bike set-up prevents a Bento-Box. Took my standard sweet time blow drying my hair in T1, where does the time go ?!

I need to come up with a better nutrition system on the bike.

Started the ride and moderated my pace (per instruction from the coaching staff). I believe I was passed by a couple of thousand people in the first 15km. Once across the HWY, I picked up the pace and managed to generally keep pace with the same group of riders until the end.

The bike course was really tough as it included 4 sets of short but very steep hills (21% grade). This course was more difficult than HIM Switzerland. I was riding a 12/25 which turned out to be way to big for me - next time 11/27 (or a compact!). On the second set of hills I looked down to see that I was traveling 5kph - I should have gotten off and pushed the bike up the hill as I would have been faster! Someone standing on second set of hills noted that a large number of the pros were using colorful vocabulary as the made their way up the hill.

All in all my mental effort was pretty good, but physically I suffered as my training had taken a hit in the run up to the race. That being said, there is no way to train for those hills in BKK (not to mention the floods). I did manage to follow (at a legal distance) a strong biker for a large portion of the bike course. In the middle of the race we were hit with a massive rain storm that flooded the roads so you could not see the potholes - kind of like Russian Roulette. The rain also made the down hills interesting. I was riding my breaks the whole way down. A fair number of folks got carted off by the ambulance.

On the final hill my legs totally cramped up, HR hit 181 (and all time record) . . . and I knew the run would be loads of fun.

Training took a hit post my October A-race. I delivered the best effort possible, maybe a bit too much as I could not walk for the next few days. Different gearing is a must - 11/27

Hit the changing tent, put on socks and calf compression selves and out the door.

Started running but by the 2k mark I was totally crammed up. I would have been in deep trouble without the calf selves. As this point, I shifted to survival running. I dropped the pace and started loading up on the gels and coke. I managed to catch the guy I was tracking on the bike and ran behind him from 12 to 19K. I had visions of out sprinting him and at least moving up one slot in the my AG. However, at Km 19 I completely cramped up and had to slow down to a shuffle.

Running a sub 1:40 HM in my condition was pretty decent. Without the cramping issues I should have been able to run sub 1:35 as the weather was nice and cool.

Not much. I did a great job staying mentally tough and managing an ugly situation my run inherited from the bike. Bottom line - more bike training!

Hobbled around and fueled up. That evening there was the awards dinner which was awsome . . . and made the race worth while.

Ended up talking to Melissia Rollinson (the winner and reigning world 70.3 champion) and the 4 women pro finisher, butI had no idea who they were . . . I just figured they were some uber fit AG'ers. Nice! They were really nice. Also, talked to Chris Leto - I knew who he was - very nice guy. After the dinner they pushed back the tables and cranked up the tunes. All the pros hit the dance floor and it did not take long before most of the guys were shirtless. Kind of funny to watch Matt Reed, Michael Raelert and Christ Leto dancing up a storm shirt less. It was a really great party.


Bike fitness.


This is a great race, you just need to make sure you are hill-fit. I would have been happier had I finished in the 10%, but I did my best with the cards I was dealt.