"Confucius' Revenge"

With some new friends just before the race start

The triathlon last week wasn't done with me when I thought I was done with it. No, come Monday afternoon, I was spending an inordinate amount of time in the bathroom with a case of diarrhea the likes of which I had not experienced in many years. Thank God for Immodium! I also was feverish and lethargic. We figure it must have had something to do with the Love River water. Remember how I mentioned it smelled like a sewer? You can't really go swimming in any body of water and not end up ingesting at least a little bit of it - it's just not possible, no matter how hard you try. I also discovered a cut on my foot after exiting the water on race day, probably from another competitor's fingernail amidst all the flailing that takes place at the beginning of the swim leg, when people are clawing to get past one another until the pack eventually thins out some as the race progresses. Anyhow, we figure I got sick via one of these two methods - either inadvertent ingestion or infection via my open wound. Took me about a week to kick it. I'm feeling much better now, but being laid low by "Confucius' Revenge" pretty much removed any chance I was going to have for additional training after the Kaohsiung triathlon and before heading to Singapore for the Half Ironman. We travel in just a few days. What this all boils down to is that the Singapore race, due to issues with my training and the anticipated hot and humid weather (which the very mild winter and spring - much cooler than last year - in Southern Taiwan has not helped me prepare for), is going to simply a completion exercise for me. Its greatest utility may in fact be the "rehearsal" aspect that it is for my Ironman aspirations in May - after all, there are a lot of moving parts when traveling internationally to a race, and it's best to do it a time or two before really wanting to do it right, which is basically what I am doing with this trip to Singapore. I will make note of all the things that I forget (gear, equipment, etc.) or can do better in May and hopefully make that experience better than it would have been not having had the chance to conduct a rehearsal race. Plus, it will be neat to visit Singapore - after all, it's been nearly 12 years since the last time I was there! And my family members have never been there. New stamps in the passports - yay! Looking forward to the trip, though I feel that race day will be a long one.

Oh yes, and the results from the Kaohsiung triathlon were posted online, here. For your convenience, I am pasting my results below. (FYI - the first column after the name column is swim time, then bike time, then run time, then place within the division [I'm in the 35-39 bracket]. The final column in team affiliation - I was one of the few without such a designation.) As you can see, my overall time estimates were about right. It is obvious, though, that the transition times are added to the respective event times (for example, my own calculations on my bike time were about 1 hour 12 minutes, while these results add about 10 minutes to that, which approximates the transition time). Anyhow, have a look at the rest, if you like.

 GJS