Done! |
Before the swim start |
I'm out there somewhere |
"Quick draw" caught me going from the swim to the transition area |
I felt really good on the bike course. (see above) It was also a two-loop course, this time essentially circumnavigating the Hengchun peninsula in southern Taiwan. The course was mostly flat, except for two uphills just after leaving the TA, and then one climb portion covered once per lap thereafter. There were many parts of the bike course heading north along the coast where you basically had the ocean on your left side and mountains on your right side. It was quite scenic.
Enjoying the scenery |
Unlike in past Half Ironman races, I only had to stop due to cramping (hamstrings both times, first the right and later the left) twice, at 5 miles and again at 10 miles. I was able to easily address the cramping with only 10-15 seconds of static stretching followed by 10-15 seconds of walking. Then I was back on my way. I ran all the rest of the course, with the exception of aid stations. I stopped and walked every one of these, making sure to get the food and drinks I needed, as well as sponges to keep cool. Once I was done, I ran again to the next aid station. I believe this tactic, which gave me 11 short walk breaks on the course (there were aid stations almost every mile), along with my conscious effort to find and run with other competitors who selected a pace a little bit slower than what I would self-select to run, allowed me to be relatively cramp-free on this half-marathon. (You can see some photos of me using this tactic, as well as all the other race-sponsored photos [13 in all] at http://www.finisherpix.com/; go to "Select Event" - Ironman 70.3 Taiwan 2010; enter my bib number [391], press "Go".) My run split was 2 hours 20 minutes 54 seconds (a pace of about 10 minutes 25 seconds per mile). I actually did not look at my run time at all on the course - my pace wasn't important to me, finishing with as little cramping as possible was. Mission accomplished!
In this race, I believe I learned that doing this type of race and not being completely destroyed at the end is possible for me, IF I race smartly and don't overly concern myself with the amount of time I am running it in. This is the first time I crossed the finish line on a long-course triathlon and felt like it would be possible for me to extend my effort out over a longer course...
I didn't really have a good idea of what my finish time was as I crossed the line (like I said, I hadn't really been keeping track very closely, unlike in some past races when realizing I wasn't going to be able to make whatever time goal I had set before the race my morale began to flag). In all, it was 6 hours 35 minutes 50 seconds. I had forgotten all but my most recent Half Ironman finish time (Hawaii, 2008), and I knew that I beat it by a fair margin (about 20 minutes, as it turns out), so I was quite happy with the improvement. Later, I looked up all my Half Ironman times. I have developed quite an interesting patter of doing these races, at least in the past 3 iterations. My first race was actually my fastest by far, the 2002 Pigman long-course race in Iowa (5 hours 37 min 34 sec). Then I raced Half Ironman-length events again in 2006 (Hawaii, 5:50:19), 2008 (Hawaii, 6:54:53), and now 2010. I fear I will not keep the pattern going forward, though - I have my eyes on another Half Ironman race in the spring (March 2011) in Singapore, which will set me up for the ultimate goal - the full Ironman China race near Tianjin, People's Republic of China, in May 2011. There's no time like the present to do it, and I believe it's time. Who's with me?
I have a couple criticisms of the race. First of all, there were no port-a-johns on the race course or even in the TA. The only restroom facilities I am aware of near the TA were at the beach, near the swim start, very inconvenient if you need to use the facilities while transitioning. I did notice two "rest area"-type areas along the bike course that evidently could be used by competitors as needed, but this seemed quite inadequate to me. I pulled off in the bushes along the side of the road during the run about 4 hours into the race for a quick pit stop, since no facilities seemed forthcoming, but what about the women doing the race? This needs to be addressed in future iterations of the race.
Second, the race course and even the host hotel changed several times before race day. I understand that this was the first year of the event, but it's pretty inconvenient to have to keep adjusting your plans for the race as the organizers sort things out. I figure this will be less of a problem during future iterations of the race. I actually am glad the bike course was changed. Originally, it was going to be an out-and-back course that went from Kenting down around the southern tip of Taiwan and back up the east coast a ways. I drove this area the day after the race and the terrain was much more challenging there than it was on the actual (Hengchun peninsula) race course. That and out on the east coast, the winds were absolutely WAILING. I felt like I was about to be blown over as I stood and looked out over the Pacific Ocean. I am glad I didn't have to bike out there for the race.
The wild, windy east coast of Taiwan |
GJS
P.S. I found this additional account of the race, from the fellow who finished 2nd overall: http://www.triathlontribe.com/blog/post/show/id/77-Jamie-Whyte-Blog-My-best-Ironman-70-3-result. Looks like I am not the only one who thought the winds and current were challenging.
3 comments:
I'm thinking about signing up for this year's race, so I've been looking for reviews. Yours really helps. Thanks a lot for taking the time to write about it!
Thanks for the summary! I'm looking forward to smashing this course!
Danny
http://dmcfee.blogspot.com/
I've heard horrible reviews about the course: bad management, food sucks, transport to and from the race blow, etc...
I'm torn to consider racing this race.
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