After hours of mental and physical preparation, thousands upon thousands of calories burned, sacrificing sleeping in, and sore commutes to and from school, I was finally able to compete in and complete my first half Ironman, the Ironman 70.3 Taiwan.
30 minutes til' swim start.
Chris "Macca" McCormack took last years race and I was a little sad that he wouldn't be there to defend his title. There were still plenty of pros in competition, but none who drew as much attention as Macca.
1.9 km swim - 37:29. The swim started at 6:15am and was a 1,600 people mass start. Unfortunately, I am not able to afford a wetsuit yet, so I swam with my trishorts as always. I set a goal for 35 minutes on the swim, which was a little ambitious considering all the people swimming with me. The water was super warm and the jellyfish were out. I had to swim against a group of people who were cutting the buoy, then I got stung by a jellyfish on my upper lip. I had a terrible first lap. There were two 950m laps with a short on shore run around a cone and across the censor before the second lap.
Strava Swim link here.
10 minutes until the pro swim.
90 km bike - 2:45:21 The bike course (
Strava link here - I'm 5th place!) was flat and fast. It was 2 1/2 laps around the south western tip of Taiwan. We rode clockwise along the ocean as well as through rural farming neighborhoods and rice fields. I was able to maintain an average speed of 34.1 kph on my detachable aero bars. I only had three small mishaps. I hit a bump a few minutes in and one of my nutrition bottles fell out. I had to stop, unclip, and grab it. I dropped another bottle towards the end of my second lap and only a few minutes later, had a sticker stuck on the tire, so stopped to rip it off. I took a GU every 45-minutes and switched between caffeinated and non-caffeinated.
I need to work on the bike mount.
21 km run - 1:59:00. Terrible! I started way too fast, but I felt like my body was just going that fast, I wasn't trying to push or set a pace. Lesson learned.
Strava link. The run was flat and paralleled the last segment of the bike course. 14km south, and 7km back north to the finish line located at
Yoho Beach Resort.
I have finished three half-marathons, one marathon, one sprint triathlon, and four olympic distance triathlons, but nothing felt quite like finishing this race. I struggled the last mile, but summed up the strength to run the end. The crowd was amazing, slapping hands and cheering loudly. A strong sense of emotion and accomplishment hit me as I rounded the corner to the finish line.
After crossing the finish line, the first thing I did was look for my wife. Lauren has been nothing but supportive of me on this journey and it is to her I owe my accomplishments. I love her infinitely. We were able to sneak in a congratulatory kiss before I went and collapsed for a few minutes on the grass.
I did it. I finished. I hit my goal. 5:21:50.
Time to eat the 6,500 calories I just burned!
Lauren and I spent Sunday relaxing and eating. We used our new Samsung Galaxy S3 to take some sweet panoramic pictures.
This place is called Chuhuo 出火. There are natural gasses that come out from these rocks and even though the chain fence says 'No Trespassing' we couldn't help ourselves from purchasing popcorn from the old lady and popping it over the open flame. Cooking popcorn on an eternal natural gas flame was a first for both Lauren and I.
Ah... Baisha Beach 白沙 was good to us as usual. We seriously had perfect weather. I wouldn't have changed a thing.
We went to some nature preserve museum at a lake.
See you next year?
