2013 Hualien Cup International Triathlon

 2013洄瀾國際鐵人三項精英賽

Although all the banners lining the bike and run course said "Hualien Cop International Triathlon" I can tell you that this race was not a fundraiser for policemen in Taiwan.

This is my favorite race in Taiwan. It is amazingly beautiful, set right on Li Yu Lake. You can check out my ex's blog (much better photos of the area) at millermemoires.com.

The swim begins at 12:30pm. That's right, I woke up at 9am for this race. It's a lot cooler in the mountains so high temperatures are usually not an issue.

The swim went well. The water was the coldest i've experienced in Taiwan, which isn't really that cold, probably 19-20C. It was an out and back swim, which I prefer. Pros and women launched first.
Strava Link Here Swim time: 29:16

The bike was beautiful as always. The two-lap down and up bike course is one of my favorites. It's pretty hilly, but it's also draft legal which speeds things up.
Strava Link Here Bike time (45km) 1:20:18

I felt good on the run. This is where I usually fail to keep pace but I felt strong and nobody passed me. The run is an out and back around the lake. BEAUTIFUL place to run.
Strava Link Here Run time: 46:06

I ended up 4th in Age Group with a time of 2:35:41 and beating last years time by about 11 minutes.  (2:46:24)

I would recommend this race to anyone. The bike course is challenging but overall a fast course. The scenery alone is worth a visit. The only negative thing about this race was it was on the same day as Challenge Taiwan, which was held one country south in Taitung County.

2013 Taitung Puyuma 51.5 International Triathlon

 2013 普悠瑪 51.5公里國際鐵人三項競賽

This race was all about revenge. In 2012 I did the same race with poor result, making the 2012 Taitung Tri  my slowest yet. I really overheated on the run last year and had to walk for a few kms. I was not going to make that mistake again. 

My plan was to run in the middle of the day, in the heat, for 5-10k at least three times before the race. 

Strava Heat Run #1 - Home from the bike shop getting my crank cleaned. 

Strava Heat Run #2 - I even managed two CRs (KOM for running) on this run. One of them required a 3:20/km pace. 

Only the slow train goes from Taichung to Taidong, so I was sitting for a good 7 hours or so. It was nice to sleep and watch some TV on my phone. The hostel was great and after I set up my stuff, went to bed in a dorm room where some French people were listening to a book on tape. I actually found it soothing and went right to sleep. 

I got up early to eat my usual 5 slices of whole wheat bread and drink lots of fluids. Any suggestions on a better pre race meal?

The Swim

I managed a 1:38/100m pace for 1500m, which gave me a 26:36 swim split. Not my best or my worst. I tried drafting off a guy in a wetsuit but he got mad, turned around, and kicked me. 

Strava Swim Link Here

The Bike

I love this course. I didn't remember it well from last year as it was only my second triathlon. The course is relatively flat and rides along the coast, making for some beautiful views. It was far less windy this year making for a fast bike pace. Of course, the first 4 guys were drafting HARD and all complained when they got penalized. To my knowledge, two people were actually DQ-ed. Good! I ended up with a 1:09 bike split. 

Strava Bike Here

The Run

I told myself that I wasn't going to walk. The first 4k was tough but I held pace and passed a few people on the last 5k. They changed the course from last year and I much prefer this new course. Slightly more scenic. Ended with 46:57. 

Strave Run Here

Total time was 2:29:11, which put me 21st overall and 3rd in my age group. I got money and a trophy!

Taiwan Heng Chun Peninsula 113KM International Triathlon

台灣恆春半島113公里國際鐵人三項競賽

Also called the Wen Chang Cup, this will become an annual race and oh man is it a tough one. It randomly starts at 8:52am (on purpose) which would be nice for a 2-hour and thirty minute Olympic distance race, but for a 113 (70.3, HIM, call it what you will) it's a little late as the run for me began at 12:30pm. It was hot!

Check out my trisuit sunburn. 

The swim (Strava link here) was a little long. Each of the two laps was closer to 1.1km instead of 950m. No complaints though. The water is warm and visibility is high. I was 6th out of the water and the first without a wetsuit. The bay, called 小灣, was great for a swim, but because of a tropical storm and high winds was a little choppy. In fact, the very next week, the bay held a 2km open water swim race and hundreds had to be rescued. More than 20 had to be hospitalized and one man unfortunately died. 

This photo does not show how choppy it was out in the water. It actually looks really nice here. This is me after the first of two laps.

T1 is up two flights of wooden stairs back up to the road. 

The bike (Strava link here) was brutal. The 90k had over 1,100m of climbing all combating 30-40kph winds. On my last 70.3, held only 10k away, I managed a 34+ kph average to pull in a time of 2:44 for the bike split. This race however, pushing much harder, I could barely hold my 30kph pace and had a 3:01 bike split. After lap one I was in 9th place, but I died on lap 2 and couldn't hold a solid pace. BEAUTIFUL ride though. The Olympic distance was the next day. They had less wind, but hotter weather. 

As you can see, I get really thirsty (four bottles). It wasn't clear if they had bottles on the course. It turned out that they did and I wish I had known because I would have only took two bottles to be lighter on all the climbing. 

T2 was up a 200m 8% incline. Welcome to T2! The hotel hosting the event was amazing and transitions were clear and smooth. 

The run (Strava link here) was hot, but very flat with aid station every 2.5k. Two laps, 10k each. You run by the hotel after completing the first lap which is nice to see all the people cheer you on. Of course, racing in Taiwan means they are all under sun umbrellas. I obviously pushed too hard on the bike, because that was the hardest run I've ever done. Finished though, with a time of 2:07. 

We brought Charlie with us down to Kenting. She loved the beach, but hates the water. 

Would I recommend this race? 

For the sights and challenging course: Yes.

However, there were a lot of issues with athletes and prize money. A lot of promises were broken and some people walked away disappointed. I wouldn't have won anything anyways so I wasn't disappointed, but a friend who won 1st in her age group only got 3,000NT when she was supposed to get 10,000 or 15,000. Hmmm.

Charlie is so black that you can't see her features! We had an amazing weekend relaxing at Baisha, our favorite beach in Taiwan, with our friends Kendall and Megan.

2013 Gaomei Wetlands Half-Marathon

With this event only thirty minutes from my house, I had to sign up for this one. I knew the course would be tough (first 4k is uphill, some sections up to 9%) but thought I would go out and try to set a PR.

The term wetlands means a few things. For one, the area should be flat. Two, wet and humid. We had great weather that morning, but it was still a sweat fest.

Strava Link Here

After the 4k hill battle, there was a 2.5km fast downhill segment. The rest was super flat and beautiful. We ran through rice fields and a few dirt roads.

I ended up finishing in 1:36:20. I didn't think it was that fantastic, but it earned me 2nd in AG out of 360 and 28th overall out of 1600. Got me a trophy!

Ran a half marathon, got a trophy, and was still at church before 9am.

A Marathon, a Triathlon, and a Great Season

12/30/2012 Taichung Science Park Matathon - After deciding to change my life and begin exercising, I told myself that I would run at least one marathon every year until I couldn't anymore.  My first MARATHON was the 2011 Freeway Marathon here in Taichung City almost exactly one year ago from this marathon in 2012. It was the 2012 Taichung Science Park Marathon. The course was hilly (almost 1000m of climbing), but thanks to my Garmin 910XT I was able to consistently keep my average pace right on target.

Strava Link Here

I did not prepare for this one (no marathon specific training, just exercise) and ended up with 3:57:xx with the last bit in pain!

3/10/2013 2013 Romantic Lover River Triathlon - This was my first tri last year. I was really excited for this one and had been preparing, particularly my run. My post swim-and-bike run is quite weak and I'm happy to say that this triathlon proved I had grown.

Strava Swim   Strava Bike   Strava Run

Last year - This year time improvements:
Swim: 34:51 - 25:33 = 9:18
Bike: 1:12:36 - 1:03:17 = 9:19
Run: 1:03:37 - 51:59 = 11:36
Total: 2:51:05 - 2:20:50 = 31:15

Last year's swim was 34:51, bike was 1:12:36, and run was 1:03:37 with a total time of 2:51:05. This year was swim 25:33. bike was 1:03:17, and run was 51:59 with a finish time of 2:20:50. I got 9th in my AG and 44th overall. Stoked!

Packing

 Love River in the am

 Shot of the day with 200m left

The 100-Mile Ride

My first 100-mile ride!

Living in a Buddhist country has a lot of perks as well as some drawbacks. For one, we get six weeks off of school for Chinese New Year along with many other holidays for all the different gods. On the other hand, there is no Christmas.

Last year's Christmas sucked and it was our fault. Lauren and I made sure we did things differently this year and made Christmas the best possible. One of those ways was celebrating early. Lauren had a final exam on the 25th and I had work six out of seven days including the 25th. We decided that Saturday and Sunday the 22nd and 23rd were our days.

No work on Saturday meant I had free time. Lots of free time. Here's what I did.

Up at 4:30am to eat and prepare for the beautiful ride up to Sun Moon Lake!

New gloves. Thanks Lauren!

Beat the sun!

Waiting for the others... who didn't show up. 

This is on the 136 leading towards Nantou County. Amazing road for cycling. 

County line. 

Cool cemetery about 15km from the lake.

Wenwu Temple at Sun Moon Lake

The view from the top of Wenwu Temple

I stayed off the touristy wooden path and on the main road loop of 29km. 

 The steps of Wenwu Temple

 

In the saddle for 6 hours and 40 minutes covering 160km. Strava link here.

The North Face Ultra Challenge - Strava 50k

I've had my eye on different Strava challenges. Most of them are a week long or over a weekend. My weekends are always super busy with work, meetings, and church. Plus I have a wife that I like to spend time with. The North Face Challenge seemed more up my alley because it wasn't 50k in one run, but over a weekend. See the Strava link here to check it out.

I took a ton of photos using my Samsung Galaxy S3 and an arm case. We had rain for five or six days which mad for really humid conditions. It was a tough weekend, but totally worth it.

I finished the 50k in 6 runs:

Saturday
Run 1: 21.8km to the very last train station before work.
Run 2: 1.1km to work from the train station.
Run 3: 9.8km after work back to the far train station.
Run 4: 1.8km to the flower shop to pick up a few roses for the mrs. Her choir was performing.

Sunday
Run 5: 10.3km Sunday morning with Kendall.
Run 6: 6.4km Sunday night after church.
Total: 51km!

Right out of the door. 

The temple two minutes from my house. 

It wouldn't be Saturday morning without a little Taichi!

It looked like it was going to be a nice day.

I decided to run parallel with the train tracks. It's flat and usually not too many lights.

This was as I was passing Taichung Train Station. Who knew it would be raining 15 minutes later? 

 Just a big god sitting on some houses. 

A quick Gu and some Supao. Gupao?

雙子新大樓 The church used to be on the 34th floor on the right.

Scooters. This is at one of the smaller train stations too. 

I don't know why, but this lady passed me and cut me off. Not cool. I even had time to take out my phone to snap a few photos. When she saw I had a camera, she took off. 

Here are some of my battle scars.