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.
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