I was fortunate enough to travel to the south of Taiwan to compete in IM70.3 Taiwan on March 19, 2017. This was my first triathlon outside of the United States, which presented some unique challenges. Here's a report on my race:
Quick Summary:
For those who don't care for the details and logistics of my usual format, here are the hard numbers:
Swim (38 min 13 sec)
Bike (2 hrs 43 min)
Run (2 hrs 58 min)
T1 (8 min 55 sec)
T2 (5 min 48 sec)
TOTAL: 6 hours 35 minutes 35 seconds for 88th place AG and 621st overall.
The race was sold out near 3,000 competitors, but nowhere near that many actually finished. Most DNFs I have ever seen in any race. Read on (especially about the run) to find out why!
Pre-Race:
I decided to do this race as a kick-off to a family vacation in Bali, Indonesia. My wife's side of the family lives in Taiwan and will be coming with us, so I seized the opportunity to get the race in, and then relax in Bali afterwards!
We flew from LAX to Taipei on March 13 (actually Taoyuan airport) on EVA Airlines, which was able to accommodate my racing bike packed in a SciCon Triathlon soft bag. The cool thing about the triathlon version of this bag is that you do not have to disassemble your bike beyond removing the wheels. Since I was flying all the way to Asia, with my family, and had two weeks of non-racing stuff going on as well, I didn't want to have to lug a bunch of tools with me to work on my bike. After the 14 hour flight (and a 15 hour time change, meaning we arrived Wednesday afternoon, local time), I was able to get my bike bag and a large hard-cased suitcase full of my gear back from the airlines. Everything was in fine condition, not a scratch! From there, I used a shipping service that has a location at the airport to ship my bike and gear from the airport directly to my hotel in Taitung (we stayed at the Sheraton in Taitung, which was the race HQ hotel). From there, we took the THSR (Taiwan High Speed Rail) down to Tainan City to visit with my in-laws for a couple of days, and from there, we took a 3 hour train ride to Taitung City, arriving at around noon on March 17. After checking into the hotel and retrieving my bike and gear, I headed over to the race expo to do athlete check-in, purchase a couple of Ironman nicknacks and check out the expo a little bit. I also managed to get a 12 mile ride on a part of the race course, to make sure my bike was in good shape and to loosen up the legs and lungs after all of that travel.
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| My bike, ready to be flown to Taiwan! |
On Saturday, the 18th, the first hiccup in the trip happened. I spent most of the night dealing with a fever, sore throat, and swollen lymph nodes. I wasn't sure if I was sick, had bad allergies, or just had some sort of bug from all the traveling. At breakfast that morning, I drank a lot of hot tea which seemed to help. By the time I had to take my bike to the transition area for drop-off, my fever was gone and I felt almost back to normal. That night for dinner, we ate at the hotel buffet. I stuck mostly to pasta and things I thought would digest easily. I must have had the right idea because I was in line next to Timothy O'Donnell and Ruedi Wild (who ended up finishing 2nd and 1st respectively). I was in bed by 9pm, and despite whatever bug I had, still felt ready to race.
Race Morning:
Though the alarm was set for 3:30am, I was wide awake by 3:15, so I got up a bit early. I applied my age group and race number tattoos, grabbed my drink bottles, and headed downstairs. I ate a quick breakfast (2 eggs, 2 croissants with jam, a cup of OJ, and a cup of coffee), then headed to the shuttle buses across the street. Once I was dropped off, the walk to transition took about 10 minutes, after which I made quick work of getting my fuel, tire repair kit, computer and sensors set up for the race. I noticed the weather seemed a bit warmer, stickier, and the clouds were very sparse. It had been unusually cool all week, and the forecast even called for showers. I was hoping to avoid the heat and humidity Taiwan is known for, but it was looking like a typical steamy day was about to start. I grabbed my swim gear and post-race bag, and headed toward the swim start area. I had about 20 minutes to spare.
Swim:
The swim was broken down into 3 waves, based on projected finish time (the honor system), which meant that half the field claimed to be able to swim under 35 minutes. I legitimately thought I would swim under 35, so I got into the first wave. The pros kicked off a few minutes before us, and they started off to the left of us (meaning they had a straighter line to the buoys). We finally got the horn, and after about 2 minutes, I was heading down some concrete stairs to start my race. I hit the start button on my Garmin, prepared to dive in, and promptly felt some poor kid bounce off of my right elbow and fall into the water. I dove in, swam up to him and patted him on the back and said 'sorry.' He smiled and gave me a thumbs up and we headed off. The swim was in a fresh water lake, which was about 74 degrees on race morning. I wore a sleeveless Roka Maverick Pro wetsuit to help keep me cool. My Garmin lost satellite connections about 500 yards into the swim, but my data showed a 1:33 per 100 yards average pace up to that point. It is a basic out and back course with just a single line of buoys. Navigation was easy, as you just had to sight on a big white turnaround buoy at one end of the lake, and then do the same coming back. One weird thing that happened several times: people in front of me would switch from freestyle to breast stroke so they could navigate, and I would go charging into them from behind. After the turnaround, I stayed a bit closer to the shoreline, which seemed to have less traffic, and I made a concerted effort to speed up. I felt really good, and my stroke was smooth and strong all the way to the exit. My Garmin read 37:28 when I got out, even though it didn't record the distance. I'm willing to bet we swam a bit long since we started out way to the right of the buoy line. At any rate, with a sleeveless wetsuit in fresh water, that's a decent swim. Turns out I was 26th in AG at that point and 183rd overall male.
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| A view of Flowing Lake. The site of the IM70.3 Taiwan swim. The pros started right here, while age groupers started quite a ways to the right of this shot. |
T1:
The swim exit to T1 really sucked. The distance to where my bike was racked was just shy of 1.1 Kilometers! Also, part of the path, even though they covered it with red carpet, was super rough, and was painful to run over. And finally, the entrance to the back of T1 was up a very steep hill. My HR was pegged when I finally got to my bike. I used a sleeved tri top for this race, so I put it on in T1, which posed no problems. I quickly sprayed on some sunblock (it was sunny and hot already), put on my glasses and helmet, and was quickly running the rest of the lengthy transition area to the bike exit. It took forever, but a lot of that was running. I felt like I didn't waste any time here.
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| My bike in transition (just staging the night before). We had a little boxed off area to the left to put our gear, which was nice. |
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| The extremely long transition area. This is about midway, and you can still not see the bike exit, way down there. I covered almost 1.1 kilometers from swim exit to my bike. |
Bike:
I set my bike and shoes up for a flying mount, which I executed perfectly. There was a slight uphill to get started, but after that it smoothed out. The run to T1 threw me off a bit, and it actually took me around 8 to 10 minutes to get settled into a good rhythm. After that, things were going great. The bike was running smoothly, my HR and power were in check, and I was picking people off at a high rate. I got passed occasionally too. The bike course had a single short loop that brought you back close to the transition area before ramping you up onto a highway on which we did two very long (approx. 40K) loops. Because of the long loop length, traffic never got too crowded, despite the sold out race. One thing I found VERY annoying was the rampant drafting going on. There were at least three huge packs of riders bunched up together. One of them was only 8 or 9 minutes behind the lead pro women. After the turnaround on the first lap, one of the packs came up behind me. I intentionally ramped up my power to make it harder for them to pass me, which worked for awhile. But once they overtook me, I had to drop 12 meters back to avoid them. I took note of a few of their bib numbers, but I had doubts anything would happen to them. No marshals were in sight. I slowly watched them gain time on me and wondered how many of them were in my age group (Side Note: I looked up the bike times of those bib numbers I took note of, they gained about 6 minutes on me). The first lap came to a close, and as I started the second lap, the winds gave way to a noticeable increase in temperature. I held the same pace on the next lap,except with about 5 miles to go, I eased up a bit and lowered my cadence, trying to get my legs ready to run (my run cadence is quite a bit slower than my bike cadence). As I made the last sweeping downhill turn back off of the highway and towards T2, I saw my wife and daughter cheering and ringing a cowbell. As I waved to them, I almost forgot to get my feet out of my shoes for a flying dismount. I managed to get it just in time. That was a great ride for me. Very comfortable effort, and quite a bit faster than my previous 70.3 rides: 2:43, good for 33rd in my AG and 212th overall male.
T2:
I had a slightly uphill, but not very long run back to my rack. I got my bike and helmet put away quickly, got running shoes on, sprayed on some more sunblock and was heading back to the steep hill (going down it this time) at the back of the transition area, putting my bib and visor on as I jogged. I took the time to put socks on (I rode without them) and also to stretch my lower back and hamstrings, which were a bit stiff after the ride. All in all, not a bad transition but still not extremely fast.
Run:
So far, a great swim/bike with OK transitions. I have been focusing mostly on my run this year. Of the three disciplines, it is definitely the one I have trained most for. So, coming out of T2 in 33rd place (my wife gave me the info from the live athlete tracker when I exited T2), and having just the run left to go, I was excited at possibly overtaking a few people and getting into the top 30 (and top 200 overall), which is way, WAY better than I have done in an Ironman branded event. The first mile is a clockwise loop around the same lake that we swam in. From there, you take a turn and head back into Taitung Forest Park, where you do 3 laps around the park before heading up toward the park entrance to the finish. I came through mile 1 in 8:32 which is a bit faster than I had planned to, but I felt fine. It was probably the flattest mile I have run in awhile, so I wasn't alarmed at the faster pace. I proceeded to cover the next mile (which had a significant hill in it) in 8:53, and I did notice my HR was climbing higher than I wanted it to. I told myself to keep up the pace until I hit the first aid station. I was really feeling the heat and humidity and was looking forward to grabbing some ice, and getting some water. I got to the first aid station, and to my shock, there was no ice! And to make things worse, the water and cola they were handing out was warm, almost to the point of calling it hot! I was not expecting this at all. I went ahead and drank the warm water and started my first of three laps. Even though I had slowed to a shuffle to get water, my HR had not dropped at all. I knew I needed to ease up and get my HR under control, so I slowed my pace quite a bit. Still, HR stayed high, so I decided to try and walk for a bit to bring it down. That seemed to help. I let my HR drop back down into the 130's before starting to run again. However, it immediately shot back up and at this point I was on a long, hot, exposed section of the loop. The heat seemed to be pounding on my head and I really started to get worried that perhaps I never recovered fully from that fever episode the day before. I managed to push through to the next aid station, which again did not have ice, but they did have these huge bins full of water, with giant scoops you could use to dump water on yourself. I did this, and it made a huge difference. I started running again, and too my dismay, I was overheating with a high HR within a few hundred yards. I hadn't even made it to the 4 mile mark, and was already struggling with the heat. I was starting to think that perhaps my ability to finish the race was in jeopardy. From here out, I decided I needed to do some serious walking to see if I could get my body back into a state where I felt like I could run. Anytime the road tilted up beyond flat, I would walk. On the flats, I would alternate between very slow shuffling and walking. The only time I was running a normal pace was on the few downhill portions of the loop. My mile splits plummeted, and my hopes of getting a PR and a high finishing place plummeted with them. I was not alone, however. There were many people who were in the same condition I was. The EMTs were driving around on scooters, tending to people who had cramped, or were overheating and hiding in small patches of shade to get some respite from the sun. I managed to trudge along like this for the second lap as well, despite the aid stations becoming progressively less stocked each time you passed them. Finally, on the third lap, I caught a break. Just before I hit 11 miles, some cloud cover rolled in. Dark clouds, too. The drop in temperature was enough for me to regain a little bit of gumption. By 11.5 miles I was able to run continuously again, and salvage a bit of dignity as I headed out of the loop and on toward the finish chute. The last 100 yards or so is on grass. I was very glad to have made it out, but I just quietly ran across the finish line. No fist pumping, high fives, or anything. This is the slowest 13.1 miles I have ever run. It dropped me from 33rd to 88th in AG, and from 212th overall male to 548th. Needless to say, I was not thrilled with that performance.
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| Probably the happiest I looked on the run, less than a mile from the finish. Thank God for the cloud cover that moved in. |
Details:
Some notes about the race and my preparations for it...
Nutrition/Fuel:
I carried about 72 ounces of Infinit GoFar on the bike, along with two GU stroopwafels. I ate the stroopwafels about half way through the first lap, and continuously sipped the Infinit until it was nearly gone when I reached T2. On the run, I carried nothing. The aid stations were poorly stocked compared to US Ironman events. Their 'sports drink' is basically a Taiwanese version of Smart Water called 'Thetis More.' I did drink it a couple of times. But I didn't find myself needing any other fuel or electrolytes on the course. I'd say my nutrition plan worked in this case. My real concern was controlling my temperature and staying hydrated.
Gear:
- Swim: I used my short sleeved Roka Maverick Pro wetsuit for this race. The water was warm (74 degrees) but wetsuit legal. Even though I know my full sleeved wetsuit is a bit faster, I chose the sleeveless to help prevent overheating before and during the swim I think it worked out pretty well. For goggles, I used my mirrored amber Roka X1's. There was no pre-race warmup. The first time I touched the water was when the race began. To prevent fogging, I broke the seal on my goggles and let a few drops of water come into each lense.
- Bike: I rode my Centric Prolog tri bike, with carbon clincher wheels (60mm front, 88mm rear) with a standard 53/39 chainring setup, and an 11x25 11-speed cassette. The course had less than 1000 feet elevation gain (think LA river trails ride to Long Beach). Because of the heat, and because in Asia they do not use Gatorade on the courses, I chose to use my 30 oz. Torhans BTA hydration system in addition to keeping two 24 ounce bottles on the frame. I know there is an aero penalty there, but I was more concerned with fueling and hydration. The bike rode magnificently. No issues whatsoever.
- Run: I ran in my Hoka One One Claytons. I love these shoes. Nice and light, snappy, and even when they get wet they perform well. I used a new tri suit, made by LG. It is a short sleeved two piece suit, and is absolutely awesome. I got scorched even though I put sunblock on twice, but everything protected by the suit was absolutely fine. It also absorbs liquid well, fit well, no chafing, and was very form fitting and aero on the bike.
Conclusion:
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| My kid got up on the podium, even if I didn't. She had a blast, which always makes these trips worthwhile. |
What a great opportunity to come over to Asia and get a 70.3 in. I didn't treat this as an A race, but still managed to get my best swim/bike combo in. I really wish I had been able to back those up with a decent run, which I KNOW I had in me. I don't know if it was just the heat (and by the way, it was unusually cool all over Taiwan until the day of the race) or if the combination of travel, jet lag, etc contributed. But for whatever reason, I was unprepared for the heat and humidity. Maybe I'll come back someday and try to improve on that performance. We'll see.
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