A good 4 weeks to go before Camsur 70.3, the owners of Bike King decided to put up a “tweener” distance triathlon ( longer than olympic but shorter than HIM distances ) at Matabungkay Beach Resort. The schedule fit perfectly with my training program. I was on active recovery that week and a race on that week’s Sunday would be perfect…so I thought.

The distances were not peanuts. The swim was 2K, bike was 60K and the run was 15K. It was earlier advertised or rumored that the bike and run courses were flat, and the swim course was a 3-loop, clockwise route. I was comfortable with everything I heard and was confident I’d finish in sub-4:45.

My teammates and I arrived at the venue a day earlier and immediately tried out the swim course. I completed a loop in a little over 12 minutes and thought that the 50-mins swim split I was targeting was highly achievable.

During the race briefing late that same day, we were informed that the swim course would be a 4-loop, counterclockwise route. I believe I wasn’t the only one that got surprised with this change. I’m a right side breather and having the buoys on the left will be very uncomfortable for me. I am a poor navigator in open waters and have the tendency to stray away from the swim course if I don’t “sight” often. Sighting often would definitely slow me down.

RACE DAY: The Swim

Woke up at 3:00 a.m. with a bad sore throat and a bit feverish. I felt heavy but somehow was able to instruct my brain to keep my body in race mode. Had a good breakfast with my teammates and at 5:00 a.m., went to the transition area to fix my things up. At 5:40 a.m., we were at the swim start located more than 1 kilometer from transition, more than the announced distance of 500 meters.

The sea was a bit rough ( at least for me ). Did a short warm-up then waited for the horn start.

At 6:00 a.m., the horn was sounded and we were off. We stayed at the back of the pack slightly away from the buoy. However, a lot of swimmers did the same thing. Tried inching my way forward but the group slightly ahead of me wouldn’t budge or give an inch. I squeezed myself between two swimmers and the 3 of us exchanged elbows. The two proved to be stronger swimmers so I slowed down and let them go.

About 150meters into the swim and I found a peaceful line. Looking up, I saw myself about 5 meters off the swim course. Got back on line but 50 meters forward and my left arm got caught at the buoy line. I was zig-zagging the course!

I sighted every 6 strokes just to make sure I wasn’t straying away. It was more exhausting and slower but I thought it was better than spending my energy zigzagging all throughout the swim.

Finished the first loop in 15+minutes which was really bad. The saltwater in my mouth didn’t help as well in easing up my sore throat, it was worse.

I was lapped by the strong swimmers on the first 100meters of my 3rd loop, they were on their last. These guys were really fast based on my standards and each one shook me like a nut in a jar as they passed. Got hit on both shoulders, thighs, head and back as they made their way through me. Approaching the last few meters of my 3rd, a female swimmer literally “swam over” me. She was trying to pass near the buoy where I was, I wouldn’t budge so she pushed my butt down and stroked over my back and passed. Instead of getting offended, I was at awe with her skills. Amazing!

Finished the swim in 1:01++. 10 minutes down on my target. Ran to T1 which took almost forever and I was mounted on my bike in 1:10++ of the race.

The Bike

I went out gingerly on the bike course. The first few hundred meters out of T1 were on rough roads. I didn’t want to flat my tyres so I was very cautious going out on the bike course proper. Once I made it through, it was pedal to the metal.

The flat course that was published wasn’t very flat at all. Yes, there were flat parts but it was mostly gently rolling roads. I was keeping an average speed of about 33-35kph until I reached the foot of the almost 2km ascent to the 2nd turn around. I intended to spin using the big ring all the way but decided to use the small chainring negotiating the climb.

I gained some time on those who were ahead of me in the swim. I must have passed about 25 or 30 bikers and wasn’t passed by any one at all except for this guy who over took me going down from the turn-around point. Caught him again about a minute after. The strong cyclists were way ahead of me. If they weren’t, I could have been lapped again.

I slowed down in the last 2kms of the bike. I had an average of 32kph on the first 58kms but wanted to have good legs on the run. I relaxed, a 30kph average would be enough for me. There were 4 of us heading to T2 and there were a lot of runners already as we made our way to transition. The whole bike course was slightly longer than 60km. My average was a bit over 30kph, and was very happy with my effort.

The RUN

I ran out of transition at 3:15 of the race. I could run a 15K easily in 1:30, but that’s if I just ran and didn’t swim or bike prior. I needed to do a 1:45 run to be at a par-5 hours finish time. I thought I could do it with a few minutes to spare. I was wrong.

I finished the first of four run laps in 26 mins, then 27, then 29. I faded as I tried finishing the race. Walking was the order of the day for me. Javy Olives would tell me not to walk, and jog slowly to recover. I couldn’t.

I was at 4:40 of the race at the start of my 4th and final run loop. On a normal day, I could run 3.5kms comfortably in 18minutes. During the race, I was hoping to run it in 20 just to be at exactly 5 hours at the finish line. I ran out of energy gels and my body was screaming for calories. My stomach was empty except for the mineral water handed out in aid stations.

Hungry and almost cramping up, I forced myself to run for 2 minutes then walk for 30 seconds. Somehow, it worked. I felt my running legs getting back but it was too late. I was less than a kilometer to the finish and ran it all the way. Finished my last loop in 28++minutes.

Finished the whole race in 5:08:47, 122nd out of 162 who finished, with 9 racers going the DNF route.

TriKing was a very organized race. It was a good tune up for Camsur 70.3 and I believe a lot of Camsur 70.3 participants gained a lot of confidence in finishing the HIM distance come August 22nd. I realized the areas I still need to work on and hopefully, I will be able to address these before the gun start at Camsur.

Thanks to my Endure teammates James Dulalia, Erick Guieb, Ronald Declarador and Col. Bong Patrimonio for doing this race with me. To Javy Olives who pushed me along the run course and to Almighty God, who I kept calling in the last 5K of the race, for blessing me with the determination and strength to finish the race.

See you guys in Camsur!

The July 18 edition of the Powerade National Duathlon Open was a training race for me which meant there wasn’t any pressure for me to perform better than the previous edition. Since my brick workout fell on the same day, I thought of joining this race before I go on my active recovery week. This was also the launching race of Team Endure, my new team.

My legs felt heavy from the very moment I woke up due to my swim-bike brick the day before. I was just going to “cruise” throughout this race so it was okay.

I arrived at the venue around 5:30 a.m. Got marked and proceeded to rack my bike. This also was my new frame’s baptism of fire so I was excited in a way.

Getting marked

After making sure that I had all my equipment in its proper places, I proceeded to the starting line with my team. As expected, the start gun went off suddenly, catching most by surprise. ( I guess this has become Powerade Duathlon’s trademark )

I paced myself comfortably, harboring between 5:30 and 5:45. I felt strong in the run but controlled myself from speeding up. I wanted to experiment and do a negative split and for the first time, I succeeded. I’m a natural positive splitter and no matter how hard I tried to do a negative split in the past, I always failed. When I finished the first run last Sunday in 34+/- minutes, my first 3K was slower than my second…yes!

Finishing the first run with more than enough to do the bike

After Rick Reyes checked on my helmet’s strap, I proceeded to mount my bike and start on the bike leg. It felt good being mounted. The bike leg was another experiment though. That time around, I wanted to pedal using the big chainring throughout the whole bike leg and see what happens.

After the first half of the bike, I realized being on the big chainring has both its advantages and disadvantages. I was faster on the flats but slower on the climbs. However, since the climbs were short, I decided not to change chainrings anymore.

I was faster on the flats but slower on the climbs.

After about 56+/- minutes ( with a 30.5kph average on the bike ), I was at T2. Once again, I made the booboo of going the wrong way enroute to transition, costing me about 30 seconds. Not good!

I cramped about 200 meters into the 2nd run and had to stop for about a minute, after which I ran slowly just to shake off the stiffness on my lower calves. After about a kilometer, the cramps were completely gone. I was back running at a comfortable pace.

After about 22 minutes, I crossed the finish line. My time: 1:57:10, more than 2 minutes faster than the previous edition. I was surprised to go sub-2. I was expecting my time to be between 2:00 to 2:05. Thank God!

After the race with Julius, Ronald, MJ and Raff

Proud of my new steed!

Team Endure

The 2nd leg of the Powerade Duathlon series is a race of experiments and realizations for me. First, this was the first race I joined coming from a heavy workout the previous day, and for whatever reason, I performed better.

Second, I experimented on taking it easy on the first run and comfortably hard on the bike and this resulted to a better finish time.

Third, I learned the power of the big chainring in races. It made me accelerate faster on flats but slower on climbs. I guess for longer climbs, the small chainring would fare much better.

Lastly, it made me realize that my new team, Team Endure, is composed of members who will live up to the team’s name. Two of my female co-members crashed on the bike and still continued to finish the race. You guys are awesome.

Now, its a week of active recovery before the TriKing Matabungkay Tri. Am I ready? You bet!