Ironman 70.3 Centrair Tokoname Japan – A rather poorly organized race

This new addition to the Ironman 70.3 series was very promising with a great location near the city of Nagoya in the Aichi Prefecture – right in between the two Japan major cities(Osaka and Tokyo) and at the proximity of the Centrair International Airport, making it very convenient for International athletes to attend.

Despite the location and what looked liked an interesting racing course, the organizer felt short on many levels and I have to say that, as a fellow racer and fan of Ironman events, I have been very disappointed with the overall organization and planning of this new event. Although I can understand Ironman organizers most likely faced difficulties to deal and negotiate with the local prefecture of Nagoya to get the necessary support to put this even together, I still think a lot of things were done wrong and did not match with the standard of most other Ironman events.

What could have been a great race with a glorious weather ended up being a overall poorly organized event and disappointing tourism experience.

You will find below 10 of the main points I felt should be improved for next year’s event if it wants to reach close to the standard other Ironman events have managed to set around the world.

1) REGISTRATION PROCESS:
Out of 1,100 registration slot, 350 were offered only to athletes who were willing to use/pay premium JTB travel and hotel services. Athletes who were late to register and who wanted to participate were therefore forced to take the JTB agency option and pay a significant extra budget to guarantee their slot to the starting line of the event. They also had to take a flight to Nagoya and use their Hotels.

2) A PRICEY EVENT:
This event was extremely expensive: 40,000 JPY just to register and participate in the race – excluding all the extra cost coming along with train/car transportation, hotels and restaurant around the airport (which are always very expensive as we know…).

3) ENGLISH BRIEFING:
Although the English briefing was mandatory prior to registration, unfortunately, it provided almost no valuable information. It was very vague with not a single presentation material and was wrapped up very quickly to avoid more questions the organizers did not have answers for (Bike course elevation, Run course, Expected weather conditions , Cross winds, Drafting rules… etc.). This briefing could have been okay for experienced triathletes but provided no guidance whatsoever for first timers.

4) WELCOME REGISTRATION PACK:
Despite this pricey registration fee, almost nothing was offered as part of the welcome registration pack beside the usual racing numbers (to put on your bike, helmet and racing belt), a bracelet and some brochures promoting the area.

5) SHUTTLE BUSES FOR ATHLETES:
Buses for athletes were not even provided for free. All athletes with no car or with a family member joining them were obliged to pay an extra 2,000 yen at some stage to get a pass and commute back and forth between the airport and the starting line with the official shuttle bus. Considering the price of the registration and the number of participants (1,100 to 1,200), those buses should have been offered for free at least for athletes. Most other races do.

6) CAR PARKING COST:
For the lucky ones who had a car, they still had to pay a 1,000 yen per day to access the closest parking to the starting area. You would think that athletes would have a dedicated free parking area but no. The only free parking area was located at a good 20 minutes walk from the starting area (T1,T2). The whole thing was very inconvenient and came across as pure money grab.

7) AIRPORT LOCATION & TOLL GATE TO ACCESS THE AIRPORT ISLAND:
As most International  airport, the place was quite outside of the city and far from any touristic area.

As you can see on the map below, the airport is located on an island and the only way to access it is to pass through the freeway/bridge.

* Problem # 1: If you do not have a car or a bike bag to take your bike inside the train, you’re pretty much stuck in the Airport island as it is strictly forbidden to ride or walk over the bridge.

* Problem # 2: For the lucky ones who came by car, the down side was that, every time you crossed the freeway/bridge you were charged 350 Yen at the Toll Gate to cross the bridge. Considering the the starting line was located on one side of the bridge and the finish line on the other side, you can imagine how many trips you had to do and how much extra money you had to spend:

For example, if you were driving a car, this what your agenda looked like:

————————————————————————–

DAY BEFORE THE RACE:

– Cross the bridge to check-in Hotel (around the airport): 350 Yen
– Attend the briefing and registration (in the airport)
– Cross the bridge to check in the bike the night before the race at T1, T2 outside of the island/airport: 350 Yen
– Return to your Hotel in the airport zone: 350 Yen

RACE DAY:

– Get to the race start: Cross the bridge again: 350 Yen
– Park in the athlete parking area and pay another: 1000 Yen for the day
– After the race, since the finish line is on the other side of the bridge (back on the island), you’re forced to pay again another 2,000 yen to get in the Athlete shuttle bus to get back to the T1, T2 area to pick back your gear/bike and car at the end of the race.
– Once you have picked up all your gear and car, you can now go back to your hotel and pay again another 350 Yen passing the bridge toll gate.

Total extra cost in 2 days: 4,750 Yen just go back and forth from the registration area, starting line and finish line. And that’s not including possible trips to the city if you had time to visit any touristic spots in the city before or after the race….

————————————————————————–

8 ) THE RACE:
Swim:
– No large bouey along the swim course which made it really hard for racers to swim in the right direction and know where to aim.
– No mat on the ground from the swim finish to the bike transition area – great to keep your feet all sandy just before putting on your bike shoes
– No showers available at the end of the swim in T1 – which was the best way to keep all the salt in your pants before riding a 90km bike ride and making sure you suffer from some serious chaffing. It’s only the day after the race that I realized some showers were there but you had to step outside of your way to get to them.

Bike:
– Dangerous course with sharp turns
– The first and last 7 kilometers of the course were on very bad, narrow and bumpy road surface
– The only 2 aid stations only offered gels and pet water bottles (no bike bottles). Each time you stopped at the aid station, if you wanted to make sure to get enough water, you had to stop completely, open the pet bottles that were given to you, open your bike bottles and fill them up one by one. Only once that was done, you could start biking again.
– Beside that, the rest of the bike course was challenging but beautiful with pleasant with rolling hills.
– An impressive 1200 volunteers: were spread all along both the bike and run course: At first I was wondering what was the point of having so many runners but, soon, I came to realized that this was probably because there was no time checking mat all along both courses. The only way to make sure that all racers were passing at each loop and turn was to spread 1,200 people along the course – not to actually support us but more to check on us and compensate for the lack of equipment they had for this race.

Run:
Comparatively, the run was well organized with lots of water spots offering cold water, wet sponges to keep cool and protect you from the heat. Great supporters and volunteers.

9) NO MEDALS FOR FINISHERS:
I think that this was the most shocking thing of the entire week-end. No Ironman 70.3 finishers even got himself/herself a medal in commemoration for this event. In all the Ironman events I have had the pleasure to participate until now, NEVER, I have not received a Finisher’s medal. This was truly disappointing.

One question remains…: “But where did all the registration and sponsorship money go”?

10) THE FINISH LINE LOCATION:
The finish line area was very isolated, far from the airport, far from any public transportation and offered no tent or shadow for athletes to rest after the race. Absolutely nothing was available or offered for families of racers (No drinks, food, tables or even chairs). Under a cooking sun and over 30 degrees C temperature, supporting families suffered from the heat just as much as racers. No parasol, no playing area for kids, no shadow, nothing but just concrete. The only tents available were only for race staff.

Water was only offered to racers and spectators were lucky if they had bought their own drinks before hand. Since the airport was too far, a quick coffee break in the cool airport was not even an option as it would have taken too much time for them to return to the finish line and they might have missed the arrival of their friend/family member.

Families with babies trying to find some shadow to hide from the sun while waiting for athletes

Overall, Nagoya Ironman 70.3 was extremely disappointing. Although I can only understand and respect the work involved to coordinate such kind of large event, I still think this event could have been a lot better if properly organized. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will participate next year as I think participating in the Sado Island Astroman would be a much more gratifying experience for both athletes and family supporters. One thing is for sure, if I change my mind and choose to attend again next year, my family will not be back – that’s for sure.

A disappointed participant

Ironman Japan 70.3 Boat Race Centrair Tokoname Triathlon

Bevan Colless Race Report:

I think that is the official name for this race, but for me it can be summed up in three letters – NVG. Not Very Good. My performance, the race organisation, the course, the expense – all Not Very Good. After being a bit scathing of IMUK and Watarase races recently I’m wondering if I’m too harsh/negative on some of these races but I prefer to think I’m a realist. It’s an interesting dilemma – we all want to be ‘positive people/glass half full and all that’ but if something’s not good, why say that it is? Then you’ve got no credibility when you actually rate something highly but you think everything’s great. As I didn’t do so well in IMUK or Japan 70.3 I was wondering if my opinion on races is tainted by my own performance but I probably did my best ever all-round race in Watarse this year and still rate it the worst triathlon I’ve ever done so I hope my opinion has still has got some cred.

This was the first ever ‘official’ half Ironman (70.3if you must) in Japan. We had hoped this race was going to come to Lake Toya near Niseko, but the local cops scuppered that idea. It’s very difficult to get roads to ride bikes on in Japan, as the key to society here is social harmony, and races upset this. This race was in Nagoya – a place I didn’t know much about except they like pork cutlet soaked in miso sauce and the headquarters of Toyota are here – it’s sometimes called “Toyota Town”. The race web site had some graphic of a plane and said the expo was in the airport, so I had visions of some unused airport terminal and a runway we could hammer at 45km/h on. I wasn’t the only one, but unfortunately not so much. The race sold out in about 6 hours to general entries and if you wanted to enter after that you had to book through the JTB (Japan Travel Bureau) but this had to include flights. As we thought we’d be coming from Hokkaido this was no problem for us, but Ness had to go back to Aus for dental work and I had to come back to Tokyo to cover staff shortage at Tokyo Physio, so there was no point flying. When they told me the flights were going to cost 78,000yen ($1,000) I dropped out of the race. They told me the fee we had paid for the entry (40,000 yen each for me and Vanessa – about the most expensive race I’ve ever done was non-refundable). Still no way I was going to pay that for the flights to a “C” race – I was still out.

About 5 days before the race friends started telling me my name was still down on the official start list so I thought maybe I could make a cheeky appearance and travel by train –which I did. When I went to register they had a “cancelled” next to my name but I played the dumb gaijin (foreigner) and they gave me the timing chip and race numbers.
The race-briefing they made such a big deal of attending was a bit of a joke. Whit Raymond ran it, and though I think he’s the best announcer in the business he is not a race organiser and knew nothing about this race. It was as if they grabbed him from the plane and threw him in front of us. ‘I think the swim course is shaped like this and we’re going anti-clockwise not clockwise’ – scrawls on the board. We don’t have any big buoys so we’ve got some sailboats at the turning points to sight/as buoy. ‘The start of the bike is rough I hear be safe’. The question time: “Is the run course two laps or one it’s not clear on the map?”. ‘Umm not sure just follow people, next question’. “Is the bike hilly or windy?”. ‘It might be not really sure’….and on it went until poor ol’ Whit wound it up mid sentence before anyone could ask anymore questions. The whole atmosphere of the meeting was farcical with an underlining ‘isn’t this a bit ridiculous’ in everything he said. The kicker was that there was only one aid station on the bike and they would give you PET bottles of water only, not in a bidon (normal cycling bottle). For 40,000yen entry this pissed me and many other people off, but was typical for triathlons in Japan at least they weren’t serving water in cups on the bike like they sometimes do here. Transport to the start was to cost 2,000yen and the pre-race meal was convenience store style sandwiches – we were wondering where our 40,000yen went to? I thought this race being an official M-Dot race might be a level up on the typical races, but it was becoming apparent it was just the same, just with a triple priced entry fee that was flowing back to WTC, the police and the race organisers.

Swim 32minutes
I started in the second wave of the swim – 5 minutes after the first wave (pros and under 35’s). Not a big fan of the age divided wave starts, nd the faster under 35 Agers got to swim and ride with the slower pros which is an advantage, but there you go. I lined up at the swim start next to Jenson Button who was doing the swim and bike legs with another mate doing the run. He’s a pretty similar level to me so I was disappointed not to race him overall (beat him off the bike and his relay team by a few minutes, but he’s a 37:xx oly distance runner – so it would have been interesting!

I started the swim really well and after 300m was in front of our wave, but due to the race briefing I was navigating to the boat as I thought we had to go around it. Turns out it was only for sighting and was 100m from the buoy so I had to change course and had lead my merry crew of followers down the wrong path too – sorry guys! Navigating was tough with no sighting buoys so just kept heading in the general direction trying to visualise Whit’s rough sketch on the whiteboard that looked like a rectangular lollipop. After the last buoy I thought I had to pass one more buoy (at the T of the lollipop) before heading in, but couldn’t see the buoy and people around me where heading into shore (actually swimming in all directions). After stopping and swimming breaststroke several times to look for the buoy and decide what to do, I decided to head into shore and hope I was not DQ’d by a paddle boarder. I think everyone did the same. Enjoyed swimming in the ocean for a change but aside from that – shitty swim. They landed us about 300m from T1, so there was a looong run to get to the bikes – hate that after a swim – the heart-rate skyrockets.

Bike 2.48
I had a host of mechanical issues recently and got my bike back from the mechanic at the race (my mechanic was the official mechanic at the race). I took it for a ride and it felt so weird I returned it to him telling him it was dangerous. No – I found out – turns out I’d been riding it with a sloppy head set/steering for a long time and he had fixed it. My ‘weird’ was actually normal. He fixed my warped disc that had been rubbing and convinced me to race with it despite me carrying a more friendly road wheel from Tokyo – this was a mistake due to the hilly, tight and rough nature of the course but I didn’t want to let him down. Coach Woody had told me to ride the first 30kms moderate to hard, and then hammer the last 60kms as fast as I possibly could. I was salivating at the prospect a first to have a licence to smash it! Unfortunately from my first pedal stroke I knew my legs were not at their best today. And further evidence to my theory pretty much everyone races their bike leg as fast as they can anyway, they just kid themselves they are holding back. I’m not sure why my biking is inconsistent – some days I bike like a rock star some days like a chump. Today I was a chump.After my pre-race Facebook proclamations and a subsequent slow bike time I’ve since received letters of condolences from Tobjorn Sindballe, Bjorn Anderson and Chris Lieto and they asked me to return my “Uber-Biker-Blow-Up-On-The-Run’ membership card to them – fair enough, will do guys, I’m all talk.

Despite being told it was 3kms – the first and last 12 kilometres were done on the horrible beachfront elevated pathways / esplanades town planners in Japan decided were a good idea some time ago. I’d ridden on these on Tour De Chiba social rides before, but it was a bit embarrassing to have to ride on them in an ‘international’ race. The concrete was about 2metres wide and had many large cracks that had separated. Lots of sharp turns and short rises made this area ‘interesting’. A French pro who had travelled for the race afterwards was telling me how disappointed he was in the race and said “I would not even take my mountain bike to these placez”….but maybe we triathletes are just too precious?
The ride had many very sharp tight turns and over 100metres of climbing – I was very happy I had my bike serviced before this race or I would have been into some barriers for sure. The one (in)famous Aid Station was classic Japan. On the first loop I missed it completely (I never thought you could ‘miss’ an aid station on the bike but I did – went straight by not even knowing it was there…). You had to leave the course completely, go into a parking lot and stop to receive some of the PET water bottles. It was the sort of aid station/lunch spot you get on social rides and cringe worthy for an M-dot race. To make matters worse the ride on the cracked footpaths saw maybe 50% of athletes have water bottles eject; so there was this double whammy of thirsty riders and this crappy aid station. D’oh. I did the whole ride by myself and was bored/frustrated throughout. Legs just weren’t co-operating at all.

Run 1.42
The run course was pretty good, but a few too many U turns. The Japanese love to run you up and down dead ends on run courses to make the most of space. The support from volunteers throughout the race was a highlight. There were 1,200 of them on the course (most without much to do except say “Gambatte” and “Fighto”), but they did so with gusto and it was well received. I’ve always been a fan of wetting myself when hot (It was 32 degrees), so love the hoses and sponges. One trio (I called them the Toyota family) – seeing this was Toyota town…were out with the daughter holding a hose and Mum and Dad a big bucket staggered one after the other on the pathway. I agreed to the hose first then came to Mum and Dad and said yes to the bucket – WHAM – got knocked by a full bucket of water right in the face/body from Mum and as I was reeling from that – WHAM – Dad hit me with the same full bucket of water – “Oh What a Feeling……”…..sorry outdated gag I know. My poor ‘water resistant’ Garmin 305 got a big drop in its screen after that….hmmm. Hopefully it comes good. Anyway struggled through the run without feeling too bad – the half IM is so much easier mentally than the full. Time was a bit shite though – glad it was over as usual and managed to finish pretty strongly out-sprinting a guy in the last km.
Overall the event was NVG and speaking and eavesdropping on the pros that had travelled here to do the race I was pretty embarrassed for Japan. Don’t get me wrong I love Japan and there are so many good things about living here, but in many ways they just don’t understand what international Western standards are and how to meet them. As I mostly live in Niseko – a town that was built on foreigners providing services for international standards that the Japanese couldn’t, it’s something I’m acutely aware of. I really want people to come to Japan for a holiday, and international tourism is probably Japan’s only way out if it’s economic malaise but most of the locals have no idea what foreigners want – a bit like me in my teens and early twenties trying to understand what women want – no idea! Here’s your $150 a night room sir: a smoke stained tiny tatami mat space and for furniture you get a coffee table and a 20 year old TV in the corner. I always thought some animals get more furniture than the humans here….. “But don’t worry for entertainment we have a nice bath at the end of the hall”. It won’t cut it in an international market just like this race won’t either. Fortunately for them’ the race organisers are not aiming at an international market and I’m sure it will sell out just as fast next year….but you won’t see the name Colless on the starter’s list.

Anyway, next weekend I’ve got Murakami Olympic distance, which is a much better event and race – so really looking forward to that – a chance to get some redemption and a decent result on the board too maybe.

Bevan Colless Race Reports

Ironman Western Australia race report Dec. 2009 (By Bevan Colless)

Well this was the A race of the season and I was confident that it would be a good race. Known as a one of the fastest races on the official Ironman-race circuit for it’s wet suit swim in calm ocean waters up one side of a 1.8m jetty and down the other, a flat bike course on top quality “hot-seal” roads and a flat coastal run. As I’ve progressed as a triathlete I’ve come to realise that with a non-existent kick in the swim, wet suit swims are good for me and a heavy frame flat courses are better on the bike and cooler weather is the key for the run (not that you get many of those in Asian or Australian triathlons), but the only times I’ve run well is in cool weather.

Pre-race I’d spent the past month in Australia, in Sydney and the Hunter Valley catching up with family and training. New South Wales had its hottest November in years with many days in excess of 40 degrees, which made it tough for training. I was keeping a close eye in the weather in Perth the whole time and it was consistently much cooler – almost daily 23-25 degrees “Perfect” I thought. Then the Tuesday before the race while watching the late night News they were doing the forward forecast and predicted “23 in Perth for Wednesday and Thursday, before a high pressure hits from the East and temperature will rise to 30 on Friday and 37 on Saturday”. “Nooooooooo…..” I said in slow motion, stopped in my tracks while heading to brush my teeth. We flew out the next day to cool weather in Perth and drove the 2 ½ hours south to the race town of Busselton, a very pretty coastal town, with very friendly locals, all excited about the race and justifiably proud of their town. The next couple of days consisted of the usual registration, carbo loading party and a town full of extremely fit looking people checking each other out and fighting for seats in restaurants and cafes.

The day before the race we had a carbo-loading plan from our online coach Alun Woodward from Ironguides who suggested we eat two 200grams bars of pure chocolate and wash it down with a liter or more of soft drink. Given I’d probably never bought a bar of pure chocolate in my life and had not drunk full sugar soft drink in years this was something different, but might as well trust the experts we are paying for so Vanessa and I gave it our best and tuckered in. We had to finish eating by 2pm and we then went in to check in our bikes and race day change bags (after brushing our teeth). It was quite fun to eat this stuff as a novelty. We went to pre-race ‘weigh-in’ as instructed in the race office and with my thongs and light shorts on I hit a hefty 88.7kgs – feeling decidedly fat I flicked through the sheets of competitors and saw past winner Jason Short is and another Pro who does an Ironman every other weekend Petr Vabrousek also above 88kg, which made me feel slightly better. Still had the nagging thought that hot races are not my go, but was determined to give it my best.

RACE DAY

We got up in good time and as I drove out of our hotel 6kms south of Busso we pulled out directly behind a NSW plated Carolla with a number plate that read “MDOT” (used to describe the Ironman brand logo) – no doubt Busselton was Ironman town for this week- but I had a sneaking suspicion that this bloke might live in Wankerville as the car had a 1.2litre engine and he had driven it all the way from NSW – I wondered if he drove it just to show the plate of around town. We went on and picked up my parent’s who’d come from Sydney for the race, which was great and for once made it to the swim start in plenty of time.

Swim 57 minutes

Despite the predicted scorching temperatures, the mornings and evenings here were very cool, and the water was a slightly chilly 20 degrees. They had a mass swim start with the 1300 or-so competitors seeded according to their predicted swim time on entry forms. I couldn’t remember what I’d written but I was in the fastest section (blue caps) in front of the whites, then yellow and orange.  The start line was too deep to stand at, so after a quick swim out to warm up I went back to the white cap area to stand up for two minutes before the start, as soon as I put my foot down I felt a sharp bite on my big toe, unmistakably a crab. I checked the toe – no blood – so I took it as a good sign something to fire me up before the race. The starts separated by age group are generally less rough swims, but there were 120 Singaporeans here for the race, and I’d overheard a group of them talking in their mix of Chinese and English and I understood little except that they’d used the word ‘breaststroke’ several times – taking me back to the Singapore half Ironman that has several start waves separated by 5 minutes which saw you run into about 100 Singaporeans breast stroking four or five wide from the previous wave start and getting frog-kicked to kingdom-come fort the whole swim. So I was happy with the mass start to avoid those problems again.

I lined up on the right; as I breathe to the left (as per coach Alun’s instructions) and started pretty well, feeling fluid and quick right from the get go. It was a rough swim, and I was getting bumped, kicked and hit all over the place. Every time I tried to get on someone’s feet to draft, someone else was already there and they shooed me off like the alpha-male seagull that got to the chip first. The water was crystal clear; unfortunately the jetty was being refurbished as I hear spectators normally line the whole length of the jetty cheering you on. It seemed like this jetty was custom made for a triathlon, as the length was perfect. My mind was wandering late in the way out and I found myself surrounded by white caps, which was probably not a good sign. “Better concentrate a bit more,” I thought and I put the hammer down for a bit and moved up into the middle of the blue-caps. For all the swimming theories when it comes down to it you there’s no escaping that you just have to pull bloody hard under the water to go fast. I turned and headed home and was in a great mood – thinking how lucky I was to be out here in this beautiful ocean, doing what I love in a great country with a great wife who I love so much on a great day – there are so many people going through very tough times and you never no what is around the corner – not that I think you should go through life patting yourself on the back but it’s nice to stand back and be content sometimes and it just so happened that I really felt appreciative for how lucky I was during this swim – a lovely moment.  I made one more move late on in the swim as my shoulders felt good – As I came out of the water, I was almost sorry the swim was over, I was enjoying it so much.

Into transition area 1 and I had these bladdy long compression socks to get on, which took ages – especially as one was inside-out – after my Mum always said for years we should turn our socks the right way before washing I had a wry smile and thought Mum – that’s mistake number one today. I ran out and straight past my bike – (mistake number 2), but soon enough was out on the road.

Bike 4.49

The bike is a three 60km lap course and this day the winds were up from the get-go and never let up. I was soon contorting my body out of the wind behind the aero-bars and got into a nice rhythm. I was under instructions not to go hard in the first 40kms and try to come home hard. I had one guy pass me early on doing about 42kms into the wind – I’d become a pretty good time-trial cyclist in the last 8 months, and it’d been a while since I’d been passed on the flat so I had to tell myself to calm down and let him go – thinking that there are going to be some of the best Aussie time-trialist here and I was going to be getting passed a few times today. As we reached the first turn around point I saw I was about 2 minutes behind the lead pack – a massive pace line of about 30 cyclists. As I was pretty much riding by myself I though jeez I wish I was in that line – doing it easy at 39kph without ever having to have your nose into the wind. Eventually another bloke came up to me and we worked together for the first lap taking 5 minute turns in the lead – but we were both good about staying the legal 7 metres behind. We still couldn’t bridge the gap to the lead group despite a few strong efforts,that took a bit out of both of us. Late on the first lap my buddy tossed his empty bidon approaching the aid station, but not far from his bike and it rolled on an arc right into my path. I already had one hand out to get my drink, but just got it back onto the handle bars before it went straight into my path and under both wheels – phew the volunteers at the aid station all gasped – that could have been ugly.

I had my aero helmet and visor with air-cooling cap, top and arm-sleeves to do my best to stay cool and the temperature was really heating up. 2XU is my favorite brand but them and most of the Aussie tri-gear manufacturers (Scody, Cannibal, Jaggad) have been too occupied with making race clothes that go through water quickly and not how cool they keep you – crazy when most races are in warm weather and you wear a wet suit in the swim. The Americans (De Soto) and Danish (Craft) have led the innovations in cooling clothes, but judging by all the white race gear and arm sleeves I saw on the day, the Aussies will catch on soon. I picked up water at every aid station and wet my front and sleeves and tried to find the hole in the helmet with the bidon to get water on the skullcap. Problem was if you missed with your first stab at the hole it’d close the nozzle and nothing would come out when you finally found it and squeezed. This caused me to spend way to long sitting up after aid stations and was slowing me down, so I tried to squeeze under my visor from the front of the helmet but this was pretty tough too. Eventually I saw someone wet form the back and adopted that more successful tactic from then on – mistake No. 3….

Onto the second lap and a 195cm 100kg muscle bound unit (No. 411 from Kagoshima Japan as I later found out) came up us and went straight by – my buddy and I tried to hold on thinking he could drag us to the lead pack, but I realized it was using too much juice and backed off. He did get onto them but I later saw him walking most of the marathon. My riding partner held onto him for longer than me, so I was back to smashing away in the strong wind by myself unable to bridge the gap and to make matters worse another massive pack had formed 3 minutes behind me – I was in no-man’s land with big packs 3minutes in front and behind, promising myself to swim more often and forget about the compression socks so I wouldn’t miss the lead-pack. It was like an Olympic distance draft-legal race in that regard – miss the lead pack on the bike and your day is done.

Onto the last lap and I caught Charlotte Paul, the women’s pro who was one of the pre-race favorites and past winner who I met at a Noosa tri camp her husband ran  – a great girl who I wanted to win so encourage her to tack on behind me, which she did until the last 4kms. I’d worked pretty hard on the bike, certainly much harder than that bloody lead peleton that never broke up, but my take is if riding is your strength there’s no point in riding like a pussy in hope it’ll magically make you a better runner.

Run 4.18

I knew this was going to be a tough day from here on. The heat was brutal at this stage, over 43 under foot apparently and it did not relent the whole time I was on the run. The run was a three x 14km run up and down the coast on a narrow concrete path. The locals were out in force having parties along the path and giving plenty of encouragement by name (that was written on the race numbers), this was great as the heat was really oppressive and many of them were out all afternoon in it with us together. There was even an outdoor wedding that went on right next to the race, with smelly triathletes peeing on themselves almost part of the guest-list. The first lap was tough and I was consistently passed and feeling pretty crap. I was trying to run the whole race today (albeit slowly) and shuffled through the first 14kms at about 10 km/h. I was taking a lot of salt tabs and drinking coke at every aid station, wetting everywhere I could with water and shoving ice wherever I could. The second lap I felt a bit better and was able to run faster and was passing a few people for a change. I was on target for about 9.50, which I though was not too bad considering the wind and heat. The third lap I thought I was close enough to the end to not worry as much about the salt tabs and was running through every second aid station, but the cups of coke were getting smaller and I was feeling rougher and rougher. I was down to aiming for less than 10 hours and with 12kms to go I just had to do 6minute k’s to make it, which I thought was possible. I felt a rumble in my bowels with 8kms to go and thought I could hold on to the finish, but 6kms out realized that was not possible and I wanted to enjoy the finish chute, so stopped at the port-a-loo. With 4kms to go I was still just on target, running 6 minutes per k, but all of sudden felt really terrible and had to walk. The stereotypical moment of truth that I had not been strong enough for. The run is such a mind game – and the usual thoughts of “why am I bothering with this – costs a fortune, so many sacrifices, never going to be a world beater, what’s the point, wishing it was over etc etc made it tough. Am I really struggling because of exhaustion/hydration/lack of salt or am I just mentally weak? Bloody mind-games. I got a boost from some of the pathside parties playing dance music that I’d been boogying to on previous laps and they could see I was doing it tough and got me back running by offering me beers and telling me to keep dancing a couple of hundred meters before the finishing chute. I think I’d become dehydrated by switching of the nutrition, salt and hydration too soon Mistake No. 4 and probably my biggest mistake of the day.

Once I crossed the line I must have looked pretty bad as they helped me through to the rest / triage area, where I sat down and guzzled two can of soft drink and then laid down on the grass. They were thinking about sending me into the medical tent when I got up and had to vomit, I almost went in a large flip top wheely bin, but realized it was full of water and ice, not garbage at the last minute and luckily pivoted and found one that looked the same, but was actually a rubbish bin – a classic bright orange power-spew that caused my helpers to cancel the call for the doctor and start looking for an Exorcist. I stood up and had pretty bad shaking and difficulty walking so went into the med-tent and the weighed me – 84kgs with shoes and wet clothes, so I’d lost probably 5kgs. The nurse told me most others that had lost that much were on IV drips. But after 30 minutes lying and chatting with some lovely locals I felt better and managed to get out and greet Mum and Dad. Vanessa had a great race and just got stronger and stronger the whole run, and her previously weak cycle and swim had both gone very well. A top first IM and she was unluckily that her age group was so strong as she was 9^th – the 35-39 women she would have been 3rd. She’s so mentally tough and had massive blister problems on the run and a hip problem that has not gone away all year.

All in all it was a great event, although the conditions were very tough, only two age-groupers went under 9 hours and normally it’s about 20, the locals said it had been the hottest day they could remember, my feet were literally burnt from the run as my shoes cooked. I just can’t seem to get my mojo going on the run in the heat. I read an article recently on a study that showed 10 degrees Celsius was the optimum temp for a marathon and times went down 2 or 3 percent per degrees from there. I reckon my times decrease by 5 percent per degree. I had smashed a few long runs at 10 degrees in Niseko before leaving with my No. 2 training partner Jess Ripper and also Eric where we were hammering 3.40 k’s 1.30 in and it felt pretty easy, but when I tried the same session in Oz in 40 degrees heat I needed to hail a passing car to get me home. To make matters worse the temp here has been cool for the last month and is back to 23 degrees on Monday! Still it’s done now and onto another busy winter in Niseko, hopefully keep training for Saipan, and maybe the new Toya 70.3 in Hokkaido.

Bevan Colless is a triathlete, skier and Australian-trained Physiotherapist (Physical Therapist). He and his wife Vanessa (also a Physiotherapist) operate Tokyo Physio, a leading Physical Therapy clinic in Tokyo. Tel: 03-3443-6769, Website: www.TokyoPhysio.com E-mail: info@TokyoPhysio.com

Hiroyuki Suzuki visiting Florida for the world Championship 70.3

Back in 2007, Hiroyuki Suzuki (30), a young triathlete from Japan had qualified for the Foster Grant World Championship 70.3 where he performed an impressive race and covered the entire distance in just 4h46 – his best ever time on a half ironman distance.

Last September 2009, during the Singapore half ironman, Hiro did it again and managed to get himself a ticket for Clearwater in Florida for 2009’s World Championship. He was kind enough to share with us his experience over there.

It took me 2 years to come back again here at Clearwater. It was in 2007 last time I came to Florida. At that time, I did not have much experience on how to train and was just relying on will power and the desire to achieve something. This time was a little very different – I had focused on the race and had a proper training plan to prepare for it.

This year though, I had to work on the 11th so unfortunately, I could only take the plane on the 12th to arrive on the same day at midnight. The race was taking place on the 14th. Of course, as you can imagine, I was so tired so after taking care of my race registration, I ate some of the soba I brought back from Japan and went to bed to get some rest.

On the 13th, I woke up around 4am (1 day before the race). I went outside the hotel for the sunrise, set up my bike, went for a spin for 30minutes and went for a “quick” swim practice (It was very cold that I stopped after just 10 minutes). Okay… I was the only one swimming without a wet suit. The rest of the day was pretty uninteresting  as I had nothing much to do after I was done with the bike check-in. I was bored, sleepy and suffering from a headache. I stayed at the my hotel room trying to relax, massage my legs and kill time. For diner, I had again some soba :-). I had a hard time falling asleep as I have too many naps during the day and ended up sleeping only a couple of hours before the race.

I woke up again at 4am on the race day, ate 2 bananas and guess what else…? Yes … some soba :-), and left the hotel for the body marking.

The hotel I stayed at this time was very convenient as it was right next to the race starting point. After pumping up my tires, I could bring back my bump with some other gears and kept warm in my room.

SWIM = 1.9km:

The course that was originally planned was to start from Mexico Bay but unfortunately, it was changed due to the wavy ocean. I would have preferred the old course but…  anyways.

The start was given in a time trial style (one race after the other) and we were not allowed to warm up before hand. I was hard to get straight into the race.  I was very cold for the first few hundred meters but after a few minutes got warm pretty quickly. Blinded by the sun facing us, I found it hard to swim straight and stick with the course. My time was okay anyway and I finished the 1.9km swim in 29minutes.

Swim: 1.9km => 29min

BIKE = 90km:

My goal was to keep my cadence from 90 to 100 per minute from the beginning to the end. I did not push too much to keep some energy for the run. I was feeling good but for some reason did not get the impression I was going fast enough as 400 people past me (this is the world championship after all I guess and there are a lot of strong people out there). The last 10km, my legs were getting stiff and I felt I was not far from getting a cramp. I had to take a few salt tablets which helped me a lot. Once again, I did learn a lot from this race and found new ways to improve myself for next time. It’s amazing how much you can learn from each event!

This race was a flat and very fast course so I decided to use my full disk wheel. I was hoping to gain more speed but did not manage to get the sensation I was looking for – I still felt heavy. I thought afterward I may should have brought a lighter wheel. More than just the equipment, I was too low especially comparing to the other strong competitors

Bike: 90km => 2:31min:15sec

RUN =21km:

My start was okay but I did not have much power to pass people back after they passed me. I was thinking so many time my speed was okay and that I should stick to my pace and not worry about the others. My left thigh and left carve were really stiff and cramping up.

Along the course, I saw Mr. Tomoya who I met in Singapore last September (He’s living over there). His level is very high so seeing him on the course boosted my mental and made me more hungry to not lose against him. Then, I took some Coca Cola drinks at the aid station. Yes it’s true it’s great way to recover quickly, but, my stomach got upset from it 5km before the end and had to walk a little bit. I pushed as much as I could to finally cross the finish line after 1:39min17sec.

Run:21km => 1:39min17sec

Total time: 4h48m2s

I just regret I could not have more power in the end. If I did, I may have beat my last time 2 years ago. My mental was not stable enough along the race – I will make sure to train harder next time so that I will not have this problem again.

Next year, when I race, I should set my mind to push hard as if it was my last race. Craig Alexander himself, who I had the chance to meet, gave me a few tips that I will try to implement for my upcoming events.

For 2010, I m planning to go to California and Hawaii 70.3. Both races have a high level but they both offer some slots to qualify for the Ironman World Championship in Kona (Big Island) so I will try to get my chances there.

I will try to also participate in an event in Europe. I have never been there so would really like to experience racing there. Plus, because I am light, I am usually better for hilly course instead of flat. For this reason, I think a European race with a mountain course might be more adequate for me. I look forward to participate in one as I know they have so many strong athletes over there.

Don’t you think it’s a lot for someone who is married and working full time in Japan?!

I don’t know if I can do it all or if I can take holidays. The number of holidays should be okay but we never know with Japanese companies right…? Let’s not even mention about the money factor as well … We will see

I registered already 3 races anyway for next year – I like to think that if I am registered, I will have to find a way to make it happen.

See you next time

Hiroyuki Suzuki

To access Hiroyuki’s report in Japanese, click on the link below:
http://ironman-lifesaver.seesaa.net/article/133454744.html

IM Hawaii race report Oct. 2009 (By Ben DISTEL)

PRE-RACE: We (Monique and I) arrived in Kona on Monday afternoon after spending 2 days in luxury at the Hyatt in Honolulu. Staying there for 2 days was fantastic as it allowed for some flight recovery in total luxury. We stayed at the Castle Kona Bali Kai on Alii Drive, some 5K from the start. It is a condo place where all units have their own kitchen: I highly recommend to have this before an IM as it allows you to cook your own food when you want. Also condos tend to be larger than hotel rooms so you can spread all your gear around. In the week leading up to race day we cycled the course, ran up and down Alii Drive, Kuakini Highway and Palani road (learning that that hill is not to be underestimated), and swam the course a few times.

I felt good the whole time, but I was a bit nervous before my first swim. Probably a bit scared for swimming that far into the open ocean, a first for me. The sea is gorgeous, while swimming you see coral, fish and the occasional turtle.

Waking up race morning at 4 am I usually feel nauseous, but this time is felt good, so I had my usual breakfast of wheat toast, honey, banana, juice, coffee and a “morning banana” gel. Then the pre-race nerves kicked in and my bowel started moving, overdrive, as usual.

SWIM: The swim is notorious for the hundreds of age groupers who think they can win the thing, hence, the start is rough, I lined up way left on the advise of David Sims who raced here last year and that was a great suggestion. I had none of the madness and was able to swim relaxed pretty much the whole way. I planned to go much easier than I normally do but still came out pretty ok: time 1hr 15, yet that’s a full 14 minutes slower than my time in New Zealand.

View of the swim start from the Helicopter covering the race

T1: was the usual wet mess but with the help of tons of volunteers all was smooth. Put on HR belt, long sleeve top number belt and off we go.

BIKE: The bike starts with a short climb to the Queen K highway, when back down on Palani to the Kuakini Highway. A stretch of about 3K that climbs non stop. I really focused on staying in my zone but it is hard not to get excited with thousands of people cheering you on and lots of bikers passing like you’re standing still. Then back down Kuakini to the Queen K where the race really starts. My HR was still very high and it took me the better part of an hour to get into the zone where I wanted to be. I also figured out quickly that my nutrition was not working, I felt bloated right away and thought I’d had to stop at the first toilet, massive GI problems. So I dumped my Perpetuem and switched to Gatorade and took in as much gel as I could. The first 110K went according to plan (6 hour bike), with a steady ride to the start of the climb to Hawi. Then the winds hit me hard on the climb to Hawi which made for a very slow 16K uphill. Then the same 16K screaming downhill with the wind gusting from all directions. It’s a seriously scary thing –particularly for the chicken descender I am- to go close to 60K and be jerked left and right by the wind. :Then coming back to the Queen K the WIND hit me straight on and the next 50K or so were sooooo slow. At many stretches I was doing no more than 15K/hr. I honestly thought it would take me 3 hours to get back to transition. I’ve never experienced such winds and talk in town was that these were the strongest winds in years. Just my luck. When reaching the airport the direction of the road turns a bit and the wind came from the side so the last 15K or so I was able to return to normal speeds. When passing the Energy Lab I saw Faris, Macca, Relaert and Crowie duking it out in the heat on the QK and also say Smiling Chrissie just turning into the Energy Lab. Time 6:24

T2: One sentence: Putting on compression socks when tired and wet is not easyJ

MARATHON: The plan was to run 30 mins 5K’s with the first 5K a bit slower, hoping to be able to speed up in the end for a 4:10 run time. When reaching the first aid station I realized that I forgot to bring salt tablets from T2, so I decided to take pretzels all the way. The first 5 were hard, I walked quite a bit, It was searing hot so I dumped ice water and ice at every aid station, then slowly I found my groove. Then, after 90m minutes of running: clouds, mercy! I cooled down quickly then and I started to feel much better. I walked up Palani to save my energy and then entering the QK again it is just a long, desolate, never ending shuffle and knowing you have to go all the way back too. The Enery Lab was a welcome change of scenery,  made extra nice because the sun was just about to set.. Out of the ELab, with 12 K to go I sped up trying to beat 12 hours so I ran a fast 5K and paid for it on K35-40, then all out to the finish. Passed lots of people in last 15K. Running the last K to the finish was goosebumps all the way, so many people cheering me on, hearing Mike Reilly and Whit Raymond announcing you is an unforgettable moment. In my previous 2 IM’s I ended up in the medical tent, this time I felt great and went straight to pizza and ice cream. Time 4:23, 13 minutes faster than New Zealand on a much, much tougher course in much more difficult conditions. Overall time 12;13.

MY TRAINING: Most importantly, Fluro tought me to understand my zones and stick to them. Also learnt to be able to change my plan when necessary and deal with the things that get thrown at you. You can plan everything to perfection but things may not work out. Also, your mind does not work all that well after hours of racing, so you got to keep your plan as simple as possible. Lastly, understanding that after 20K on the marathon it is all about mental strength made me deal with the pain much better. Of course you’re hurting: blisters, sore ankle, sore muscles, it’s all part of the game, everybody is suffering. Ignoring it is the trick. To be able to keep running most of the way and speed up in the end was the best feeling ever. Overall time not great and well off my PB but it was the best I could do on a tough course in insane heat and ridiculous winds. Now, after almost 16 months of non stop training for IM NZ and Kona I am going to give my body and mind a good break.

Big thank you’s to Monique of course for putting up with all the hours of training and never being there on weekends.

Paul Fleuren for being my coach. Paul, you’ve taught me so much, I can’t begin to describe. Coaching is so much more than just writing a training progam. Gettting your weekly emails with training tips and what to work on were invaluable. For all who think about doing IM and fork over 300-500 USD for expensive online coaches……forget it, Paul is your man.

The Tokyo training group and in particular Dave Sims for the swim sessions and general tri and trash talk. Keren, your come back and motivation has been inspirational and has pushed me through tough times. Eric, Ricky and Mary, thanks for your trust and positive vibes.

Last but not least: David and Megumi have a great wedding weekend!

One day after the race we’re sitting by the pool after pigging out all day on American Breakfast, Burgers Beer and Football (the American kind) and Chinese takeout, the soreness is setting in. Amazingly the legs feel ok-ish but my neck and shoulders are in pain, I guess from being tucked in on the bike on the Queen K. Life is good though, sitting by the pool at 9pm with Corona and Hawaiian music in the background. Tomorrow we fly to Maui for 5 days of nothing but sun, sand and sea.

For Paul, the splits:

BIKE PER 30K:

1)               1:02 HR 146
2)               0:56 HR 136
3)               1:05 (climb to Hawi) HR 139
4)               1:01 (Descend from Hawi and first part QK) HR 136
5)               1:10 (QK) HR 139
6)               1:06 HR 138

RUN PER 5K:

1)               32.22 HR 145
2)               32.20 HR 142
3)               29.58 HR 144
4)               31.55 HR 144
5)               32.54 HR 139
6)               31.39 HR 140
7)               28.57 HR 146
8)               33.40 HR 139 (payback for lap 7!) 8.25 HR 146 finish 1.6 K

Report from Ben Distel
www.T1bicycles.com

Choshi Triathlon 2009 – October 4th

Hello all!

On 10/4/2009 was the last triathlon of the season : The Choshi Marina International Triathlon.

Over 500 participants:
A lot more people registered to the race this year so it was already full before dead line, and some of NFCC members could not participate. Had a thought for the ones back to their countries, who were not here this year : David, Paul, Jacques,…
Condition were good, considering pouring rain and strong wind the day before AND the day after…
The “ancients” knew the hard course on the bike (souvenirs… my 1st OLY here on a mountain bike…) whereas the young (and crazy) dogs were discovering it.
The run course (consisting of 4 laps) has changed this year, making it much more challenging, with a lot more hills, u-turns…

So, what happened ?
* Hiro-the-star, the local attraction, known anywhere he goes made a sub 2:15 after a brilliant swim (I want the same wetsuit !) :-).
* David Sims, as regular as a clock, scored his 17956th sub2:20.
* Fabien, after 1 year rest… heu, recovery, is back in business. Like Eric Lesne, only a few weeks after his debuts on Ironman distance. Both went under 2:40.
Note: please register your names in romanji next time, it’s hard enough to find your name in japanese characters in the result list…
* Kudo-san had the run of the day : 38min on that course is fast !

As for me, Hiro kicked my ass on the swim, so I went deep in the red-purple-black zone to get him on the bike (Hiro, do you know you lose time putting socks on ?;)) and struggled the rest of the race. Managed a surprising overall 8th though.

Now is winter coming. Some of us are now preparing the next event : Ironman New-Zealand, in march 2010. yes, it’s starting now…

See you around,

Eric

Still smiling?

He even cuts his bib number to be more aero… He is a STAR §

Fabien attacking hard

I’m coming for you, HIROOOOOOOOO !!!!

Wheel size does matter, don’t you think, Didier ? And it’s all carbon-made… (do you read, Sandy ?)

Dou suru? Aizu! From David Motozo

Beautiful Aizu was the venue for my latest triathlon exploit, appropriately named “Utsukushi Triathlon in Aizu” on Lake Inawashiroko. Despite the hot and humid conditions of mid-August Tokyo, we had near perfect conditions with overcast skies at the start of the freshwater swim.

Swim: Dave Sims, Tony, and me lined up at the “floating start”, wondering how far we would actually swim. The shallowness of the lake was quite apparent, although the swim course had been altered this year to reduce porpoising and increase actual swimming. I had a decent swim time, but was unprepared for the wading and porpoising. Although porpoising increases your speed, it is harder to do than swim, and my legs felt like bricks. I guessed Dave was having a tough time also, as I was only a minute or so behind his powerful strokes after the first loop. 2 loops of 750 meters and I was on the beach in 26 minutes, close to my best swim effort.

Bike: It was a long run to the bike area and rather slow transition. My bike training had gone fairly well and I looked forward to a ripper on the gentle downhill course. I averaged 35.9 kph. I rode with Tony for a while, but at about 20k, the downhill steepened, and Hillary de Cervelo topped 55 kph. I should have kept on pedaling hard, but the high speed spooked me, so I held off and lost Tony and his 6 friends. The rest of the ride was rather uneventful. My bike time including both transitions was 1:10:24, so about 1:07 or 1:08 net time.

Run: Run time was disappointing. I felt moments of strength and would surge as much as I could, only to feel the stomach cramps, hamstring aches, and general fatigue force me to slow down. It didn’t help that there were no distance markers throughout the course, so I had no idea of pacing. Perhaps I would have picked it up had I seen a 23 minute 5k split. Who can say? Total 10k split was 46:22 for 103rd place in the run. For an experienced runner with a recent 1:36 half marathon time in July, unforgivable.

Swim: 26:11 (70th place)
Bike: 1:10:24 (53rd place)
Run: 46:22 (103rd place)

Total time was 2:22:59, 60th place out of 400 participants, a PB by almost 3 minutes, despite the slow run.

Congrats to Dave and Tony, who both had PBs also. Next month is my last tri race of this year most likely, in Hasaki, Chiba. It should be a fast course with cooler weather. Time to hit the track and get those run times down!

Ironman U.K. – August 2nd 2009 – Race Report From Sumie Kawakami

“I’ve done many Ironman races before,” I kept telling myself, but that didn’t make me feel any better. Experience does tell you how much you need to train beforehand, and how hard it is to finish another one. But, an Ironman race will never get any easier, no matter how many times you do it. I knew this from my experience.

The Ironman U.K. 2009 took place in Bolton, Manchester — a beautiful northwestern English town, surrounded by the hilly landscape of woods, meadows, and moors. We were in the heart of Emily Jane Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. (Well, some people may argue about this, but the landscape did remind me of the novel).

But, this was the first time that the city of Bolton hosted the event, and there were a lot of uncertainties. At the official race briefing, the event organizer told us that some people in the city weren’t very happy about the city’s plan to host the event, so some may attempt to move road signs or lead athletes to wrong ways (I’d never dreamt of such a thing as sabotage at such an honest event as an Ironman). There had been some confusions about courses and the way the race was organized. The courses were changed several times and there weren’t proper maps of the courses or of the transition area. Also, the weather was unfavorable. The city had been hit by heavy rain prior to the race, so the entire transition area was covered with mud making it difficult for us to walk around. The rain also lowered the water temperature — the Ironman U.K. website says the average water temperature is about 60 degrees Fahrenheit or 15.6 degrees Celsius, but we don’t know for sure because there was no official announcement.

I don’t want to sound too critical of the event organizer. All staff and volunteers were very kind and attentive. I appreciated their sincere efforts very much. I am just stating that my pre-race anxiety was reaching to an unprecedented level, due to these uncertainties and confusions.

August 2nd:
We woke up at 2:30 AM, finished our pre-race meal by 3:00 AM, and left the inn by 3:45 AM, so we get to the shuttle bus stop by 4:00 AM.

(Swim: Rivington Reservoir)
The transition was pitch dark when we got there. And, it is always the coldest before dawn. We covered our feet with socks and plastic bags to keep them warm until the start and to keep them free of mud. Fortunately, it was going to be sunny/cloudy.

The swim start area was narrow, so it took a while until everybody reached the water. The start was delayed by 6 or 7 minutes. I was one of the last persons to get into the water (just to keep myself dry and warm until the last minute). Luckily, the water felt a lot warmer than the previous days. I wore my long-sleeve wet suit for the first time, which really helped.

It was a straight line course of two laps. Really, this was the coldest water I ever swam in and being weak on swimming, I was not sure I could survive the swim. I told myself that I would make a brave decision of quiting any time if I felt uncomfortable. I started with breast-stokes and moved very slowly, and after a while, to my surprise, I found myself getting used to the temperature! I was almost laughing when I finished the first lap. Yes, anything is possible, after all!

But, the blissful feeling was gradually wearing out as I went on. I no longer felt cold, but my arms and hands went numb. I was moving my arms like a robot repeating the same task over and over, in my desperate attempt to keep myself going. I was so happy to have made it back! I did my PB in the swim section in Niijima Triathlon this season, so I was hoping to do better in the swim, but my swim time was 1:40, which was 10 minutes slower than last year (I didn’t see any clock so I didn’t know about my time until later).

(Bike: 3 laps)

We had to climb up a 200 meter concrete hill to reach the transition area. I was shivering so hard that I had a hard time changing my cloth. I grabbed a chair and sat for a while until I felt better. The transition was muddy and by the time I reached the bike course, my bike shoes were soaked in mud. I had to stop several time so shake the mud off my shoes, so I could click the cleats into the pedals.

The bike course was three laps. We rode through woods, moors and meadows. The landscape was totally wonderful!

The course map told us that there is only one major hill. The highest point was about 335 meters, but the reservoir was already 120 meters, so the 3-km climb was supposed to be only 115 meters. The climb starts immediately after the start. It goes through woods and meadows, and the first time around , I felt totally OK. Of course, what I thought was an easy piece of cake initially became a hell as I climbed for the second and the third time.

I occasionally spotted some sheep, cows, and horses, and enjoyed the scenery very much. The first half of the course was windy and cold, and the rest of the course was hot. It was interesting to feel how the weather changes in accordance with geography.

The bike course was filled with rolling hills. Hills are not very steep, but the constance ups and downs wore me out. But, what really bothered me was not the course but a lack of bathrooms. My stomach began to run after the first lap, perhaps because of being in the cold water so long during the swim section (People say slower swimmers suffer the more from cold waters). I had to stop at the aid stations, but every aid station I stopped, there was a lineup of people. As I resumed riding, I passed a few riders, but then again, I had to line up for a cue. I had always been boasting how strong my stomach was and how I was able to consume foods during my bike, but I guess I cannot be lucky all the time.

I was so worn out when I reached the transition. I looked at my watch for the first time, and it was already 3:45 PM. I tried to do a mental calculation to make sense of the time. Was it 9 hours or 10 hours since the start? Does this mean that I rode more than 8 hours? When was the cut off time anyway? But, I was just too tired (or too dumb?) to do the simple calculation. I decided not to care. The important thing was that I survived the bike section and all I had to do now was to run the 42.129 km.

(Run: one and half laps into the town center)
At the transition, I met Numata-san, the only one Japanese female other than me participating the event, who also said the bike section was hard. I also met Mary, from the United States, who was staying at the same inn. We congratulated each other for surviving the tough course, and hurried to the run course.

It was a little before 4:00 PM, but the sun was still high. The course was again kind of hilly (not very steep, but constant ups and downs). The most scary thing of all was the absence of the kilometer marks. Throughout the 42 km, there was not even a single kilometer mark. We knew it was one and a half laps( going into downtown, coming back once, and finishing at downtown); we knew that the course was almost straight except for two detours, but other than that, we were not sure of where we were and how much longer we had to go.

I trained very hard in running, and I wanted to go faster than last year. But I figured that I should save my energy instead of push myself for a PB in the run section. Firstly, I was already too slow by the end of the Bike section to do my Ironman PB, and doing the PB in the running section would not make up for it.

That turned out to be a good strategy. After first one hour, my stomach began hurting and I was even sure if I could finish the race. I was worried about going out of energy, so I took a power gel to compensate for my bowel movements, but to my surprise, I suddenly felt so sick that I threw up (Luckily, I managed to make it to the bathroom, to avoid a public embarrassment). This was the first time it had ever happened to me during a race and it scared me a bit).

At this point, I did think about quitting. In fact, I was thinking of every reason I should quit. Well, the water was too cold, the bike course was too hard, my stomach is running, and I even threw up. Give me more reasons why I should not quit??? Then, I thought about the faces of friends, teammates, and colleagues who supported me during my training. This year, I’m doing a fund raising for an charity organization. So, I did think about all those who pledged donations in support for me. I told myself, well, they will forgive me… Now, I could quit now…

Well, to be totally honest with you, this phase of finding reasons to quit does not happen to me all the time, but happens occasionally during Ironman or marathon races. I admit I am a weakling! But, luckily, I brought anti-acid pills and pain-killer with me when I left the transition. And, that helped me immensely. The medicine began to kick off after 30 minutes.

After I passed the last turning point, people told me I have 9 more miles to go (without a kilometer sign, we could not be 100 percent sure, but I figured it was about right). By then, I felt totally OK and I knew for the first time that I WILL survive for the rest of the race (Amazing how the body can recover so quickly). Part of me was ashamed of being so slow (by this point, I knew that I would not even make even 14 hours, or even 14 hours and a half. This would be the slowest Ironman I ever this). But, part of me said I should be proud of myself no matter how miserable I looked. I told myself to accept myself as who I am. Let’s face it I am an ordinary athlete, who could barely make an Ironman, but at least I am doing it. I decided to smile, instead. I smiled and cheered every fellow runner as he or she passed by, just as people on the streets cheered for me. Some of them smiled back, some were in too much pain that they didn’t even seem to notice. It didn’t matter.

The hardest part of the run course was Queens Park, where the course goes up and down inside the course. We had to do this twice. The park was beautiful, but the idea of going around and around itself was tiring. I walked the last few uphills in the park. We were told at the end of the park that we only had three more kilometers to go.

The rest of the three (which felt more like two kilometers) was the most wonderful moment of all. I almost cried when I saw the finish gate and a crowd of people cheering from both sides. It was the toughest, muddiest, and coldest Ironman I ever did, but I thought of all the people who supported and cheered for me as I crossed the finish-line. I clocked 14 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds. Happily.

Thank you everybody, for your support and encouragement. Special thanks to Peter, who had to wait for me at the finish-line for four or five hours!!! I guess waiting for somebody at the finish is harder than doing an Ironman yourself, since you never know whether the person is really coming or not.

How to race with a broken toe?

Hawaii – Honu Half Ironman
(113 km long-distance triathlon)
Date: June 3, 2006
Distance: 1.9 km swim; 90 km bike; 21 km run
URL: http://www.honuhalfironman.com/

This trip could not have started worse! As soon as I arrived in Kona (Hawaii – Big Island), 5 days before attending the Half Ironman race for the second consecutive year, things just went from bad to worse.

Monday (five days before the race): Arriving in Kona

The airline lost my bike case and my camping gear; I found the screen of my brand new digital camera broken; and the service from Thrifty Car Rental was simply outrageous; I had to go to Hertz to finally get a proper clean car without squeaky brakes or worn tires. The first night of camping along the beach at Spencer Beach Park was just as bad due to the heavy winds from the shore. They were blowing so hard that I thought my tent was going to fly away. I could barely sleep 3 hours.

Tuesday (four days before the race):

Luckily nothing major happened on Tuesday; I was almost getting superstitious and thought all those problems were trying to tell me something…

Wednesday (three days before the race):

Just when I thought my bad luck had stopped, the worst nightmare any racer could have took place. Running from the black-sand beach toward the sea for a bit of morning snorkeling, I jammed my foot against a black rock hidden in the sand and heard the sound of my toe breaking during the impact. Immediately, I knew this was bad. The sound did not leave me any doubt and I automatically thought about the consequences this would have on my race participation. Quickly, my toe swelled, turned purple and I was soon unable to move it much. Wearing a sock and shoe was not even an option due to the increasing pain. Depressed and thinking about those past 4 months of preparation for this race, I was blaming myself for being so distracted. My fiancee was there all the time to support me in my depression but I knew deep inside I would most likely have to drop out. The only thing I could hope for was that time with lots of ice could make things better. The race was on Saturday so the clock was ticking.

Thursday (two days before the race): Registration day

My boss Richard who just arrived the day before was of course disappointed to see the shape I had gotten myself into; he did not seem too excited about the idea of racing by himself. I was not very optimistic but decided to register for the race anyhow. You never know, right? I still had two days to try to recover.

To my great surprise, the race organizers were the ones who seemed more optimistic. An amazing 63-year-old woman who participated in numerous full ironman races recommended that I strap my toes and do the race with the help of Advil, a simple over-the-counter painkiller available in Hawaii and the rest of the U.S (http://www.advil.com/). She explained to me that she used it during an ironman race to withstand the pain in her knee that she injured 2 weeks prior to the event. I was amazed and full of respect for this dynamic woman who was so full of energy. “It will be painful but you can do it, I am sure can do it and finish the race,” she told me. She even added, “You never know, you might even get a slot for the Hawaii World Championship.” I smiled at her and explained I was not at that level yet but she did not want to hear about it and kept encouraging me to just do the race and do my best. I was truly inspired by her and could not believe that this older woman was slowly awaking my hopes again; I thought, “if she could do a full ironman with a busted knee, I surely should be able to do complete a half ironman with a broken toe, right?” Soon enough, my target had changed completely. My racing time was no longer an issue; I was now there to complete the race and cross the finish line before the cut-off time. My motivation was back. I had not come all the way from Japan to give up that easily. I had to at least get my finisher’s medal.

Friday (one day before the race):

Questioning racers and organizers around me, I gathered tips and ideas from everyone. I went to a pharmacy to get some Advil pills then sacrificed a pair of running shoes by cutting the top off the left shoe to keep the pressure off my injured toe and allow it to breath during the race. It did not look great but at least it allowed me to spray on some painkiller spray (“Panterin” http://www.kowa.co.jp/s/s228.htm) that Richard was nice enough to lend me. It was going to be rough but I had to do it. I had to finish the race whatever happened.

Saturday (race day): A great feeling of accomplishment!

The gun shot was fired at 7 a.m. and more than 900 people threw themselves in the water for a 1.9 km swim. I decided to give everything to the swim and the cycling with the certitude that my run would be disastrous. The swim went alright, aside from the pain caused by people in the starting pack hitting the top of my toes as they drafted behind me to reduce the water’s resistance to their own strokes. I came out of the water in 37minutes (not great but still 3 minutes faster than last year). I limped away from the beach 200 meters uphill to reach the bike transition area, put on my cycling gear, took my first Advil pill of the day and got going with my “Cannondale six 13” (http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/05/cusa/model-5RC2C.html) for a 90-km ride on the famous Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway where all the world-class racers will be competing for the Ironman World Championship in October 2006. Despite a strong wind, my bike remained perfectly stable and rode very well all the way up to the top of the hill to Hawi. Without any flats, I managed to average a decent (for me) 31-km/hour speed by the time I arrived at the transition point to start my 21-km run. Swallowing one last pill and spraying the topical painkiller over my broken toe, I clenched my teeth and started walking. To my surprise, the pain was bearable; I started to jog almost properly. Fifteen minutes later, my legs and feet had warmed up and hardly anyone could tell I was injured. I could not believe it myself. I was feeling good, had some energy left and realized that I could still make a decent time. I aimed at a few people in front of me, kept up with them for a while and passed some of them when they broke down. The closer I got to the finish line, the more I believed I could get a respectable time – and the harder I pushed. In one last effort, I crossed the finish line. I had completed the race in 5 hours and 38 minutes (exactly 28 minutes faster than the previous year without an injury). I was just amazed I could do it! It was an amazing sense of accomplishment.

Looking in the crowd for the one who supported me at all times and never stopped believing in me, it took a few long seconds until I caught my fiancee’s eyes. Both emotionally relieved by the ending of this race, we jumped in each other’s arms and shared a tear.

The rest of the trip went great and, despite all the problems and complications that came our way earlier on the trip, it will remain one of my favorite holidays and most satisfying result in a sporting event. I understood once again how essential “mental” was  to overcome adversity. I suppose that whatever goal you set in life, the harder you work to reach it, the greater your satisfaction will be when you actually reach your objective. My advice is that if something similar happens to you, DON’T GIVE UP and always try to think positive to overcome difficulties. Of course, it’s best to consult a doctor for more serious injuries before competing in such events. It is always up to you to decide but I would not recommend people take the risk of pushing their bodies too hard. The recovery process will take longer afterwards if you decide to compete. If you cannot do it this time, it probably means it is not meant to be and you will have better luck next time.