24 hours earlier..... I decided to ride one of the technical section not far from the start, steep, lava rocks, you get the picture. I'm not wearing gloves, it's a light ride. First time down no problem, coupled with the 2 yesterday I'm feeking pretty good, let's do it another time just for food measure, that was a bad idea, I crashes, and road rash both knees, destroy my hands. I'm not a happy camper. 24 hours later.....
I'm still feeling not happy about the crash from yesterday, I know I'm a better rider than that, my confidence is not great for this race. I wince and the thought of salt water on my open wounds. Early breakfast at 415 and then off on the bus at 5 am, the race site is about 35 min by bus. To boots, since I washed my IPOD, I don't have any music for the ride. I arrive at transition and de decided to make the best of it, I'm in the Philippines after all. I set my transition, head to body marking, wish a good race to some of the I got to meet, very quickly as I don't want to disturb their routine. It's time to head in the water, I jump in, it's actually not too bad, my spirit rise, maybe il have a good swim today. The gun goes off t 7 am sharp, swimming is always my nemesis, I scout a set of feet, who ever they are they have a Guam race kit, which means they swim in the ocean more often, I decide to hang on. The ocean is for sure choppier than Guam, I will end up booking the swim just under 30 min, I'm happy with that. Quick transition and off to the bike course, 36 km, 2 loops including the nasty down hill where I crashed. The neat thing about this race is that the streets are packed with people and it's awesome. The bike course is a series of dirt, road with steep climbs and technical bits. At the end of the first loop, I decide that I will dismount and run the down hill where I crash. On the second loop, one guy decide to draft me, which I don't mind until he bump into me and them passes me. He looks like he could be in my age group but is going fast and I decide to save some energy for the run. I would book the bike portion under 2 hours, I'm happy with that. Of to the 10 km run, a mystery as I wasn't able to pre run it. Again, the road is line with people, some neat section where you run on small trails as well as bamboo bridges, and the local wildlife, which could very well be served for dinner next! The heat is bearing down on me but I'm still moving along, a short beach run, coupled with wat running and then it's the road to the finish. I have no clue where I stand in my age group at this time. As I approach the chute, I see the finish line being raised, I'm thinking, that's nice they are doing that for everyone, I gues I didn't know but I was the first to come through for my age group with a total time of 3:12:42 a good 4 min or so from the second place. I have to admit, this race was awesome, great organization, tones of goodies and now some hardware to bring home. I'm off to Saipan tomorrow for my last stop in the triple crown serie. Make no mistake, this will be a though race with great racers in my age group including some of the guys from Guam as well as a local from Saipan who bested me last year. It's now time for beers, I think I have earned it. Until the next post, happy trails!
Carpe Diem
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