Foster Grant World Championships 70.3

I had been preparing for this day for a long time. After qualifying back in June in Hawaii,  and then quitting my job so I could train properly, it was now finally here, was it all going to be worth it? Was my result going to be good enough for all the hard work, hours of training and financial sacrifice I had put Asami and I through? I had dreamed of beating my PB time previously of just over 5hours, but how much was I capable of beating it by? The training plan Woody had me on, had put me in a position that I always trained fatigued so I had no idea of what my new body was capable of, I knew I was lean,  fit and fast; damn I was in the best shape of my entire life, but what did that mean in regards to an actual race and time that I could perform?

Well I am pleased to say things went well, very well I shattered my PB, finishing in 214th place overall (out of 1,760) and 37th in my age group (out of 222). Finishing  in 4hours 22mins, I pb'd the swim, the bike and the run, all by significant margins. I owe huge thanks firstly to Woody my coach, none of this would have been possible without his insight and experience, everything that he planned for me, and advised me on was bang on - thanks mate - I owe you a large beer when we finally meet, and secondly to Asami for supporting me unreservedly through out all of this, even after quitting my job meaning we had to move house, for all the times you looked after me when I was too tried to look after myself - thanks babe.

The swim - 29:01 32nd in my age group
Conditions on the day turned out to be ok, the course was a simple 1 loop rectangle 800m out 100m north and 800m's back, there was a breeze from the North running down the beech, which meant there was some chop close to shore, so 800m's out it was going to be a little tough. I was in wave 11, and it was a beach start. I was always a little disappointed that the race wasn't a mass start, but going by waves certainly makes the swim starts easier. I was able run through the starting chop and get myself into clean water almost immediately, the plan was to find fast feet and hang on the back of them, but with the chop that proved harder than I thought. One of my issues in previous races is that I often loose focus on the swim and maybe not swim as hard as I should, today I was determined to stay on top of my effort. The outward leg was fast, I knew I was near the front of my wave despite getting moved around by the chop, I was able to time my breathing in between the trough's and keep a high stroke cadence. I started to hit back markers just at turn 1, which coincided now with having to go head first into the chop, albeit for only 100m's my breathing pattern had to change. I put in a hard 50 strokes to get me through this section as fast as possible, round turn 2 and on the way for home. The hard spurt had worked well and I employed it again, every time I felt my effort rate was dwindling I put in another 50 hard strokes to keep me focused, I spotted well into the finish not swimming too wide and powered it onto the beach. I had hoped to swim under 30mins, my previous best had been 32mins, so to see a 28handle on my watch, I was stoked. The timing mat was a few yards up the beach, so officially a 29:01 (1:31 per 100m pace). I legged it through transition and was off on the bike.

The bike 2:13:21 13th in my age group.
I was fortunate to have received many emails of good luck prior to the race, but one had stuck with me specifically from my mate Holsh it had said "All the best for the race, go hard, and smart". One of the issues with the course here in Clearwater is that because its so flat there is a lot of drafting, it is basically impossible to avoid, with so many athlete's all of a similar ability, and no hills to split the bikers up, you end up with road trains of rider's. They had made a very specific point at the race briefing that they would not be lenient on any drafting, and as it was impossible to avoid, you had to have a sense of awareness of where the marshall's were, you had to be smart with your riding.

The plan from Woody had been to go hard on the swim so as to get me into the first pace line from my wave, as the swim had gone well, I was looking for this pace line. I settled in and powered over the one and only hill/bridge on the course, I was already going fast. I had stripped my bike down to bear essentials, and with my new aero helmet was blasting along. I had been looking for this pace line Woody had been telling me about, and after about 20minutes, I thought that I had either missed it, or he had been wrong, it was at that point that I noticed about about 40 riders in a peleton formation right behind me, as I had been looking for this line, the damn thing was right behind me, I was the front of it! I was in this group for a while and it felt crazy as it was like a team trial at times I rode to the front of the group a number of times, thinking that I couldn't just sit here in this  group, this wasn't what triathlon was supposed to be. It was actually quite dangerous at times, being in a large group of riders all doing 45kmh+ each person about a foot behind the other, then with the back marker of other wave's there were multiple fast and slow pace lines, it was simply impossible not to draft. Part of the course was out and back and you could see the earlier waves had bunched exactly as we had, there was nothing that could be done other than ride with it, but ride smart, a drafting penalty was 4mins, not something I particularly wanted to acquire.

I focused on keeping my cadence low and heart rate down, keeping my core temperature as low as possible as this was all going to be about the run. The time for the bike was 2:13:12 at an average of 40.32 kmh.

The run 1:34:49 37th in my age group.
After downing the now mandatory redbull in T2 I exited the run. I had put in a lot of effort over the last 2 months into my running, the track and hill sessions Woody had me doing are hard, and I was hoping all this effort would pay off. My previous best on the run was 1:42 in Japan 70.3 and I ended up loosing 2 toe nails after that, so today with better shoes hopefully I could save the pain of my feet and push myself harder.
As always the first part of the run is about finding a rhythm, fast or slow, just something, today it was a slow rhythm to start. I had a bad stitch, that I couldn't shift, I knew I was going to have to run through it, and after various efforts to burp and puke to clear it, it took me until about 7.5km mark before I was finally able to take a proper breath and really get down to motoring. The course was mostly flat apart from the bridge which we had to cross 4 times, and now I was feeling good. I was averaging about 4:30km's my cadence was good, and I was fore foot positioned, I was know starting to take back some of the runners who had passed me in my first 7.5km's.
I went through 1/2 way in 47mins, and i was now trying to negative split. I started to increase my pace from about the 12km mark, hoping that wasn't too early, with one more bridge crossing to go it was about about 2 miles to the finish, I had planned on dropping the hammer on the top of that hill. I managed to pick up the pace even further, running the last 3.1miles in 21:27, so just under 7min miles.

I had hoped that i might sneak in under 4:20 as a total time but 4:22:19 was pretty damn good. A result worthy of all the hard work.

Clearwater - the day before.....

We landed in Clearwater on Wednesday arvo' and the sun has been shining since we got here. We are in the Grand Hyatt right on the water, and our hotel room over looks the transition area and the Gulf of Mexico. Everything so far has gone perfectly (which probably means something horrible will happen during the race??) but I have been following the last few days of my schedule from coach Woody, which consists of various muscle activation sets.

The area around Clearwater is pancake flat, apart from the 1 bridge across the bay, which means it is going to be a very fast course, the roads are in excellent condition, and on a warm up ride yesterday even at moderate effort, I was clipping along at 41kmh. Every rider has a disc wheel and a pointy aero helmet, and I have never seen so much bike bling in my life!

I am now in Carbo loading mode, and chomped through 1,000 calories of chocolate for breakfast, and have 1.5 litre's of full fat coke to drink by 2pm this arvo....all part of the preperation schedule ala Woody.

I am feeling strong, but in a very unusual position in that I have not actually fully tested myself after the last 8 weeks of training. Woody's method has been for me to train fatigued, so I never find 6th gear, now I am fully rested 6th gear is the goal. What that means in terms of performance not even I know. My fastest 1/2 IM so far is 5:04, I expect to better that tomorrow, but by how much? Added to this its a fast course...not even I know. 4:45...4:30....I cant wait to see!

Thanks for all the emails, of support, they mean a great deal.

A finishers update to follow tomorrow.

Yamanashi 1/2 Marathon

This weekend I took off into the Yamanashi countryside with some fellow running club mates, for a long ride and the Yamanashi fruit 1/2 Marathon. It has been a number of weeks since Japan 70.3 and this is the first chance since then to test to see how i am performing with all this new training set by my coach Woody. My average day right now consists of about 3 hours of triathlon training and about 5~6 hours of Japanese study, its anyone's guess right now which one I am doing better at?

I was very fatigued going into this race, after 2 weeks of high intensity training, coupled with the 100km ride out to the race site on Saturday, I wasn't feeling in peak physical condition. In fact  was so tired I had managed to fall asleep at the dinner table on Saturday lunchtime!

I woke up on Sunday feeling very slow, lethargic, and particularly unmotivated. I tried to do some warm up strides, but I found it impossibly hard to get going. Woody's tactics were for me to go moderate on the first 10km, go hard on the 2nd 10km and ALL OUT for the last 1km. 

It was just a swell as the plan was to start out moderate, as there was no way i felt i could run hard from the gun. It was hilly right from the start, I went through 3km in 14mins, ok not great, I then laboured my way up more hills, through 6km in about 29mins, getting worse, and managed to get through to 10km in about 45mins. Ok this certainly wasn't going to be a PB time, but if I could hold things together then maybe it wouldn't be a complete disaster. 

As my tactics dictated, I started to increase the pace from 10km's, and by 12km's everything had changed I was now feeling great. How can a body go from feeling so average to feeling to so good in such a quick period? The fatigue had passed and I was now feeling very sprightly with a few down hill sections, I had managed to pick up my cadence considerably and knew that i was running sub 4min km pace. I was flying, and it felt like it. No one was passing me, I was taking people back in large numbers. I went through 15km in 1:05. With 6km to go if I could keep this pace, things might look good.

The last 6km's felt almost effortless, I knew I was running well. I was laser focused on my forefoot strike and that certainly allowed me to keep up such intensity. 2km to go, and I was ripping, which I managed to keep right through to the finish.

I ended up running a 1:27:45, i am pretty sure the course was about 500m short, but all in all not bad considering such an awful start. Not a PB, but a few seconds off, and with such a fatigued body, and hilly course, I came away feeling things are defiantly on the right track for Clearwater. A great sign at this point of the journey, with only 4 weeks to go, the count down is certainly ticking down fast. Lets hope my mock Japan exams go as well?

Japan 70.3 Race Report.

Today was the first 70.3 (1/2 Ironman race in Japan at Centrair in Nagoya). Japan does many things well, and something's rather badly, I was desperately hoping this as going to be in the former camp, alas it was not to be. A swim course that was poorly marked, a bike course that on parts a MTB would have been more suitable, and race organisation that missed the ball on more than a number of occasions. However that being said the volunteers and course marshall's did an amazing job keeping the race flowing and this was ultimately about seeing how I would fair after my 11 day training session in Hokkaido.  Would all this training and hard effort actually help my performance or was it going to leave me with many unanswered questions?

Thankfully I was very happy with my result coming 55th overall and posting my fastest ever 1/2 marathon (1:42:12) in a 1/2 ironman event after a very hilly and technical bike ride and on a hot day! I have changed my tactic's a lot thanks to my new coach Woody, and it already seems to be paying dividends.

The swim 34:04
I was in Wave 2 and we kicked off at 7:35am. For some reason the race organisers failed to use enough buoy's to mark  the course properly and the 3 they did use were all so small that spotting the most direct course was very hard, especially as the current was strong in places. I didn't feel particularly fast for some reason, and had a few goggle issues and I knew coming out of the water that it wasn't going to be a great time. To see a 33 handle I was rather disappointed, but coming into T1 I saw Bevan and he is a fast swimmer so maybe everyone had a tougher swim than normal?

The bike 2:48:57
We had been warned at the race briefing that the first 7km's of the ride were dangerous (The race organiser's words not mine), so I had taken a quick look the day before to see how bad it was and although the surface was pretty horrendous  it looked ok. However I had done that ride at a fairly leisurly pace, and after exiting T1 this morning and coming out at race pace I felt the full force of this horrendous road surface. My bike is 100% carbon so is amazingly fast to accelerate and incredibly light weight, the downside is you feel every seam in the road, and today we didnt have seam's we had gaping wounds in the road. By kilometre 3 I had had both bottles jetison off my rear cages 3 times, on the 3rd time going up a bone shattering incline, I lost one at the bottom and retrieved the 2nd and got on my way knowing that there was only going to be 1 aid station.

The road surface improved but was now replaced by the most technical bike course I have ever done in a 70.3.  There must have been approx' 100+ 90degree turns some on incredibly narrow roads, finding a rhythm was proving hard and I was already starting to think bad thoughts about the race organisers for putting a race on such a poor course.

However everyone had to deal with it, so I followed my coaches advice and broke my 90km into 3 taking the first 1/3 relatively moderate then increasing the intensity into the 2nd 1/3 finally laying it all down on the final 1/3. A major difference to today's plan was to put into practice all the hard gear training I had been doing. I normally ride with a high cadence 90~100 in an easier gear and use my lungs to power me through, today was all about riding a harder gear, lowering the cadence to 75~80 and using muscle power not lungs. The effect is a much lower core temperature, something that has doomed me many times before. I worked hard to keep the cadence between the prescribed frequency, as it certainly sneaked up when I wasn't paying attention. With over 1,000m's in total climbing I was pleased that my legs were strong from all the riding in Hokkaido. I was happy with the time 2:48 and an Av speed of 31.96 km/h, not bad considering the course.

The Run 1:42:12.
I landed into T2 feeling rather batterd and bruised from the bone shaking ride, and after downing the now mandatory redbull, out I went. I was determined that what ever happened I was going to use the first 3 or 4 km's to find a rhythm, it didn't matter if it was just above walking pace I just had to find something. So I was amazed to feel my core wasn't that hot...after Suzu a month prior where I left T2 in the red zone, today I felt comfortable...shit I felt comfortable enough to run properly.

The tactics from Woody were to run every 14:30mins then walk 30sec's, but after 2km's in I knew that I could do better, I felt good and I wasn't going to be walking when I felt this good. Added to that my mate Bevan who is generally much faster than me was only 500m's ahead...that was striking distance. I tried to calm things down and not worry about Bevan but get myself into the zone, after running through a stitch at 3km's we were off. I had been hoping to run 5 minute km's, and saw that I was at a steady 4:45min pace. I immeditealy changed my tactics (you always have to be flexible to a changing race) and broke the course into 5 block's 4 * 5km's and 1*1km and planned to try and hold this pace and drop the hammer in the 4th 5km and catch Bevan.

The first 5km went down in 23:31,  the 2nd in 23:22, a small negative split. I was drinking coke at every aid station and had come armed with 4 shot's to keep the carb's up. The 3rd 5km was starting to hurt, and by now I could feel my 2 big toe's starting to blister. I was wearing my running flats today, again another change in tactics, to get me better positioned for fore foot striking, like I learnt in Hokkaido. I had to walk through 2 aid stations, and finished that 5km in just over 25min's. The fade had started...I wasn't gaining on Bevan, but I wasn't loosing ground either.  It was all about holding it together for the final 6km's. I focused on fore foot striking and keeping my cadence high, every time I did this I came out of my shuffle into a proper running stride. The 4th 5km came in at 24:43 and now it was just time to hang on for the finish.

I was chuffed to run a 1:42, my fastest ever run split by a decent margin. Was it the bigger gearing? was it the running flats? coke drinking? probably all of the above...either way it had worked and  I now have a decent platform and tactical awareness to base the world championships off.

Final time was 5:08:49 55th Overall, 14th in my Age group.

Journey's in Hokkaido

I had been planning to a bike tour in Hokkaido for many years, and finally I had the time! I managed to combine a 6 day tour with a week long triathlon camp organised by the Tritons Tri club in HK.

After taking the train North to Hachinohe I took the overnight ferry to Tomokamai.

Day 1. 96km - Cruisy ride.

Perfect cycling country.

I headed east along the coast, hoping to find the much talked about roads that were perfectly paved, had no cars, and were surrounded by glorious Hokkaido countryside. So I was rather disappointed with the first 30km as all I had managed to find was large industrial roads with no decent hard shoulder and too many fast cars...what had gone wrong? The spectacular riding I had heard about where was it?

Then at the 30 km mark I decided to make a sharp left, it was a life changing left turn, the roads became empty, the scenery turned into rural Japan, the sun was shining..I had found it cycling nirvana.

I road through to Hidaka, where 90% of Japan's horses are bred and trained. Settled into the youth hostel for the night and started my 2nd journey into the basics of Kanji.

Day 2. 70km - Hardest gear all the way.

About 30m visibility...Great!!

Hokkaido is a big island (most people tour it on motorbike's) so it was impossible for me to get all the way round in this trip, but I was damn sure I was going to hit at least 1 corner, and as I was already east so  cape Erimo Miyasaki it was. I took the train as far as I could and started my ride, unfortunately the weather didn't play ball, and after getting drenched, I got to the cape to see a curtain of mist/fog/rain/cloud.

I had ridden through quite a few villages along the coast, and was surprised to see how poor and quiet they were, the average age looked to be 70+ and most people were fisherman drying out seaweed by the roadside, not the picture of modern Japan you would expect.



Day 3. 65km - Hilly ride, 45mins in hardest gear whilst on the uphills.

THX 1138

I left a bright and sunny Tomokamai to ride to Lake Toya, this was going to be a hard ride up through the HoruHoru national park. It was a large change in scenery from the horse farms and coastal towns of east Japan, I was now into the mountains with all the waterfalls, and greenery that Japan does best.
That was until I came across this amazing futuristic tunnel at the top of the national park, it was like something out of THX-1138...only in Japan!








Day 4. 73km - undulating, cruisy pace, with 8*10secs ALL OUT.

Rode from the cloudy shores of Lake Toya and headed north to Hirafu for the start of my triathlon camp. Definitely felt a bit sore and tired on the power cranks. I have been to Hirafu many times during the winter I had never seen it in summer, it was not a disappointment. Yotei greeted me (well at least the bottom of it did) as the top was covered in cloud, here it is on day 7 in all its glory, a cracking sight.




Day 5. 52km on the bike (16km Lactate threshold time trial), 30minute LT run, Easy swim
First day of the triathlon camp, and not an easy one to start. We rode out to the farm roads near hirafu and after a decent warm up, did a 16km lactate threshold TT, I rode in 25:18. Then on the afternoon another LT test but this time on the run, it was a 30minute hard pace run. My results were 155bpm for both bike and run. The run felt a bit low (but probably due to me being tired). Easy 1km swim in the pool.

Day 6 . 95km ride, 1.5km swim in lake Toya
Rode from hirafu back to Lake Toya today, took some amazing fast flat empty farm roads, perfect for TT racing. Had my 2nd swim in lake Toya the visibility is amazing and no wetsuit needed. The ride on the way home not surprisingly hotted up on these perfect roads, myself, Bevan, Graham, Nick the coach and Jess were gunning it all  the way home, I ended up falling off the back of this pack, but was happy to average about 37kmh all the way home.

Day 7. 117km Long ride. Open water swim 1km.

Early start today as a long ride was planned. We rode from Hirafu through Konbu towards the very impressive Windsor hotel where the G8 summit was hosted in 2008. After some super fast flat roads, we encountered 18% gradients getting up to the hotel, we were rewarded with a pretty much empty 5 star hotel, that had a great bakery. Only in Japan do they let 7 gaijin into such an amazing hotel in our cycling gear.
We finished the day with a 1km open water swim, and underwater running drill set...starting to get tired....


Day 8. 20km easy ride, run conditioning session, 1km swim drills
Easier day today and needed it aswell. The run conditioning was all about fore foot running, increased cadence and slightly shorter stride.

Day 9. Race day. 2 sprints (500m swim, 13km bike, 3km run).
Time to put all of this training into practice. I was disappointed at first not to do a longer race at least Olympic, the sprints actually turned out to be good fun. The swims in lake Toya


Day10. Long run 1:30hour's.
Last day of the camp today, long run, and a good brunch. Managed to get a good sports massage in aswell. 4 hours of Kanji practice and then a few beers for the Bledisloe cup...cracking day.


Day11. 82km Cruisy ride.

My last look at Yotei.

My last day of the tour, with the camp finishing yesterday I left a very quiet Hirafu. Rode up to Annupuri to go and check out Annupuri village and the new Capella resort. Big money is certainly changing hands in that region.
It was a windy ride into Lake toya, where I took the overnight train back into Ueno. Harder ride than I wanted for my last day 82km's into wind on the power cranks...ouch.








700km + over 11 days, with over half being on power cranks, not a bad session. I certainly feel a lot stronger in the saddle, will get to test that next weekend in Japan 70.3. Studied all of JLPT level 5 kanji.....bring on level 4.

Xterra Japan Race Report

My 4th year at Xterra Japan at Marunuma, and it is one of the highlights of my calendar year. It is a very technical and challenging bike course, but the overall feel and position of the race at Kankoso is quite spectacular. Like most years this years race had its very trying moments. It is a 1.2km Swim, 25km MTB and 10km run (although run is a bit of a stretch in some places).

Swim 20:13 7th.
The water was like a mirror at 12:10pm when the gun went, and a I was able to get to the front of the pack reasonably quickly, the pro's were not allowed to wear wetsuits due to the temperature of the water so that brought us into closer contention.  I generally fair pretty well in xterra swims, and this year I did pretty well too. The first 500m is always tough as you have to try really hard to control your breathing due to the altitude. In a previous race, I had a really tough time and nearly had a panic attack, but this time I recognised the signs and I was able to exhale my way through it. Exited amongst the pro's and hooned it onto the bike.

Bike 2:00:27 16th
My MTB'ing has never been my strongest of disciplines although I love it the most. This year with my new bike the stealth bomber there was really no excuses. After coming out so high up on the swim it was inevitable I would loose ground on the bike, but unlike in previous years where I seem to be going backwards for a long while before I find riders of equal speed, this year I managed to stay a head of a lot of riders. This worked to my detriment, when on the first technical section I went over the front, left foot out of the pedal, right foot still in, with the steepness of the hill decline there was no way I could not go over, hands first, elbows second, still attached to the bike, hip third (ouch), knee fourth (shit that hurt),  land on my back skidding on my rucksack, hoping to god I stop before I slide off the 30 foot bank that I am now perilously half way  over, I managed to grind to a halt, and look back and see my bike wrapped around a tree, but nothing broken. A swift finger check, all 10 still their, result! Body and blood check nothing broken and nothing gushing, result, my knee gouged but that will hurt later, I grab the bike and on I limp for the next 10mins until the adrenalin rush passes and my heart returns to normal. This course has 1 V large hill, and I get onto that and find a good rhythm, at about 3/4's of the way up, I here the 1st clap of thunder, 1 mississippi, 2 mississippi boom!...damn thats close! Then the rain comes, and comes and comes, where once there was dry trails now there are torrents of water. I enter the downhill section praying the tree's have kept the most of the rain off, but it is so heavy there is no chance, I strip of my glasses as I cant see anything. I hold my line for as long as I can and as fast as I can but in sections it is ridiculous even trying to jump and walk down some sections I can hardly stand up, how can anyone ride this? I come into transition 2, knowing that my trainers will be soaked!!

Run 59:51 22nd
I see about 15~20 bikes racked in T2, oh yeah I must be doing ok so I thought. I downed 1/2 a redbull, and very quickly decided that socks were irrelevant with this amount of rain, and  legged it out onto the run. The rain had knocked the temperature down to a balmy 20C' ish, and the rock strewn shoreline I was now navigating was as slippery as an ice rink...yeah this was my chance!  I had been bitterly disappointed with my run last weekend in Suzu and was desperate to prove to myself that I could run well, and that it was the heat that had killed me, not my fitness. I felt strong for the first 2km's, too strong as I got to the first steep uphill I had a few cramps, I backed off a bit and necked a Gu shot...hoping those salts would find there way to my cramping thighs, it quickly did and I was back to full speed in no time. I got to the wall, a 40 foot section, that is a scramble on a dry day, but with the rain today was a water slide, there are 2 nylon ropes, that have the ability to cut your hands to shred's, however as I got there and there was no one in front of me I used them. Even at this point I could see that this section had the ability to be a death trap, if anyone slipped 40 foot up, there is hardly anything to hang onto until you hit the bottom, I wasn't going to be underneath that person making a mental note to take a wide line on loop 2. I got to the top and legged it to the 2nd section, feeling strong, this was my day, vindication for last weekend.  Loop 2 as expected was even slippier especially at the wall section,  people and bodies everywhere, I used the trees and bushes for purchase to get a clear shot up the side, and worked my way to the 2nd mountain section, coming down the final river and onto the road for home, I looked across the lake to the other side the sun was just breaking through the parting clouds above the dam, what a great memory.

I finished up 10th overall coming in 3rd in for my age group which got me a spot on the podium. A great end to a great race.

Suzu Triathlon Race Report

This weekend I ventured over to the west side of Japan, and up to the Noto peninsular to participate in the Suzu triathlon, slightly more than an half ironman event at 2.5km swim, 100km bike and 24km run. After picking up the hire car in Kanazawa (Great art gallery in Kanazawa if anyone is venturing close to it) we arrived in  Suzu to 35C heat, it was absolutely scorching with hardly a cloud in the sky....yikes Sunday would be tough.

After following the advice of my new coach, which involved eating 1000 calories of chocolate  the day before as part of carbo loading and also 1.5 litres of full fat coke ( something to do with the phosphate in the coke, pro's secret apparently). I felt rested, prepared and with full energy stores ready to give this race a bit of a go.

Swim 39:52 25th.
The water was dead calm and it was an L shaped out and back course. It was already about 30C at 6:30 am, and the water was 29C apparently. It would be a fast and very hot course as I stood there in my 5mm wetsuit ( anywhere else in the world and this would have been a wetsuit illegal swim, but Japan has its own rules) The downside (apart from the heat, more on that later) was that for some reason i had ended up in the very last wave, in fact i was the very last number of the entire long course race. I had checked the list of racer's it wasn't alphabetical, or in order of age, or for that matter because i was western, there was one other foreigner and he wasn't 1 number before me, i dont how this had happened other than bad luck, but i couldnt change it, so i had to deal with it, another little test for the day. Generally i am out of the water in the top 5% in Japan, more like top 15% when racing in America, so I was a little concerned with how many back markers i would have to deal with? luckily There was 5 mins between each wave, so the by the time my wave was up, I had a good bit of space to get into my stroke before I would have to be weaving in and out and keeping clear of any random breastroke kicks to the face. Thankfully the visibility was great so I used that to my advantage and started to weave my way through the field. In the end I think the back markers actually helped me swim faster as I would accelerate into a gap, and that kept my stroke rate relatively quick. I was hoping to come in under 40mins so was happy to just come under at 39:52, seeing as I haven't swam 2.5km in a long time, that was pretty good, I felt charged as I legged it to the bike.

Bike 3:29:23 17th
By the time I got to my bike it was approximately 7:55am and it must have been 33C already, for the first time ever in a race, I was actually scared how burnt I was going to get, so I stopped for an extra 20 seconds to don my thermo - nuclear suntan lotion, it is so thick that there is no hope it would rub in so off I went with white arms, shoulders and ears, maybe it would soak in in the next 100km? It was a 2 loop course, with 1 large hill so I had been told to me by my mate Keren, I was confident that I had located this hill as the course was on the road to our hotel and that had been a pretty wicked hill, but at least I had seen the beast and had ridden harder in the past, so no drama's or so I thought. The first 15km followed the coast line, lined with sleepy little cottages over looking the  ocean, it was all very nice, at kilometre 15, I hit the hill, powered through it and settled back into  what was a relatively swift pace averaging about 35kmh. At about kilometre 35, the road took a sudden U-turn with what looked like a small hill, turned into a bigger hill and then a much steeper hill, I then realised what I had climbed before wasn't the hill...this was the bad boy and on it went and went! After seeing my Av km/h drop like a stone and having to even get out of the saddle to get over the top of what must have been a 10% gradient, off we went down the other side to the end of loop 1. I was a little concened after being wrong about the hill, that I may have gone off a bit too quickly but I was feeling good ( was it the coke and chocolate?) passing lots of backmarkers and the apparent wind was keeping me cool, as the temp was now 36C so I kept the intensity up into the 2nd lap. I was hydrating at every possible opportunity and thank god I had my front aero bottle on my bars (thanks for that tip aswell Keren) as they were not handing out bottles, just cups, but they had ice  in them which was a bonus.  By the time I got round to the "real" big hill again i had decided to actually stop and fill up a bottle as I was going to need all of it on this hill. By the time I got to the top, people were delirious, wandering all over the road, showing clear signs of fatigue and dehydration, should I offer some of my water...probably but I needed it to! ( it would be my time to suffer later). I was passing riders all with numbers below 100 now, all these guys had gone off 15 mins a head of me, so I knew I must be getting to the front of the course with a favourable time delay. I came into T2 a marginally slower then lap 1, but I felt good, and was ready for the run.

Run 2:31:12 167th.
Surprisingly hardly any of the suntan lotion had soaked in from over 3 hours ago, anyway I thought it best to re-apply another 20 seconds v's possible skin cancer, a no brainer and on it got slapped. After draining a warm red bull on my way out of T2, I did actually stop to pour it into a cup if ice to help. I now felt the real intensity of the heat, after averaging 30kmh and the apparent wind keeping me company to now what was at best a slow jog there was simply no respite from the heat, there was no shade just a mirage of heat on and up the road. Those that know me well, know I really struggle when it gets this hot, and this was without doubt the hottest race I had ever been in. It was a run/ walk combo from aid station to aid station. By the 4th aid station I had resorted to actually sticking my head and chest into the large water and sponge buckets, much to the amusement of the local aid station staff....who was this crazy Gaijin with white arms sticking his head in our buckets....I didn't care anything to try and keep cool, even a degree less than boiling would have sufficed. As I could feel my low 6 hour time slipping away from me, the feeling was quickly replaced by how the hell I was going to survive this? this wasn't a run but now a survival course for me. I managed to pick it up and run from aid station to aid station stopping at each one for the dunking routine, drinking and eating what they had which was only orange and banana's. I got to the turn around point 12km in 1:15...god this was going to be a real slog for home. As I stumbled my way home some of the earlier racers I had passed re-took me, was I know paying for going out too hard? Could they cope with the heat better than me? everyone looked like they were red-lining in the heat. At about the 18 kilometre mark I had to stop and lent on a wall which you could have fried an egg on and thought christ  "can I can do 6 more km's...." I hadn't stared down the barrel of this gun since Ironman Japan when I had dnf'd and got ferried off in the back of an ambulance. The only choice was  to get it finished and get into the shade which I hadn't seen for nearly 2 hours now, I managed to run and walk my way to the finish and actually finished off a decent last 1km the thought of shade was all it took. My run time ended up being horrible, with a certain amount of disappointment that I hadn't got a low 6 hour time, but at least I managed to avoid the medical tent.

Overall an average race was very happy with the swim and the bike, but the run was a disaster,  heat or training or nutrition? Something to ponder.

Pre race.