The weather was grim, really grim! Rain, rain and more rain. I got to the registration and saw the team, (Team Tri-Hard as it is now called) All had intended to do the Sprint race on Saturday and the Olympic Distance race on Sunday but with only one exception they all pulled out of the Sprint due to the miserable weather.
Who was the exception? Well me of course. I used to sail through the worst of English winters so a few grey clouds and rain wasn't going to stop me racing, especially as I was only wearing shorts and T-Shirt and I was still hot; where I come from shorts and T-shirt are reserved for the Summer - and I believe that was on a Wednesday last year!!!
Despite the poor weather I had the foresight to pop a bit of sunblock on my nose as it's very prone to burning and off I set for the start. By this time the rain suddenly disappeared and the blazing sun came out. The swim was delayed by half an hour as the organisers wanted kiddies race not only to clear the swim course but also clear the first turnaround on the bike (quite right too). Then the junior elites took off. By this time it was very very hot - my nose survived but "lobster" was a term I heard a lot over the rest of the weekend and they weren't referring to the colour of my trisuit.
It was everyone else next but not before Mr. Chan had noticed my expanded waistline and suggested that I stopped wearing trisuits for a while - he may have a point!!The tide was out so the swim start was actually a long run to begin with - into the water and the swim went rather well until just after the first turn buoy where I struggled to get around a bunch of slower swimmers only to get a size 11 foot in my face - don't you just love people starting off fast and then doing breast stroke later on!!! After that all was smooth, I hit transition and was off on the bike in no time.
I cut through the bike course with relative ease, one younger guy rode with me but did little to help out - not too worry, I was still hopeful of catching my arch-rival Iwata-san as this year's race was actually a 20k bike rather than the usual 9k. I saw his pack just before the turnaround but failed to catch them and with only the youngster with me I was going to have to cook myself to move up to them. I felt bloated and although catching them was likely, then getting ahead of Mr Iwata with enough of a gap on the run was unlikely, so I continued at a good hard pace but not red-lining it.
Out on to the run and I felt OK - I overtook a lot of people which was encouraging and at the turnaround I met Iwata coming the other way, he was about 150-200 metres ahead of me. Not bad I thought but now it was time to back off and cruise to the finish for a well earned second place, a gentle jog I thought! NO SUCH LUCK, a Thai guy was heading for the turnaround no more than 200 metres behind me and travelling at a pace that was unfathomable, he was closely followed by a British guy that I'd met earlier in the day, he was looking very together. Oh dear, not only no resting, but rather I was going to have to pick up the pace. 
In the end I somehow pulled it off much to the shock and awe of the Thai guy - he spoke to Shilpa later and told her how amazed he was - it might have been a compliment but I suspect he was wondering how such a chubby chap could have beaten him.Later the elites took off for the Asia Cup Series - all pretty impressive but I'm a triathlon participator rather than a spectator so they didn't get the attention that they undoubtedly deserve from me. The pros do have my utmost respect, although I do wonder sometimes if they really are human - I'm serious, when people sometimes exclaim "they're machines" or "they're like robots", I do fantasize whether these are pure analogies or actual facts!!! Think about it, a cyborg for instance could give blood and urine samples, wouldn't need drugs and probably could still do a sub 8 hour Ironman! Are these EPO and Nandrolone drug cheats in the TdF and international athletics are just trying to keep up with the Cybermen!!
[IMPORTANT NOTE - if this blog goes off-line and I disappear - I think you can workout what happened to me]
Finally I can't go without mentioning the support team, Shilpa, Sid and Seb did an amazing job supporting me - it's often been said that supporting a triathlete is more tiring than doing the race itself - I certainly wouldn't argue with that - thanks guys!
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