Hualien Cup Triathlon - by Disco Dave

Race Report for Hualien Cup Triathlon, in Hualien, Taiwan, 16 May 2009

Apologies in advance for sounding like a travel agent with this report. I know I haven’t lived yet in terms of Triathlon venues but I would unreservedly recommend this event to everyone I know.

Hualien is, as we “Brits” say the county town of Taiwan’s largest county and is located on the mountainous eastern coast. It’s main claims to fame are the Taroko & Yu Shan National Parks which have magnificent gorges amongst other things in them. I was lucky enough to first visit the place late last year when I did an event for a client at an amazing hotel called the Far Glory Hotel and vowed to come back.

The above link describes it’s Victorian Art Deco which is amazing but by far and away the most glorious thing about this place is it’s location. The link gives you a pretty good idea of the view in land but take a view paces to the other side of the hotel reception and you have a similarly stunning scene of the Pacific Ocean. Anyway for those of you who want to make a family trip of a visit to this event in the future this would be the place to consider staying as there is Seaworld equivalent theme park just below it as well. Others would be advised to stay out at the lake where the event is held this is about 16kms from Hualien town centre.

Having now set the scene for you let me turn to the event itself which, having not done anything of note other than the Fraser Hill climb since the 70.3 in Singapore in March, I have to confess I was chomping at the bit to do!

I was lucky enough to have been able to hook up with a chap in Taipei who offered me and my old weight lifting equipment to the event in his van. The driver, his name was Craig Johns, and I travelled down with a total of 6 bikes. Craig, being a Kiwi, was remarkably polite about my old bike which travelled down next to his latest state-of-the-art Specialized Tri bike that was simply looked “Stallion” like against my old “Cart Horse”.

Turns out that Craig teaches at the American School in Taipei and runs this site and is, with a hint of traditional British understatement, more than a bit useful at the Triathlon business. When I spoke to him after a couple of e-mails we exchanged I just thought he was a keen enthusiast like me. After less than 30 seconds of chatting to him though it was clear he was in a different league to me as he was participating as one of the Elite athletes and had just been appointed as the Coach for Taiwan’s Elite Triathlete’s. That said, just like everyone else in this sport that I have met, he was very much an ordinary bloke and very supportive and interested in other people rather than himself.

His other mates, who all wisely flew down or took the train, were American’s & Kiwis and were all equally welcoming when I got to meet them on the day of the event. Sadly, I was not lucky enough to have met Craig early enough to book my accommodation where they were staying which was right on the lake shore 5 minutes walk from the transition and check in. Next year, will be very different in this regard!

Instead, I had booked myself into what seemed a pleasant enough looking hotel in town over the internet. When I checked in it was staffed by equally pleasant staff. However, after an excellent meal at a place they recommended I discovered that the hotel was also occupied by a Tour Group from China who had all lost the use of their volume control knob when they opened their mouths.

As a consequence, after several requests for the hotel management to silence my raucous neighbours, I finally had to take the matter into my own hands, and after reverting to some good old fashioned “Anglo Saxon” language communicated at an even higher level of decibels than they generated they got the message that “Disco Dave” was not a happy chappy and that they’d best “put a sock in it” as they say 

This was obviously not the best preparation possible but fortunately for me this race id designed with the masochist in mind as doesn’t start until 12.30pm so that the ride and run are done in the full heat of the day. This meant that after the Tour Group departed at 6am I was able to get a couple of extra hours “shut eye” before my breakfast.

As a result, by the time I arrived up at the lake to collect my bike I was feeling as good as I ever have and was all set to go. Registration and Check In was run with military efficiency but with genuine warmth and sincerity as well. All participants were also given a book as a little keepsake. This had some great photos of the local scenery and of previous year’s events. However, it was made even more special as it was personalised with your own photo which was taken and, thanks to the wonders of modern day technology, inserted into the front cover of the book. Better still it was FOC .

The swim was a straight out and back route as with the Langkawi IM. Given the swim is still not something I’m entirely happy with, I consoled myself that this should be relatively easy though as I could see the turning point at 750metres on the crystal clear lake which was not possible even with binoculars for me in Langkawi. Additionally, I didn’t have Randy winding me up and telling me that we needed to do 2 laps of the route like I had in February!!

I had no means or time to check the bike or run route out though so I decided I would just have to do these “blind” and that it wouldn’t matter as no matter what they looked like I had to do them. As a result in the time remaining, I just busied myself making sure that my transition area was set up as professionally as I could and find Sam’s mate, Ben Rush to pass on his best wishes and introduce myself to, which I was able to do successfully.

I always try to listen to everything that “Simple Simon” says (including, as you all now know, unkempt bodily hair removal) and I tried to remember his advice about the transition set up. I think I did pretty good job at this although, I have to confess, I just did not have a clue about the elastic bands to fix my shoes onto the bike prior to me mounting it so I skipped that bit.

Anyway with 5 minutes to spare I left transition and got chatting to a chap called Robert who had come all the way from Alaska and who was in my age category. The two of us shared stories and made our way to the start area. We were in the 4th of 5 waves that the 1,000+ starters would go off in and come the appointed moment I was in the first row but out a little wide.

As the gun went of to start I hit the water as it’s a “dry start” from the bank of the lake and for the 1st 100 metres kicked hard to try and find some clear water and a rhythm. Sadly, this seemed to elude me thanks to the usual nonsense of the swim start and my lack of technique and speed to put clear air between me and the “pack”. Knowing that I needed a fast swim I have to confess that I let this nonsense effect me more than on my previous 2 events and after 250 metres found myself not only in the middle of the pack but also having caught swimmers from the 3rd wave.

This is really where my problems started as trying to keep my technique and breathing smooth in the middle of the pack where you are trying to navigate through other swimmers, some of whom actually have “floats” (because they are not confident in the water). With probably less than 450 metres covered I resorted to Breast Stroke to increase my visibility and maneuverability as well as get a regular breathing pattern established.

As I never seemed to find the clear water I wanted, I sadly ended up remaining with my breast stroke for the rest of the swim which isn’t too slow but is not of course very efficient, and resigned myself to a slow swim which I would have to make up for on the bike.

I practically flew out of the water when I finally reached the shore and was pleasantly surprised to see that my exit time was not as slow as I thought. The official time that I found out later was 32 minutes 59 seconds and I was 17th out of the 92 participants in my age category. Overall therefore not as bad as I had been telling myself although I do know that if I could find clear water and, more importantly master a technique so that it holds good under pressure I could have been a lot quicker swim in me and go do a sub 30 minute swim for this distance.

Despite the frustration on the swim thanks to the long 400metre run to the transition area from the lake exit and the fact that I was really well organised I felt really calm and collected in T1. Sadly the timing chip system was not set up to record transition times like at IM & 70.3 events but I estimate that I was in T1 less than 2 minutes as all I did was collect sunglasses, helmet & shoes as well as apply “lube” to the my “bits” and I was gone.

On exiting the transition onto the bike route there is immediately slow and steady climb for maybe 500 meters after that there is a long descent which I took full advantage of as a “downhill specialist” as I was still thinking that I had a horrible swim to correct so that could get back inside my target time. I started eating up the road and very satisfyingly my old “Cart Horse” started passing lots and lots of really expensive and sexy “Stallions”.

After about 15km of the 1st lap not a single rider had passed me although I sensed a pack gathering behind me. This pack were definitely drafting me although I knew that this was going to happen as Craig had told me that despite them having a drafting rule it was rarely enforced in Taiwan. As a result, when a pack of about 6 riders swept past me as we went into the last 7kms of Lap 1 which is a slow and steady climb back up to the lake I tried to dig in and hang onto their tail.

Sadly though after about 1km I found myself in my familiar hill climbing position e.g. all on my “Jack Jones” – which is Cockney Rhyming slang for “on my own”! Just as I was approaching the entrance to the lake to start Lap 2 I still however had not been passed by any of the Elite riders finishing their second lap. I used this as a means of congratulating myself on what felt like a good lap and now that I knew the road focused on making my second lap even quicker.

Despite that intention 1 rider passed me on the initial descent but he was very strong and slowly but steadily pulled away from me. Predictably, at the start of the climb though a group of 8-9 riders had collected behind me and went to go past me but this time I held on throughout the 7km climb and finished marginally ahead of most of them which was pleasing.

In T2 I was equally calm and collected and despite noting how one guy a few bays down from me was very fast in transitioning I was not to sloth like either and once again was in and out in under 2 minutes I think despite putting socks on for the run and changing into T-Shirt that would avoid my shoulders burning & tightening up like they did in Singapore. I knew I was back on track in terms of my target time now and the official time confirmed this with a bike ride of 1 hour 26 minutes and 13 seconds which was 13th fastest for my age category.

As I left T2 I popped my one and only Gel and felt comfortable and contained. Thankfully, unlike my swim, this meant that I quickly found a nice rhythm which saw me catching and passing the guy that was so fast in transition and within 1km I had also passed the lad who toasted me on Lap 2 of the bike. This spurred me on and I picked up the pace a little after the 1st water station where I popped a couple of pieces of banana that the volunteers had kindly peeled and chopped into nice bit size pieces.

The run skirted the banks of the lake but was definitely not flat. In fact there were lots of deceptively hilly sections. These were hurting lots of people including me but I refused to let them stop me and used them to pass lots of walkers. With 4kms to go I realised that so long as I kept going I should get inside my target time and tried to pick up the pace but with some discomfort in my lower back and the threat of my left calf cramping up I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and settled back in to normal rhythm. That said, when I went past the 1km marker I picked 2 people about 50 to 80 metres ahead of me and told myself to catch and pass them before the finish line. I caught the first chap after about 400 metres but in fairness to the other guy he had as much, if not more, left in his tank as I did and he’d obviously decided to kick for home as well and as a result I could not close the gap on him.

Hopefully the pictures will not lie as I crossed the finish line with what I felt was a smile and which I felt I had carried for most of the run as, despite the hills, I really enjoyed the run. Officially I had the 15th fastest run for my age category with a time of 54 minutes and 34 seconds which in the end just like my swim I think I can do better at although this will I have decided not be significantly different until I get a new set of wheels so that the bike is relatively easier for me.

Post race I found Robert from Alaska and swapped more recent stories, like me he’d had a good ride but struggled with the heat on the run which, in fairness was around 30 degrees. I also found some of Craig’s other friend’s all of whom had had great races - Bill was 4th in 50+ age category, Laura was 3rd in 40+ age category and Simon was 2nd in 40+ age category.

I managed to establish that I was 11th overall which I was really very satisfied with all I was totally gob smacked at the awards dinner, where the warmth and friendliness continued thanks to the free flow beer served, to learn that I had somehow been elevated to 10th thanks to one of the other guys not completing the full bike route apparently. As a result, I had the added bonus on an otherwise near perfect day of picking up a trophy for my troubles as well and, more importantly, an injection of confidence that one day Emma’s prediction that she made post the 70.3 in Singapore, of a podium finish can one day come true for me 

On leaving the dinner I registered for an “unofficial” 70.3 on the same course in September and paid my deposit for next years event in May as based on the entire experience I will definitely be coming back next year! 