photo by Nicky Loh 1st 4:39:26
Swim 5th 27:26
Bike 1st 2:48:07
Run 1st 1:22:03
Race start. In-Haus photo I stood on the beach at Subic Bay staring out at the ocean ready for the start of Challenge Philippines. My hotel room, (at the beautiful Camayan Resort) was just behind the start line, less than 20 metres away. Closest I've ever stayed to the start line. Tucked away on a small secluded beach, surrounded by monkey-filled jungles, this was a pretty cool place to start a race. When the starters gun fired I ran down the beach and dived into the warm, clear water. I got to the water first but it wasn't long before the three super fish, Laura, Annabel and Radka left me in their wake. I swam the 1.9km on my own following the marked lane rope the entire way. I passed over some attractive fish, coral and even an old war-time shipwreck. The water was so clear the entire way around which made for a very enjoyable swim.
As I exited the water I thought maybe I'd been a little too conservative in the swim. You know, having time to take in the scenery below me. Hopefully I hadn't given away too much time. I got through transition and mounted my bike at the bottom of a hill. Difficult way to get going straight up a hill with out having your feet in the shoes yet. I kept tightening my shoes as I climbed up but they kept loosening again. It took me quite a while to get comfortable and get up to pace. Although up to pace didn't necessarily mean 'fast'. Jared was standing at the top of the first hill and told me I was only 2:20 down on the leaders. Wow! Must have been my new ROKA speed suit. Swim faster with less effort is their motto.
As I exited the water I thought maybe I'd been a little too conservative in the swim. You know, having time to take in the scenery below me. Hopefully I hadn't given away too much time. I got through transition and mounted my bike at the bottom of a hill. Difficult way to get going straight up a hill with out having your feet in the shoes yet. I kept tightening my shoes as I climbed up but they kept loosening again. It took me quite a while to get comfortable and get up to pace. Although up to pace didn't necessarily mean 'fast'. Jared was standing at the top of the first hill and told me I was only 2:20 down on the leaders. Wow! Must have been my new ROKA speed suit. Swim faster with less effort is their motto.
1k into the bike leg. In-Haus photo I climbed up and up before a long windy descent. Then it was up, up , up again followed by a bumpy, technical, crazy down. This descent went for a good few km's and was a cracked up old concrete road. Ronny (my bike) and I were bouncing around like kids on a jumping castle. I'd removed my rear XLab drink cage prior to race start because of the bumpy surfaces and removed the triangle fuel cell from my frame to reduce weight for all the climbing. I chose to just use my fuelselage and an XLab cage between my aero bars. I underestimated the roughness of the road surface. As I was descending one of the first hills, my bottle which had all my electrolytes and a lot of my calories needed for the race in it was bopping around and creeping out and then just before it was ready for take-off I managed to catch it. I was flying down this windy, bumpy hill, now with one hand on my bars and one holding my bottle. Luckily, in the morning as I was setting up Ronny in transition I decided to put an empty drink cage on my frame just in case I needed to store another bottle I'd pick up along the way. I moved my front bottle into my frame and survived the first real test.
Run start. Photo by Nicky Loh The rest of the bike course was pretty similar. If we weren't climbing up a hill we were usually descending one. There were only a couple of small sections of straight, flat road but these sections were far from smooth sailing. There was no daydreaming or zoning out with this course. If you didn't have your eyes glued to the road you'd probably be off into the trees or tangled up with a chicken. As I was bouncing around I'd occasionally think "I hope my bike can hold up to this". At one point I was sure my crank was gonna fall off but no, Ronny was unbreakable and got me through all the way back to T2 safe and with about a 2min.
Run leg. In-Haus photo As my whole body was still vibrating when I racked my bike I took the time to sit down and put on my bright orange Compressport socks and matching orange Adidas shoes. It was good to be back on solid ground. I ran out of transition and then of course...straight up hill. The first km was straight up followed by a short down before another good 2kms on gradual climbing. The run course was probably the most spectacular I've done. It was through the jungle. We'd run up hill a km then back down a km then up another km and so on. Very similar to the bike course there was rarely a flat piece of ground. We also ran through a couple of tight windy sandy trails with nothing but jungle and strange rustling sounds all around in the trees.
Monkeys outside the room At around 4km I caught up to three of the men. As I went by, one of them, Macca (Chris McCormack) looked across and said "not again!". The course continued to weave in all directions through the jungle - one huge lap, up and down and with no km markers along the way. Jared would pop up here and there yelling encouragement and giving splits. He said that many of the pro's he was cheering for would continue to ask where they were, how far they'd done, how far to go, ect. All trying to get any info to keep them going as the trails and hills went on forever. I passed another couple of men to move into 7th position overall (6th if you minus the minute head start for the men).
photo by Nicky Loh I crossed the line and took the win in a very slow time of 4:39. This was one course where instead of people bragging about how fast their bike split was, the talk was more about how long we were out there covering the 90km on the bike or if anyone lost any teeth. This was definitely a race to remember. I think you would struggle to find a bike course this hilly, this technical and this bumpy. Next year I think Ronny might have to stay home and my road bike can come out to race. The run was also very unique. How often do you get a cross country run in a triathlon and monkeys as spectators? It was pretty awesome! We also had the privilege of racing the prince of Bahrain. And his whole entourage of course.
I owe a huge thanks to Dave Voth, Challenge Philippines race organizer, for the invite. He said the trip to the Philippines would be well worth while and he was right. Put this one on your bucket list of adventures!
I owe a huge thanks to Dave Voth, Challenge Philippines race organizer, for the invite. He said the trip to the Philippines would be well worth while and he was right. Put this one on your bucket list of adventures!
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