70.3 Japan
2018 has been a special year so far with my first 50k ultra trail run in Feb and now a half ironman in Japan, the only one of 2018. Sarah is unfortunately not with me this time, at home resting, no more travel until the D day.
This ironman event is quite unique as it is literally based inside the Nagoya Airport off the east coast of japan. The ironman expo (shopping for triathletes) is in the terminal, the briefing is in the departure area and as a triathlete I walk around in running shoes and ironman t-shirt surrounded by travellers with suitcases, it’s quite a ‘saugrenue’ idea to feature a triathlon inside an airport ;). The course is outside the Airport grounds though but twisty and technical on the bike apparently.
Today’s weather is phenomenal. 21-24 degrees, sunny, lovely!
The routine of prep day is almost over, it goes like this:
8am: breakfast – after being forced to wake up due to mainland Chinese literally yelling in the hallway. I thought that after 8 years in mainland China i would be used to this, but no.
9am: mini-Tri to test the bike and run. No swimming allowed anywhere. Bike is fine, Run is fine, garmin is fine, aero bottle is fine. Surprising, normally there is always an issue, oh yes, I forgot my salt tabs in hong kong.
10am: athlete check in. My AWA credentials gets me in in front of 50 people, first time I actually appreciate the value of being ‘all world athlete’.
11am: finish assembly of the bike, stickers on the bike. Only allowed to do it downstairs (Japanese rules) but my French blood takes over and I bring the bike in my bedroom, bad boy…
12pm: briefing by the usual ironman asia commentator, he loves the Tritons.
1pm: quick lunch of healthy soup and rice in the Airport. I am trying out a ‘meatless race’ for the first time. No meat for the past few days.
2pm: in the bus with bike headed for bike check in, transition 1 – where swim and hike unite. A bit hectic as we have to give out our transition 2 bag as well today since organisers will transport them to T2 themselves.
I walk around and attend ironkids 8 year old girls race: 50m swim + 1k run. Emotional thinking of our future little one who might one day enjoy trying ironkids. Back to hotel and rest, and possibly dinner wih Hiro (my Tokyo friend Maiko’s husband).
A brief race report of the Ironman 70.3 japan today:
– 92% finishers
– 1985 participants signed up 1500 raced
– 20% foreigners
– 1400 volunteers!!!
Why is it #1?
The organisation is flawless, the volunteers were everywhere at each bike turn of the 90km, warning for turn, speed, bumps etc. The logistics is incredible they being the bikes back from T2 to near the hotel, all lined up by numbers!
SMALL ISSUES to work on next time:
– wetsuit too tight, feeling compressed and harder breathing
– drop the bike chain at around 70k while changing gear for a bridge
– forgot my salt tabs but aid stations had them on the run
SWIM
nice setting, wetsuit allowed, choppy. Long transition 1 quite some distance from swim out to bike.
BIKE
The course was tough, lots of turns and change of speed. It really required good bike handling skills to avoid accidents. A bit too crowded during the first part of the bike. Hilarious to have to ride through the Lixil toilet factory, the title sponsor, staff where at the entrance standing next to lixil toilets that they would use as seats when they were tired to stand up. I pushed a lot more on this bike race, but with all the turns and the final 30k in the countryside with numerous slow sections it was hard to be consistent. Transition 2 is at the handa playfield (stadium), they had a band playing in the grandstand.
RUN
a nice course hilly and in a mix of countryside roads, parks, roads, seaside paths. Quite diverse. Good pace the first 16k then the last 5k were very tough. Pace was decreasing every km.
