Morning
Today is the final wrapup of Triathlon in Hong Kong season. I've been working hard on the bike and somewhat on the run. So, at 4:00AM, I woke up and wanted to prepare myself for a hilly day. I ate oatmeal which is quite unusual nowadays. But, it certainly was needed since I decided to bike at 5:00AM from West Kowloon to Tai Mei Tuk where the race course was moved this year instead of Walt Disney.
Swim
I noticed once I got toward the water that the left buoy was not orange. I knew my sighting would be an issue today. Once we entered the 'chilled' waters (76F?), and headed toward the buoy, not a second later and bam: siren horns. I wasn't quite ready and so off we went. The first lap was overall pretty non-eventful. It was the second lap that I stupidly followed two guys who of all people were breast stroking to the 3rd buoy and not the 2nd. I realized quickly and headed back on course; but lost at least 50m. Then, thinking I was close to the buoy, I 'sighted' and found myself backtracking and swimming the opposite way to reach the second buoy. I had another mistake and followed a guy to the right of me and he was headed off to the first buoy and not the last. So, I had to re-align myself and finally made it to shore. I'm pretty sure I would have had shaved off 5 minutes from my swim-time. Oh well, I need to start sighting better and not rely on others.
Bike
The bike course is quite hilly and once you get out of transition; there is a big incline for about 300-400m. As I pushed hard and passed a cyclist, he asked me 'Do you know this a hilly course?" I guess he doesn't know that I've been training over here. The course is out and back 4 times. I started to lose track of the number of times I went around it and even became more concerned when my watch showed a shortage of distance. I actually thought I might have not completed a lap. However, it just appeared my watch had a malfunction.
Run
The run course is very flat for the first 2km and then a gentle incline and back down. We had to run it twice. I didn't pass as many runners as I thought. Is it possible that my cycling is getting better? Overall I was pretty happy with my time for such a hilly course!
facebook pics
