Cobra Ironman 70.3 Philippines

definately more Video and pictures WILL follow: 340 visits in 2 days tells me you want MORE.
subscribe to my videos as I will be going turbo on Ironman - next stop (before I'm 90) qualifying for IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS!





facebook pictures:
Before/After


Swim
Bike


The experience of participating in any triathlon (Ironman Full/Half; Sprint, OD) is all about the ride. Just coming off from Ironman France - 7 weeks later, I felt very strong. I did a string of half marathons, brick runs with speedy 20k loop, and even some sprints on the bike; although I totally didn't go to swimming class. I loaded up on Magnesium, flax seed and other multi-mineral supplements. I felt that this race with all I've done would be under 6 hours. WRONG! 3 weeks back, I had a spill in the rain and bruised my right hip. I went to the physio and she said that my muscle was weak from the accident and couldn't keep my hip aligned causing a clicking sound whenever I bent my hips. Fortunately, it didn't really hurt but was annoying.

Registration
Initially, I was quite concerned about travel arrangements once I arrived at Legaspi which is 80km from the venue. But, after calling them, I was more comfortable to hear that a bus would be arranged. So, I headed out late on a Friday for Manila Philippines and would arrive around 1AM and re-board at 6AM. It's not ideal as I would have preferred proper sleep at a hotel. I couldn't really sleep in the airport, so I did a power nap on the way to Legaspi. After landing, I was really surprised by the welcoming committee. They had the banners and lei in the airport and outside a band with cheerleaders. Way cool. Once arrived, my good friend I met in Singapore 70.3, Ebbie, was able to get a villa at Camarine Sur Watersports Center. It was really close and convenient to registration and transition. I grabbed some grub as I had very little to eat and assembled my bicycle as I waited for Ebbie to arrive. Ebbie really showed me great hospitality and got a car for us to recce the bike route. At 45k, the turn around point, we stopped and grabbed some snaps of us painting the dot M. It was great painting the town red!

Pre-race
I got up at 3:30AM and prepared my final steps. I took my tire pump and other gear to the bike transition area. I went through the usual laundry list. The funny thing is that my run bag was in the bike area, so I removed my KSO VFF shoes out of the bag to save some time. I had nothing in my bike bag as everything was mounted and ready to go on the bike. I was really feeling good about transition time as this sometimes can easily creep up to 5 minutes based on location from the swim and locating the bags. There was a big bullfrog in front of my bike. I wasn't sure if it was the triathlon 'gods' telling me I would have a decent race. I headed back to the villa and Ebbie had some guys from CMC to deliver hot water. It was nice since I could have my morning oatmeal breakfast. Afterwords, I did a double check on the bike setup and then headed to the man made wake-boarding lake.

Swim (0:53:43)


The swim is comprised of two segments. The first lake is bigger and at a distance of 1.25km; and the second being smaller was 550m meters. I saw a lot of swimmers holding onto the ropes while swimming. As usually, there was much jostling for space; but it wasn't just at the beginning but the whole race. Many swimmers seemed to constantly push on my legs and feet. My camera wasn't really adjusted properly, so I wasn't able to finger out anyone particularly - next time; I will make sure and create a most wanted for swimming worse than me. Once I came out of the water, I completed the first lake in 34 minutes. Doing the math, it would be another 15 minutes until I completed the second, or that's what I would think. The second lake was really murky and brown. There were a few times where my hands could touch the sand, I think it would have been faster walking.. It turns out my total time was 53:43 minutes. Boo hoo. I will blame it on my go-pro and my ability to swim like a rock! As a note, my pool time without wetsuit is around 45:00 minutes...

T1 (1:45)


This required only belt and helmet, no transition bag. Off I went...

Bike (2:48:56)



The transition into the bike segment was great. Under 2 minutes to get my stuff and onto the bike. The initial road out has a lot of twists and turns, but once outside of the complex, it was easy to keep the speed. The weather looked good with a cloudy overcast. I was really happy with my first 20km. Kilometer #4/#5 were exceptionally fast (maybe downhill); both under 1:40km/hr. The next 10km has somewhat a uphill to it and I was 30km/hr for most of it. The next part until hitting back to the small hill was on average 1:55km/hr. I remember a lot of back-and-forth between the other cyclists. During this part it was heavy rain all the way through. Somewhere around 60km, my garmin turned off. I mean - come on... This is a race and it's the 310XT - water proof but not with rain? Anyways, everything changed after 80km: I decided to start overtaking a guy in front and headed toward the middle of the lane. I saw another cyclist 100m in front on the other side of the road and didn't take too much of thought until my wheel hugged the uneven slope in the middle of the road. It kept on hugging and I tried to get out of the 'groove', but I couldn't hold on and the bike tilted left. Take a look at the video! I think it should explain what happened next.. It appears after I fell, as it should be obvious; my time was around 30km/hr on a very flat final finish. I did have a small abrasion on my left hip and arm, but no blood. Overall, I am glad that the fall went so smoothly. But, that's what it's all about - triathlon is about overcoming problems and moving on with your life.


T2 (1:50)


Transition here was seemless. It didn't take too long to put on my KSO Vibram Five Fingers. I decided to use this version of VFF because the sole is a bit thicker and I heard that there were some dirt roads meaning more rocks. I am glad I did!

Run (2:22:26)

The run went rather good for the first 10km. My first split was 4:30, which is pretty fast. I told myself to slow down and overall maintained around a 5:30/km for the next 9km. Then I smelled trouble.. my quads above the knee were in spasms and I had no salt because it was washed out by the torrential rain on the bike. Next time I will make sure to carry more than required salt tablets. My time slowed down ferociously to a walk-shuffle pace. There were plenty of drinking stops; every 1.5km and the local crowd was quite amusing especially them shouting out 'camera'. At the end, I passed a local Hong Kong triathlete woman that I wouldn't expect to beat. I guess she was having a harder day than I.


Physiotherapist
I went to see the therapist 5 days later to fix my injury to the right hip. Wow, it's cool to know about your body... It appears from the fall, it created some stress on my lumbar area - this is probably the reason why I my shoulder became very tired after 12km. So, the fall had an impact on my performance... Sometimes finishing is considered a WIN.

Epilogue
Camarine Sur Water Complex is a great venue. I would definitely do it again and beat my time. I was really hoping to get low 5:30-5:45. Hey~~ I'm cool with my time. That's the great thing about being a wannabe professional amateur triathlete. (This is someone who trains like a professional, but has no pressure from sponsorship)

- JoggerJoel

Also congrats to those who participated from Hong Kong...

Place	Time	Number	Lname	Fname	City	Cnt	Cat/Tot	Category	Swim	Tr1	Bike	Tr2	Run
1	03:51:43	1	JACOBS	PETE	SYDNEY	AUS	1/6	MPRO	24:17	1:35	2:05:56	1:17	1:18:40
2	04:12:30	820	THOMAS	JESSE	OREGON	USA	2/6	MPRO	27:26	1:20	2:09:35	1:20	1:32:50
3	04:12:54	3	BROWN	CAMERON	DANNEMORA	NZL	3/6	MPRO	27:38	1:31	2:19:27	1:23	1:22:58
4	04:17:44	80	FELBABEL	ERICH	HONG KONG	HKG	4/6	MPRO	30:38	1:14	2:15:29	1:36	1:28:49
5	04:18:08	372	ATTAMIMI	ASSAD	SINGAPORE	SGP	1/121	M35-39	29:59	1:28	2:22:35	1:20	1:22:47
6	04:24:25	212	CANTWELL	DANE	HONG KONG	HKG	1/133	M30-34	28:39	1:46	2:25:11	1:29	1:27:22
17	04:39:03	824	BUCEK	MICHAEL	HONG KONG	SLK	3/133	M30-34	28:26	1:46	2:23:57	5:26	1:39:31
44	04:58:37	768	PATRICK	ANDREW	HAPPY_VALLEY	HKG	2/27	M50-54	33:12	2:38	2:33:46	2:21	1:46:42
45	04:58:55	592	FESCHE	ANTHONY	SCENIC RD	HKG	1/141	M40-44	32:42	2:07	2:32:03	1:47	1:50:19
46	04:58:56	527	PESCI	GIANANDREA	HONG KONG	HKG	2/141	M40-44	34:46	2:30	2:33:31	1:43	1:46:27
78	05:10:14	284	DURY	MARK	HONG KONG	HKG	17/133	M30-34	42:14	1:55	2:36:14	2:28	1:47:25
96	05:19:05	407	WONG	KENT	HONG KONG	HKG	12/121	M35-39	44:04	1:50	2:38:25	1:46	1:53:03
102	05:20:35	688	STEINHAUER	PETER	MID-LEVELS	HKG	5/61	M45-49	44:27	3:06	2:44:03	2:11	1:46:50
115	05:24:34	341	WHITMAN	JAMES	HONG KONG	HKG	18/121	M35-39	34:32	1:58	2:42:27	1:51	2:03:48
132	05:29:09	491	SOLDATI	CLAUDIA	HONG KONG	HKG	3/19	W35-39	35:23	3:14	2:41:17	2:44	2:06:33
153	05:34:47	307	BUTLER	KATIE	HONG KONG	HKG	5/23	W30-34	43:28	2:56	2:56:14	2:29	1:49:40
195	05:45:37	511	HARLEY	FRANK	HONG KONG	HKG	28/141	M40-44	44:32	3:37	2:46:41	5:04	2:05:46
252	05:55:39	528	TORRES	HECTOR	HONG KONG	HKG	40/141	M40-44	43:56	2:52	3:00:54	2:27	2:05:34
299	06:04:09	655	PIMENTEL	ROLANDO	NEW_TERRITORIES	HKG	54/141	M40-44	51:15	4:29	2:50:13	5:15	2:12:59
325	06:08:37	523	LABELLE	JOEL	HONG KONG	USA	60/141	M40-44	53:43	1:45	2:48:56	1:50	2:22:26
328	06:08:47	495	JONES	LISA	TUNG CHUNG	HKG	6/19	W35-39	40:02	2:14	2:41:16	1:49	2:43:28
340	06:10:54	505	LIEW	ARTHUR	POKFULAM	HKG	64/141	M40-44	45:09	2:04	2:56:17	1:47	2:25:40
366	06:15:32	772	THOMAS	NICHOLAS	HONG KONG	HKG	10/27	M50-54	41:48	4:51	2:54:34	4:02	2:30:19
386	06:18:13	239	BROWNLEE	JARRAD	HAPPY_VALLEY	HKG	76/133	M30-34	36:27	3:29	2:57:55	3:45	2:36:40
399	06:19:50	322	WONG	GIGI GI WAI	HONG KONG	HKG	15/23	W30-34	45:51	4:53	3:14:05	3:08	2:11:55

2XU South Bay Head Challenge - Open Water 3k Swim

I've yet to be last.... I still need a lot of work :(

				Time		Overall
7	Name	Male/Female	Category	Race No	Minutes	Seconds	Place
8	Taylor Williams	M	Junior	19	37	35	1
9	Callum McKinley	M	Masters	29	40	25	2
10	Myles Williams	M	Junior	18	41	21	3
11	Greg James	M	Masters	33	41	41	4
12	Doug Woodring	M	Masters	31	41	45	5
13	Tony Sabine	M	Seniors	84	42	33	6
14	Peter Saidel	M	Masters	6	42	45	7
15	Dane Cantwell	M	Seniors	49	43	8	8
16	Mike Coglan	M	Legends	56	43	36	9
17	Nick Dargan	M	Masters	89	44	10	10
18	Katerina Vichou	F	Seniors	4	45	29	11
19	Joy Stevenson	F	Seniors	3	45	35	12
20	Sheryl Slater	F	Masters	2	45	41	13
21	Bert Shi	M	Masters	24	46	12	14
22	Shaun Mullen	M	Seniors	21	46	24	15
23	Brian Goldberg	M	Seniors	83	46	35	16
24	Mary Kwoh	F	Masters	43	46	44	17
25	Andrew Loong	M	Seniors	44	47	18	18
26	Rocken Wong	M	Seniors	90	47	25	19
27	Richard Hall	M	Seniors	65	47	31	20
28	Olivier Courret	M	Seniors	75	47	33	21
29	Paul Hilton	M	Masters	46	47	34	22
30	Ka Yee Tark	F	Superfish	35	41	40	23
31	Cam Kosmal	M	Masters	82	47	43	24
32	Ruth Morrison	F	Seniors	51	47	47	25
33	Andrew Russell	M	Seniors	1	47	56	26
34	Clinton Leong	M	Seniors	47	48	9	27
35	Jeff Chasnov	M	Legends	25	49	5	28
36	Warren Lockner	M	Seniors	45	49	14	29
37	Jeff Tang	M	Junior	36	49	20	30
38	Claire Fairley	F	Masters	7	49	42	31
39	George Applegarth	M	Masters	30	50	29	32
40	Cirara Waller	F	Seniors	72	51	6	33
41	WK Cheung	M	Seniors	28	51	27	34
42	Will Marsden	M	Seniors	91	51	33	35
43	Albert Ho	M	Superfish	92	52	35	36
44	Mike Murphy	M	Masters	9	52	38	37
45	Chi Yin Wan	M	Legends	5	52	50	38
46	Tim Kramer	M	Masters	52	53	49	39
47	Martin Hoogerworth	M	Seniors	20	53	53	40
48	Wolfgang Aicher	M	Seniors	76	54	34	41
49	David Gething	M	Seniors	66	54	56	42
50	Keung Lam	M	Seniors	58	55	10	43
51	Dale Simonson	M	Masters	68	55	24	44
52	Luke Southorn	M	Masters	32	55	31	45
53	Sally Gentle	F	Seniors	70	55	35	46
54	Steve Boddington	M	Masters	78	56	33	47
55	Grace Fong	F	Legends	62	56	53	48
56	Nora Senn	F	Seniors	8	57	26	49
57	Lisa Jones	F	Seniors	50	57	30	50
58	Sean Ho	F	Seniors	61	57	31	51
59	Wilson Wong	M	Junior	37	57	32	52
60	Olivia Chan	F	Seniors	42	57	33	53
61	T Wong	M	Masters	74	57	56	54
62	Marvin Jones	M	Seniors	40	58	13	55
63	Yee Keng Wong	M	Masters	27	58	22	56
64	Richard Yong	M	Masters	13	58	29	57
65	Jinny Wong	F	Seniors	77	58	33	58
66	Richard Lightbound	M	Masters	69	58	48	59
67	Guy Horne	M	Masters	79	58	53	60
68	Sean Cheng	M	Masters	26	59	20	61
69	Phil Shirley	M	Masters	64	61	34	62
70	Alex Sevron	M	Seniors	87	61	47	63
71	Michelle Pinato	F	Seniors	73	62	32	64
72	Hayley Goldberg	F	Masters	22	62	43	65
73	Dandan Zhu	F	Seniors	88	62	55	66
74	Pearl Taie	F	Seniors	86	63	43	67
75	Henry Cham	M	Legends	34	63	58	68
76	CH Heung	M	Legends	67	64	12	69
77	Winnie Lau	F	Seniors	55	64	15	70
78	James Johnson	M	Seniors	16	65	21	71
79	Gordon Parker	M	Seniors	81	65	25	72
80	Peter Ng	M	Masters	80	65	27	73
81	Oliver Thirwall	M	Seniors	15	65	29	74
82	Paul Myers	M	Masters	11	65	30	75
83	Candy Chan	F	Seniors	17	65	39	76
84	Christina Kui	F	Masters	57	65	42	77
85	June Liew	F	Masters	63	65	46	78
86	Lap Tsang	M	Masters	60	65	49	79
87	Jacqui Saffrey	F	Legends	41	65	58	80
88	Billy Chow	M	Masters	85	66	33	81
89	Carmelia Tang	F	Superfish	39	67		82
90	Ricky TANG	M	Legends	38	67	43	83
91	Fergus Lam	M	Legends	54	67	55	84
92	Woody Choy	M	Superfish	10	68	4	85
93	Eve Young	F	Legends	23	68	9	86
94	Ian Dacre	M	Legends	48	68	39	87
95	Torston Bruce	M	Seniors	12	71		88
96	Danny Ong	M	Masters	59	74	15	89
97	Joel Labelle	M	Masters	53	77	40	90
98	Hyuan Chung	M	Seniors	14	80	52	91
99	Phil Penazola	M	Legends	71	83	27	92

Ironman France

more Video and pictures WILL follow:

facebook photos: swim


The experience of participating in a first Ironman isn't necessarily about the specific race; but the journey to get there. With this journey, I was able to know more about my abilities and acquire a great training friend. My best friend and racing partner, Danny McFee, is the reason why I raced an Ironman. It all started about a year ago after completing the Hong Kong Standard Charter Marathon. Danny was getting tired of running, and decided to get a bike. I went longer on the runs and participated in ultra marathons. When I came back from Vietnam Ultra, we went to a local bike shop and I bought my first time-trial bike. I really didn't have a clue about bikes, so somehow within the few minutes looking at several bikes the Cervelo caught my eye and it looked cool. I'll admit in hindsight, buying it turned out to be a good choice, but not necessarily the best choice for an amateur doing hilly routes. Hong Kong is full of hills, steep and short. A lot of people were adamant about using a road bike for this course, but after plunking down a load of cash, my thoughts about getting a road bike wasn't high on the list. I felt a lot better when Danny bought his Cervelo and decided to race with it as well. The biggest challenge for me was the swim. As you know from my blog, my swimming is really weak. I was initially very concerned about making the cut-off time once I realized I had to complete within 2 hour and 20 minutes. Luckily, training with Ginny from 3rd move using Total Immersion techniques helped tremendously.



Registration
One day out of the blue, Danny texted me and said, we should really think about doing an Ironman. I replied that it needed to be some great destination where we can vacation after a long hard day. He mentioned Brazil and I thought it was too far. Within 5 minutes, I texted him back and told him I already signed up for Ironman France - Nice. I didn't bother to look at the course or know anything about the history. It just seemed like the right place to go. Later, it dawned on me that the course is considered tough for the bike leg. 1100m altitude with over 2600m of total climbing. I'm thinking, whatever comes up must come down. With that out of the way, over the course of several weeks, I registered for a couple half Ironman. I never had second thoughts, but I was becoming a little concerned about cycling with my Cervelo P3.

Once I landed in Nice, the weather was perfect and pleasantly cool. Unfortnately, each day closer to the race, the temperature incrementally became hotter. The registration was simple and fluid. The registration area was very close to the Promenade and within 5 minutes walk to the swim start line. I didn't go crazy on the product binging, but did walk away with a nice long IRONMAN bento-box, and Skins tri-suit + compression calves. I wanted to feel comfortable for this race; so since this race was going to be hot, I wanted to try the compression suit which had a zipper in the front and pouch in the back unlike my current club tri-suit.

Pre-race
The last few weeks before the race, I really took it easy. I mainly concentrated on the swim and bike. Before coming to Nice, I stopped over in Dubai and only did a 9km run. It was so bloody hot, that I noticed some blood pressure issues in my hands as they seemed very stiff after the run, similarly to my blowup after the HKSCM where I went into heat exhaustion. With that in mind, I would only run an easy 5km in Nice before the race. Danny and I did 80km on the bike and road some of the course to a little town which had a grade steepness of less than average of 4 percent. The total swim preparation was probably less than 600m in total. I felt ready!

Morning Check
I left 4:30AM in the morning and headed toward the bike racks with my bike pump in hand. The current inner tube tires will slowly leak air (by design) after 7 hours which was a big mistake that I learned from my Ironman Singapore 70.3 race. Knowing your equipment is very important if you want to reduce unnecessary problems. I met Danny inside the bike transition and told him I needed to return my bike pump. By the time I came back, they were already closing the swim warmup. I headed down the ramp and ensuring that my swimcap was on properly that it ripped over my head. It really wasn't a good start since I was experimenting with my new camera. Well, I placed the ripped swim cap on my head and then placed my camera head band over it. With little time for replacement, I had to make due.
Danny found me at the beach and we took pictures. I prefer to be next to the inner course edge as Danny prefers the outer. The human washing machine doesn't bother me as I know I'll be at the back and my thoughts are the further I'm away from the line, the longer my swim!

Swim
Music blaring, athletes clapping, fans cheering! What a rush. The countdown began and I now felt part of the biggest triathlon franchise sport in history and I was making my own history in the French Rivera! In the first 100m my googles got knocked off. Luckily, I trained before in these conditions, so I didn't panic and patiently waited for a good time to remove the water. The first leg of the swim was approximately 2400 meters. I made a quick estimation of 1 hour for the first and 30 minutes for the second. When I exited the water, the announcer said; "we've just went over an hour". It seemed like I was on target. But the moment I hit the water, my legs started to spasm. Luckily, wet-suits are awesome to keep the legs afloat if you have no leg power. The second segment, I had a little navigation issue, but the lifeguards were quick to point the way. Also, in a few locations the water change temperature and was certainly noticeable, it was certainly an interesting feeling. Exiting the water required extra effort as I stumbled up to the exit ramps with the help of the volunteer. I trotted under the shower overhead to slip my arms out of my wet suit sleeves. As always, I passed a couple of people to the bike rack.

Bike
Hills are my friend. I'm light and I brought my TT bike - cervelo P3 (my only bike). It'll take approximately 25km to hit the first hill. My garmin showed 17% grade. There were a few who had to disembark on their bike and walk up. It would be another 15km of light undulating hills to the next small town which I reccee with Danny. The difference on race day would be that we would not be drinking any beer and would have to haul 140km before any rest. The ride was going well and easily passing the weaker riders. Since after 40km was unknown territory, I knew whatever small decent would quickly turn into longer and steeper ascents. Each rider I saw within 50m was a target to catch up to them. Then up the first of many long uphills, I met Danny after 50km. "You must have flew up here", said Danny. We spoke about the swim and he exited around 10minutes before me. We didn't even hit the harder section, so I was actually feeling good about first part of three. Between 70-90km, the grade is averaging 6% and with switchbacks allowing you to see the riders above you and below the riders behind. This is also where I saw the name 'GUNTER' on a rider and thought.. FACEBOOK! Snap. I yelled out his name and said JOGGGERJOEL. In addition this area is absolutely has fantastic views of Nice. I'd recommend this route if you happen to look for a cycling tour vacation, or better yet, participate in an Ironman France - Nice! Once we reached 100km and 1100m altitude, the rest and fun began. Some people pulled over to get their 'special needs' bag. I'm thinking, my special need is going downhill without hitting the brakes! I also wanted to minimize my overall time, so I kept on riding and pushing the pedals passing cyclists on the down hills. With a lot of air in your face, we were faced with one more incline. The legs were getting used to light riding, but I kept on pushing knowing that I must be pulling more away from Danny. There is a section where thr route is out and back allowing you to see riders in a 10km span. The weird part of this section is that you think its going down but actually a small incline. I couldn't keep over 29km, but coming back was easier. Right before exiting the out-and-back route, I saw Danny again. I calculated the time and estimated a lead of 20-25 minute lead. Now with less than 50km left, the road becomes much more twisty. The road became very busy with cars and cyclists. I seem to spend a few times on the wrong side of the road, is it perhaps being in Hong Kong too long? Well, a motocycle pulls next to me and shows a yellow flag. I knew it couldn't be because of drafting. He said its because you were riding on the wrong side of the road. Bad luck! I would come to find out that this would cost me 5 minutes in the penalty box. I finally reached to the last 30km where its basically flat, but I couldn't push mysef to do anything greater than 31km/hr. Also, I figured why should I kill myself on the last 30 when I have a marathon to go.

Run
I estimated my run time to be around 4:00-4:15. With the heat and multiple walks through the aid station, it would be a little longer. It would require 4 loops to the airport and back. First 10km was under an hour. I was happy about that! Approximately 8km into the run, I saw Danny again and shouted at each other. 20km I was still around 2 hours. My estimated time was pretty accurate. 30km I seemed to hit the aid station too much downing cola, water, bananas and crackers. My last time coming from the airport, I ran into Danny for the last time and told him I estimated 13:15. He still had 25-30minutes more to run. The last km, I was full of energy, well not necessarily my legs; but in less than 8 minutes, I could call myself an IRONMAN finisher! The last stretch of blue mats with a cheering crowds, cheerleaders, fans, family fueled my final strtch to the finish line. I gave a big high five to the announcer and walked my daughter through the finishing line. My goal for 2011 was completed successfully!

Epilogue
I hope you enjoyed my journey of almost 21 months from not exercising to completing an Ironman. This is really not the end, but just the beginning. Feel free to drop by or add me on facebook to follow my adventures. Thanks for your interest!

- JoggerJoel