The week leading up to the race was extremely busy work-wise. I initially did not see this as a problem as it fitted the slight taper that I had planned fairly well. However, work took more time than planned and topped with a week with very little sleep and a lot of unhealthy food - and also some alcohol - I went into the race feeling somewhat not very well prepared. Moreover, my right foot had started to hurt as if some inflammation was going on. It was slightly swollen and I started wondering whether racing was a very good idea, as Murakami was meant as a tune-up race for Taiwan primo November. The ankle did not hurt while walking of running, but tweaking it was painful. Kind of like when you have twisted your ankle. Only problem is I do not recall to have done so (and I have not been "loss-of-memory"-drunk lately).
We had planned to go together with fellow members from Aoyama Triathlon Club and since we were almost 20 people going it made sense to rent a bus instead of going by Shinkansen.
We were to meet Saturday morning at Kokaijijigomae station which is only two stops from our local station, so it was very convenient. We had to pack our bikes in Ringo-bags (bags most people use when brining their bikes on the train). I guess it was about time to get these as I have really wanted to go and venture the mountains for some time now.
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| Getting the bike ready for transportation |
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| So far so good |
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| Getting the bikes on the bus |
The trip was approximately five-six hours incl. stops. I killed time by watching Shogun (all episodes are available on youtube!) in between other festlige indslag, e.g. introduction round and quiz.
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| Ikeda-san - the quiz master (and the guy I most likely will have to beat to be the fastest Aoyama member :) ) |
When we arrived in Murakami we went to pick-up start numbers. I must have been optimistic when I signed up since I ended up in the first wave with the fast guys.
When the number was secured we managed to catch the 3PM race briefing which was good as the next one was not until 5PM (or maybe it was 4PM and 6PM, I cant remember).
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| Race briefing |
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| Officials verifying that everyone who enters the race also participate in the race briefing |
After the race briefing we toured the bike course by bus. The first 6 km of the course has a few turns and a ssmall hill and thereafter it is bascially 14 km straight along the coast.
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| I heard a lot a people really like this bike course and I have definetely joined the pack |
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| Right hand side view |
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| Left hand side view |
When we arrived at the hotel we assembled our bikes and rode to the ocean to see if we could catch a view of the sunset. We were slightly late, but the view was still beautiful and we got to see the transition and swim area.
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| All set |
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| Inspecting the swim course |
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Before heading back to the hotel we made a brief stop at the local convenient store to pick up fuel. I bought some white bread as my stomach is not used to rice and fish as pre-race breakfast. I have previously had a slight tendency to overeat in the days leading up to the race, so this time I decided to really try to keep it at a minimum. We don't want no stomach problems...
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| Fueling |
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| Trying out traditional Japanese shoes at the hotel |
We had dinner at a local sushi place and after some short discussion we decided that one beer would do no harm.
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| Nutrition experts |
When we returned to the hotel I went by my bike to check whether everything was as it shoud be only to find a semi-flat rear wheel, which was annoying since I only brought one spare tube which was taped underneath my saddle to stay as aero as possible. Hence I would prefer to find another tube and keep my spare tube under the saddle and we therefore we decided to use Maria's spare tube and see if we could find another one for her at the mechanic in the transition area. If not, she could have the one taped under my saddle.
I got the tube changed, but apparently not as it should be done, since I found the same semi-flat bike next morning. After a quick breakfast we packed our stuff and headed to the start area to see the mechanic. After some “dialogue” I understood that I somehow manged to tighten the valve extenders to much and hence broke the valve which was why it slowly leaked. The mechanic suggested to skip the extender and go for a tube with a longer valve. Since I am a newbie to these high rims I followed his advice without thinking more about it. I just wanted a bike that was ready to race :)
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| Ready to go |
Compared to the previos race in Tateyama my bike setup was sligthly more aero (I got a new aero helmet!) and although I did not have a power meter mounted at Tateyama I think my FTP has increased significantly since then. In other words, expectations to a strong bike leg was high! So not taking the sore ankle into the account the plan for the race was to get through the swim in less than 30 minutes, ride hard on the bike (aiming for app. 215W which is app. 90-95% FTP which should be on the conservative side for an Olympic distance - at least when you compare to various guidelines) and then still have a strong run (around 42 min. depending on the course profile). Overall target time in the back of my head was probably to finish close to 2:20.
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| Last minute explanation of why an aero helmet is a good investment :) |
I had heard about jelly fish at Murakami and to be honest I would rather do without. At least when it comes to the ones that stinge. So when the guy setting up to me next in transition asked me whether I liked jelly fish and I said no he almost peed himself from laughing and continued to talk about how much it could hurt. I tried to be cocky and tell him he just needed to pee on it, but that just made him laugh even more. I gave up and wished him a good jelly-fish-free-race and he continued laughing.
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| Transition area |
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| Elite transition area |
My wave was set to start at 10:00. As the elite start was planned for 9:15, we had to get in the water for a short warm up around 8:45. The water had a nice temperature and I was happy to not meet a single jelly fish during warm up.
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| Elite swim start |
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| Maria in her new wetsuit |
SWIM (Official time: 0:28:25)
The swim in Murakami is a single loop. So far the races I have done have been two loops and looking back I guess i prefer that since you get short break from swiming :) At the start I placed far to the right to get a peaceful start. Yet I managed to start out too hard and after 2-300 meters I had to do the first few breast strokes to catch my breath and then start a more steady realistic pace. Ikeda-san caught up with me after around 300 meters. I hung on to him for a bit, but eventually had to let him go. Rest of the swim was fairly hard. I still feel i use to much energy and dont have a steady pace that I can just continue in forever. This is probably something that needs to change if I would like to do long distance, but I have convinced myself that the additional 400 meters in a half ironman is not an issue and that that distance probably suits me better as the swim is relatively short compared to the Olymic distance :)
T1 went okay. Not too much to report. I remember checking the rear wheel for air - nothing wrong this time :) A small zip of water and off. As I had previously had stomach issues when doing gels + water I decided to go with high5 drink this time and then mix it a little less concentrated than recommended as I figured this would decrease the risk of upsetting my stomach. Unfortunately I was wrong about the drink and around half way my stomach
started to tell me that I would be better off stop biking and finding a
toilet instead.
I was not really able to keep the planned level of power. Not only because of the stomach, but my legs somehow just felt heavy. Looking back I guess I might have been a bit optimistic about the level of power and not really thought about the fact that I also needed to go through a swim beforehand. But then again, my taget was on the conservative side compared to various guidelines, so I am still a bit puzzled about what would actually have been the best approach here.
Since I was one of the slower swimmers in the first wave a pace of app. 36.7 km/t during the first 20 minutes still enabled me to slowly take over others one by one and just before the turnaround at the 20 km mark I caught up with Ikeda-san. Prior to the race some talked about slight headwind on the way out. I did however not found the wind to go away when I turned around and the fact that my stomach became increasingly annoying caused me to do the second part somewhat slower.
1st lap
Average watt: 184 (NP 187)
Average speed: 36.8 km/t
2nd lap
Average watt: 172 watt (NP:180)
Average speed: 34.5 km/t
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| Heading into T2 |
I still managed to keep Ikeda-san behind and he entered T2 less than a minute after me. He was still putting on running shoes when I passed him running out of T2. Unfortunately I had to run to the toilet. Iekda-san did not see this, so he still toughtI was a head of him during the run.
I felt good heading out of T2 (no wonder :)) and was able to keep the pace around 4:10 min/km for the first 5 km which I was quite happy about. The run course takes you from the transition area and to the center of the city where you do 2.5 loop before finishing. I was overtaken once by some fast guy, but besides that I think I was still catching up with people that are either faster swimmers or maybe more likely people that went too hard on the bike. The last km was only around 400 meter, so I was surprised when I suddenly saw the finish line. I forgot to stop my watch, but the average pace while runing ended up at 4:12 min/km which is indeed approved. I could probably not go much master, but I think i could have continued a little longer.
The locals provided great support on the bike as well as the run course and I also enjoyed the fact that the elite participants were cheering the age groupers during their cool down back to the transition area.
POST-RACE
After we went to cheer for other club memers from the later waves.
I ended up with a total time of 2:25:15 which is slower than what I had hoped for. However, the stomach issues and toilet visit in T2 probably cost me around 5 mintues. Ikeda-san did the race in 2:23:53 and his run time was 0:43:40, i.e. 5 minutes and 15 seconds slower than my run and since I ran away from the bikes in T2 just before him, this is probably what was lost.
I am still puzzled about what went wrong with my stomach. My best guess is a mix of the food the night before, no water on the bike and going to hard on the swim. This combined with the fact that I did not go to the toilet after breakfast probably triggered it. For the race in Taiwan I plan to carry water and nutrition seperately and then I need to start the swim slower.
