Sado Astroman Triathlon

The Sado Astroman Triathlon this past Sunday was great fun, and arguably my best triathlon performance to date. My swim and bike were strong and I manged to hang on and survive the run. I finished in 5:39:04 which was good for 58th out of 522 men, and 8th out of 102 in my age group.

The rather odd Astroman tagline warned us that "it will be the longest day of your life" and sure enough at 3:50am on race morning the ancient proprietress at our creaky ryokan walked all the way into our room, stood above us and in a high-pitched chirp announced "Asa gohan dekimashita....doozooo." Keren, David and I grumbled and tried to go back to sleep, but soon we found ourself in the dining area eating another huge meal of fish, vegetables and rice - not my typical breakfast of cereal and yogurt and fruit, but I wasn't complaining. I wasn"t complaining because compared to poor Keren, my stomach was doing fine. Keren had been suffering with a horrendous digestive problems from his trip in India. I reassured him that once the gun goes off he will be fine, but given the way he sounded in the bathroom I really had to secretly agree with him that he was doomed.

Swim
It was a gorgeous morning and the water was calm and clear and inviting.
In the past I have hung at the back when the race starts to avoid the frenzied crowd. But I hoped to stay near Dave, who in turn hoped to stay near Keren, who in turn hoped to stay close to Adam, so when the gun went off and Adam went out fast, we all went out fast. Moreover we have spent time this summer practicing "porpoising" (repeatedly diving forward in shallow water) and it proved so successful that by the time we got to deeper water and I started to crawl stroke I was toward the front of some 500+ swimmers. Problem was that soon a pack of 100 swimmers literally swam over me. The first half of the swim was pretty rough, but I managed to get in a decent rhythm on the return stretch and when I got out of the water my time of 41:32 was close to my most optimistic goal, and certainly my best triathlon swim ever.

Bike
The 105-kilometer bike route around the southern section of Sado was spectacular. First we rode through rice fields in the middle of the island, then we began a clockwise loop around the mountain hugging the rocky coastline. I worked on staying with cyclists who passed me and averaged over 35-kilometers per hour along the rolling hills, a much faster pace than what I rode at Ironman Japan in May. The drafting rule at Sado Astroman is less strict than at Ironman races and I tried to maintain a few bike lengths behind any cyclist in front of mine but always have someone within 10-20 meters to at least psychologically pull me along.
I was startled to pass Keren at around the halfway mark, not recognizing him until he shouted my name. Obviously Keren's stomach problems were taking a toll on him, but triathlon is a merciless sport, and I continued to chase the pack I had been riding with.
Around 80-kilometers the course took us up a long hill which slowed my pace, but allowed me get up out of my saddle and to pass other cyclists. The final downhill section of the course was exhilarating - I sang at the top of my lungs as we raced back down along the coastline into town.

Run
Of course then after all the glorious pleasure of cycling, the run was agony from the start. An hour and a half of pure hell - certainly among the most difficult 90-minutes in my life. The first 5 kilometers running out of town were tolerable, but the next 5k took us out into the rice fields with the sun beating down and several long gradual uphills. I was feeling discouraged by fact I was not moving past people as quickly as I usually do during the run portion of a triathlon. It seemed like I was hardly moving as I trudged along and was relieved at the kilometer markers that I wasn't doing quite so bad as I felt (4:04 per kilometer pace for the first 5k, 45 minutes at 10k). When I slowed down for coke and sports drink at the 8-kilometer aid station I completely cramped up and was forced to stop and stretch.

I believe the important thing in the sport is challenging yourself against the clock and your own potential. But in the pain and the mind-numbing heat of Sunday's run, one thought dominated my conscious -- catching up to Dave. The course is an out-and-back with the turnaround exactly at 10-kilometers, so at that point I could see that I was 3 minutes behind Adam and 1:30 behind Dave. Without this motivation I might have just found some shade and taken a nap and waited for evening to finish. But I knew that since running is my strength I am supposed to be able to make up distance on people during the run. This sense of competitiveness was amplified by the fact that each of the three times I passed Keren (during the bike, as he came in on the finish of this bike, and on the run loop) he shouted out how far I was behind Dave and how I needed to hurry up.. I caught up with Adam in the heat and we commiserated about our hatred of hot weather. Then I started trying to chase down Dave and for at least two agonizing kilometers I could see his blue jersey a few hundred meters ahead of me. "What took you so long to catch me" Dave asked when I finally ran up alongside him at around 18k. I could barely answer since I was breathing too hard. I pushed ahead to finish the run in 1:28:49

I had another inauspicious finish (like ironman), cramping up again after crossing the finish tape and being dragged off to the ice/salt bath. I had hoped to cheer on Dave and Adam, but it took me too long to get back on my feet and limp over to the finish chute.

I would certainly recommend the Sado Island event to other triathletes. It is a scenic course, a well-organized event, and a nice island excursion from Tokyo. For beginner triathletes there is a generous cutoff and a friendly crowd to cheer people on who were still finishing the 127-kilometer course at 6pm, 11 hours after the event start.