May 2019 Race #3: Korea Half Ironman Triathlon

Ten members of our triathlon team travel to Korea to compete in a half-ironman event, my third race in three weeks in three different types of endurance event.    

I feel less than “heroic”  — I am the weakest triathlete among our highly driven, focused and competitive group.  Obviously I am not “focused” on triathlon, but this is my best chance in 2019 to test myself, and I want to make the most of it.  

Essentially this is a repeat of my experience last year going into the Cebu Triathlon,

• I am drawn by need to do at least one race per year and identify as a triathlete
• I am more interested in opportunity to travel than race itself (in this case visiting the surprisingly impressive beach in Busan along with the southern Korea dinosaur country) 
• My preparation is strange mix of track intervals, Spartan workouts, short swims at Spa and short indoor trainer rides
• Even though this is my longest race of the season, I don't really consider it my "A" event  
• Getting my bike to the venue is terribly stressful and tiring - this effort strikes me as being more demanding than the actual triathlon

 

The big difference from last year is that in Korea I don’t have the excuse of running in tropical heat, swimming in strong currents and cycling on a tight, crowded course.  Conditions are perfect.   The run is on rolling hills which allows me to mentally break up the effort.  The cycling course is scenic.  The swim is in calm water, albeit roiling around me with other swimmers

I am kicked in the face early in the swim, struggle a bit with water leaking in my goggles, and spend the rest of the swim on the outside edge of course.  I feel like I am making up ground on the bike, managing to maintain what feels to me like a very fast pace through the whole 90k (although I just fail to hit my goal of breaking 3 hours).  

Ultimately I am happy simply to complete the course and be able to legitimately identify as a triathlete for another 12 months.  But I finish well behind 8 of the 9 TiT teammates and 306th among the 1,455 finishers.    Here are my splits:

Swim  - 43:30 

Bike -  3:00:18

Run -   1:38:27

Total -  5:32:35