Plenty of racing this weekend! Endure was out in force at the Condura Skyway Marathon with Gerard Cinco, Raffy Pamittan, and Pepsi Gutierrez taking on the marathon and Marga Baula and Roselle Dadal tackling the half-marathon.
Over at Xterra Albay, sole Endure solo participant Pyds Cayetano finished strong, while his wife Arzen ran as part of a mixed relay that took the top spot in their division.
Congratulations everyone!
The second weekend of January brought an opportunity to welcome a new teammate to Team Endure. Roselle, also known as the Running Diva has long been a friend of Endure and had already been participating in aquathlons since before I took up triathlon. This year, her target is to race Ironman 70.3 Philippines as an individual competitor so we took Saturday to drive up to Subic to ride those smooth traffic-free roads, and then practice some open-water swim skills and drills.
Getting our bikes ready.
with Roselle, Marga, and Clark
My bike Aki’s first time back in Subic in a long while!
leading the way
I took some time to help Roselle familiarize herself with bike shoes and clipping into her pedals after our ride. Although she already has the bike shoes, she still rides in running shoes. To help her conquer her fear, I broke down the motion of clipping in and pushing off into the following steps:
To stop, she would need to unclip with her non-dominant foot, lift herself off her saddle and bring her body forward while braking so she could put the unclipped foot on the ground in front of her.
Though tremulous and hesitant, Roselle quickly mastered this procedure. Now all she needs to do is keep practicing to make the whole thing fluid and automatic.
at All Hands Beach to learn drafting, deep-water starts, beach starts, and swim exits
While the usual beach for open water swim sessions used to be Dungaree (which was rebranded as Sands of Triboa and now ACEA Resort), it’s currently closed to the public until partway through summer. We paid P500 each for day trip beach access to All Hands Beach, and the cordoned-off beach area was perfect for teaching. The water was also clear and clean and surprisingly cool, which was refreshing after our hot ride out.
As veteran athletes we may take some skills and knowledge for granted, but for those new to the sport, they actually aren’t commonsensical. You can’t do triathlon for six years and not learn anything, so I did my best to pass down some veteran moves learned from trial-and-error and from those who do this sport for a living. It was highly gratifying to see my teammates absorb everything like sponges, and I hope it comes in useful come race day.
I missed out on the inaugural edition of the Bataan International Triathlon last year, but glowing reviews plus the presence of three-time Ironman World Champion Mirinda Carfrae tipped the scales in its favor and I knew I wanted to be on the starting line.
I decided to be gentle to my body in this last quarter of the year, opting to do just the Rapido distance: 750-meter swim, 30-kilometer bike, 5.5-kilometer run. That turned out to be a really good decision as even Rinny described the Bataan International Triathlon as “a tough little race” even if she made it look easy over the Largo distance of 1.5-kilometer swim, 50-kilometer bike, and 12-kilometer run.
Mirinda Carfrae tackles the hills at the Bataan International Triathlon (photo by Mary Ann Saquing -IC3)
Four years ago, I came to Camarines Sur as a last-minute substitute runner for a relay. As I went through the run course I saw the suffering on the individual competitors’ faces. It definitely gave me perspective on how prepared I would have to be to attempt my first half-ironman. I would do just that two years later, but it was in Camsur I started to dream. “What if? Why not?”
Camsur is where it all began for the boom of Philippine triathlon and for a number of us, we signed up for Challenge Camsur due to the nostalgia factor. But every race brings something new. For me, Challenge Camsur was the hottest, spiciest race I’ve ever done.
When I got the opportunity to race the Century Tuna Ironman 70.3 Subic Bay with two of my teammates from Team Endure, I couldn’t say no. Being part of a relay at a triathlon has always been fun and pressure-free for me. It’s an opportunity to work together as a team in this often very individual and lonesome sport, you can go as hard as you want in your chosen leg without being afraid of blowing the other two legs, and it’s just a great excuse to be away for an active weekend without overtiring yourself.
I am obviously taking things very seriously. Continue reading “Ironman 70.3 Subic Bay 2015”
Challenge Philippines “Tough”. That was how they had branded it this year, and for good reason. Those of us who had done the inaugural edition were forewarned about the (longer than 1.9 kilometers) swim against a current, the grinding steep hills of Bataan, and the endless undulations of the run course through forest ranger training grounds. And yet there we were again, back for more. Continue reading “Challenge Philippines 2015”
Thanks to my teammate Kira and friend Jayjay, we set off on a day trip to Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar in Bagac, Bataan, which is the jump-off point for Bi3. We left Manila at 4:30am and took the NLEX and SCTEX to Dinalupihan Exit then drove for a bit more. We arrived around 7:30am and paid for an 8-hour room so we had somewhere to shower after our ride.
We set off around 8am with another group who serendipitously were also there to scout the bike course.
There are two distances for the race (Largo and Rapido), but since my two companions were doing Rapido and had never been on the bike course before, I decided to stick with them.
I already know these hills from five recon rides here last year for Challenge Philippines anyway. 🙂
The Rapido course passes from Bagac into Morong and takes a U-turn at the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.
at the Bagac-Morong boundary arch
Kira’s first time to ride to the power plant!
It was a nice leisurely 30+ kilometers and then we were back at Las Casas for a quick shower, lunch, and peek around the resort.
Las Casas used to be a private collection of reconstructed and relocated antique houses. Now it’s a thriving hotel, resort, and tourist destination.
I definitely can’t wait to go back there in a few weeks’ time and run through those streets. 🙂
I remember when I did my first marathon. It was exactly on my birthday and was a great way to give myself an achievement that no one could take away. I had no doubts I wanted to finish it.
Challenge Roth was supposed to be the same thing. It would be my first foray into full distance triathlon racing, happening on my birth month, marking another milestone in my life.
But as I lay there belly up in the Main-Donau-Canal gasping for breath, barely 10 minutes into what would be almost 14 hours of racing, I was faced with the choice: do I continue, or do I quit?
the calm before the storm
I knew I wasn’t going to be particularly fast; I would be racing alongside Ani de Leon-Brown and Arland Macasieb, two giants of Philippine triathlon. But I also knew I had it in me to finish and to fly the Philippine flag proudly across the finish line.
I just didn’t know how much it would require of me.
If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. – Murphy’s Law
Continue reading “First Ironman at Challenge Roth”
That’s another great triathlon weekend done and dusted. What I love about the Subic Bay International Triathlon is how all the local tri teams come out and have a presence there, despite all the other newer triathlons springing up all over the country. SuBIT really is an institution — despite (especially?) its signature heat and humidity at this time of year.
It’s always hot at SuBIT (photo from Vantage Point Photography)
Before I go any further with my race report, here are the race results!
By Kazimira Kira Ang
Introduction by Marga Uy-Baula
The best part about this craziness is the growth of a run-off-the-mill individual to that of an athlete; from a struggling runner, biker, and swimmer to an adequate one… to, if you work hard enough, a podium finisher. Be inspired by Kira’s story of falling down, feeling awkward in the ministrations of a stroke or a pedal but most importantly, getting up, dusting yourself off, laughing at yourself even… and knowing, really knowing that after all the hardwork, you know that you have proven yourself worthy, not to anyone else, but to yourself and to this ballet of a sport called triathlon.
Endure Multisport 