Singapore 70.3 Race Recap

just got back a while ago and can honestly say it was a good trip…had a few rookie boo-boos during my race and could have won 1st in my category if i didn’t commit those but i guess it’s another hard lesson learned.  either way i am super thankful for the podium finish.
 
swim was two laps and a bit wavy but i’ve had bumpier swims in singapore so i was happily swimming along anyway..the trouble started on my second lap when we had to overtake all the male age groupers who started 15 minutes later….it was, in a word total chaos. felt like vomiting from having to swim on top, under, beside, and diagonally over the guys…. they should change it back to the 1loop swim like last year. when i finally got out of the water and checked that i still had a decent 35min split i quickly forgot about that…haha.  
 
moving on…bike split was really slow. maybe it didnt help that i veered off-course (mistake number 1) … there was a left hand turn that we had to make which forked in two and since i was one of the first few females out of the water (we started ahead of the age group guys), i and two other girls wrongly took the left most one…there was no barricade or sign indicating otherwise, and no marshal either.  it actually led to the same major hiway but we had to pass under a bridge and when we came out we saw that we were on the wrong side of the lane…i looked across to the other lane and to my horror saw the error we had committed….the other two still biked ahead (they realized it a bit later than me) but i dismounted, crossed a south super hi way type of road (living in manila does have it’s benefits…i’m an expert traffic crosser), carried my bike across the fence, jumped across it, crossed another lane with fast-moving cars,. carried myself and my bike again over the barricade, and got myself onto the right track…still a bit shaky from my hiway expedition but was able to re-focus.  on my 2nd loop i saw that they blocked that other road so no one would make the mistake we made…my mistake number 2 was that i wasn’t able to secure my spare tubular tire very well and i had to keep stopping or else i would lose it. felt like kicking myself but i didnt want to lose an expensive and hard to find 650c tire. haha.
 
my run was very straightforward, just checking my pace against other people i knew and progressively increased my speed.  truthfully, I was feeling fresh and felt satisfied when i crossed the finish line, until i found out that: 
 
   ATHLETE                        RANK     AGE/DIV       SWIM         BIKE      RUN          TOTAL
1THOMPSON, Sarah     16/37/28  30/30 to 34    00:36:430    2:48:59  01:58:38     05:28:52
2DE LEON, Ani Karina    9/43/29   33/30 to 34    00:35:360   2:53:07   01:56:41     05:29:07
and then i wanted to kick myself for the umpteenth time that day….aaaaaaaaaaaaargh. 15 friggin seconds.  SHOULDA WOULDA COULDA. vented my frustration that night by repeating the story over and over and over to my friends who were with me there and texted my friends over here.
 
but on the plane today flying back, i knew that all was well and thanked God for the weekend.  and for all of my blessings. yes it could have been better, but it could have been much worse. and to put things into perspective, i was talking to alex bok, the manager of tbb the other day.  he was asking me how my prep for hawaii was and i answered that singapore was my last tune up race.  he said, yeah, i know, it’s just for your training, but imagine for some people it’s already a lifetime achievement. i’m glad i remembered our discussion and i know how true it is.
 
well, that’s my race story and i am sorry for the novel haha…hope everyone has a great week ahead!!!
 
P.S. like me, patrice won a slot in his category and qualified for the 70.3 world championships. we had to give up our slots though because hawaii is going to cost a lot of money and we would probably go bankrupt if we go to florida a month after…haha.
P.P.S. i know how lucky i am to have friends organizing the send off party this friday and going out of their way to support a fellow athlete.  thanks so much.  i really really appreciate it.