I headed down to Manila on Wednesday night for a couple of days work and the Subic Bay Triathlon.  This doubled as an ITU & Asian Series race and I was keen to win my first ITU points.  The points go down to tenth place and are valid as long as you are within 8% of the winning time for women and 5% for men.  Last year I managed third place but with the world champion Nicole Hackett winning the race, I had missed out on points by 2minutes.

The weather had been amazing in Manila and I was looking forward to getting out of town and down to Subic on Friday night.  It normally takes from 3-4hrs to drive but Friday nights are always bad especially when it’s payday! The race is held around the military base and consists of a flat bike & run course after the swim held in the bay.  I found out that my main competition would be Melissa Ashton from Australia, currently ranked 10 th in the world, Eri Nakagawa who won the Asian Junior Championship title last year together with Jill & Nicole from Hong Kong.

The rest of the team had arrived a few hours earlier and were tucking into dinner when I arrived.  Cookie was flying in that night with Jody and Jarrod, which meant they didn’t arrive until 12:30pm but at least we all had Saturday to rest and get organized.  We had all planned to check out the bike course the next morning but this was postponed as it was pouring down with rain.  Oh, well off to the pool as I had two wetsuits to try out for my race in Japan the following weekend.  After the swim, Nicole, Cookie and I decided to brave the weather and hit the bike course.  It was almost the same as last year except the turnaround and consists of 4 laps and some interesting road works – hopefully these would have disappeared by the morning.  Generally the road service was pretty slick and I was looking forward to getting on the course the next morning.  On our return to the hotel, we found Jarrod who was still trying to locate his cousin Jody from the previous evening.  Having decided that 12.30pm wasn’t late enough to hit the sack, he had tested his skill at the local casino!  As luck would have it, (his last for the weekend!) he made a killing but soon realized he couldn’t remember the name of our hotel.  Not sure what else to do he decided to check into the casino hotel in the hope that his memory would return the next morning………

After a quick transition in the room, Cookie and I headed off to the bike check and thought we would check out the swim course at the same time. What had been a beautiful, flat bay this morning was now a washing machine of surf with the wind and rain.  We battled round one lap of the swim and Cookie’s new swim technique was definitely working as he wasn’t far behind me – just as well he was starting in a different wave the following day!  With all the training for the day over it was time for lunch and I was starving.  We hit the new restaurant at the hotel and it has to be said the food was excellent.  Nicole joined us and we spent a relaxing hour discussing the latest news.  The last important call of the day was to the local Nike & Adidas factory outlet store – they are SO CHEAP!  Armed with goodies, I headed back to the room to get everything ready for the next day.

As the alarm went off at 3.30am, I jumped out of bed and headed for my normal 10minute walk before breakfast.  As I stepped out the door, I was hit by a barrage of rain – it was absolutely pouring down!  This could make the race interesting but at least I have done a number of bike races in the rain so it should be no problem.  After a quick bowl of breakfast, we headed to transition with Samuel and Andrew arriving soon after and we all headed off for a run warm-up.  By the time I came back to transition it was buzzing with music and frantic activity.  All the Hong Kong team were busy getting ready with Bikeman running round like mother hen making sure we had everything organised.  Before long, they were calling for the guys to the start-line for the first wave.  Here we go, it was race time again………

The sea was reasonably rough but not as bad as the previous afternoon and soon the men’s field had dispersed into groups.  As they came round after the first lap, I could see that Andrew was in the first pack with the Australian, Japanese & Canadian athlete’s. By the end of the swim, Andrew was still close to the lead in 19:45 but the leaders had spread out over about 30m.  Samuel was next out of the water in 21:21 followed by Kenneth in 22:01 and James in 23:00.  As they headed out onto the bike the women were coming to the end of their first lap.  Nicole, Jill and I had managed to get together in a group for the swim (24:16) unable to hang onto Eri’s feet and Melissa had shown all of us a clean pair of heals to exit in 21:40.  It was a mad dash through transition and in my haste I caught one of my bike shoes on the rack and it flew clean off – GREAT, so much for the quick transition!  I quickly shoved it on my foot and headed off to do a standing mount.  Nicole also had some difficulties with her helmet but managed to jump on the back as we all headed round the first bend.  Nicole, Jill and I were able to work well on the bike and were soon gaining on Eri despite the fact she was sitting comfortably behind a couple of the Japanese guys.  Melissa had a comfortable lead on us and added a further minute with an impressive bike split (1:03:28) that put most of the men’s elite wave to shame.  

Chi was racing in the new Under23 division which gives junior athlete’s a stepping stone to the Open level. She was the next HK female out of the water in 26:37 with a couple of girls from the Philippines, who she was able to work with on the bike.  Gorilla was racing over the sprint distance, as this is the new junior distance in ITU and championship races and came out of the water very close to the leading male juniors.  In the meantime, Andrew was holding the fort for the men and although he had dropped off the pace of the leaders was still in a strong position.  James had worked hard out of the swim and caught Samuel and a few of the other athletes on the bike so they were able to work together into T2.

Malcolm Lyons (AUS) was first into T2 with Ryosuke Yamamoto (JAP) with Lee Dryden (CAN) and Kenta Andoh (JAP) closely behind them.  Andrew was next into transition in an excellent position especially when you consider this is only his second triathlon!  Malcolm held onto his lead with an impressive 33:31 run, followed by Ryosuke, Kenta and Lee.  Andrew managed to hold of a late charge by George Vilog (PHIL) to hold fifth place and only miss collecting his first ITU points by 2.5minutes.  James was next over the line in 11 th place with a run of 40:23 followed by Kenneth who is making a welcome return to racing after a year off to get his career off the ground.  Samuel struggled through the run but managed to hang in there to the end to get inside the top twenty.

In the women’s race, Melissa was able to take victory comfortably in 2:03 with Nicole putting in a 10km PB (38:52) to claim second spot and the Asian Series win.  I battled for three of the four laps to stay on Eri’s feet only to be disposed off as we went into the final lap and she was able to put a 20second buffer between us.  Jill finished off the top five so it was good day for the HK girls as we all gained our first ITU points of the year.  

Most people had counted their blessings that it poured with rain for the later stages of the bike and most of the run.  I had prayed for a hot day as I seem to able to cope with the heat but in the circumstances having a picked up a cold a few days before the race was also glad of the cooler conditions this year.  One person who was not impressed with the weather was age-grouper, Jody who in a torrential downpour was accidentally hit by a police car out to ensure safety on the bike course!  Luckily he escaped with only minor cuts and bruises but his bike was a right off – hopefully he can chase the insurance money and that shiny new Cervelo could be his sooner than expected.  Jarrod made the whole field look like they were swimming in treacle as he exited the water in an impressive 18:54 which would have won the elite men’s swim wave.  Mind you as a member of the Canadian 1.5km swim team and with training volumes of up to 70km a week, he should have left the rest of us for dead!  What is more impressive is that he held his lead in the bike and for most of the run when he was finally overtaken a couple of km from the end. Second age-group overall isn’t too shabby for your first triathlon on limited bike and run training.  Cookie proved his speedy swimming from the day before was no fluke and managed to break 30minutes for the first time despite the tough conditions. With a strong bike leg and managing to hold it together for the run, he came in with a PB of 2:37 to claim 7 th place in 35-39 category and 24 th age-grouper overall.

Chi & Gorilla rounded off a good day for the girls as Under-23 & Junior champion in 2:21:17 & 1:14:14 respectively.  Lau Ching Yin & Hsien Chun Shing brought further glory for Hong Kong coming first and second in the male junior race.  

After an exhausting morning, there was no peace for the wicked as we had to be all packed and ready to go by 1pm!  The highlight of the trip for many was the stop at the service station half-way back to Manila for a post-race feed – I didn’t know where to go first, Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut or McDonalds, decisions, decisions…………

Male Elite:

1. Malcolm Lyons (AUS) 1:53:39 (19:39/1:00:29/33:31)

2. Ryosuke Yamamoto (JAP) 1:54:23 (19:38/1:00:34/34:11)

3. Kenta Ando (JAP) 2:01:46 (20:29/1:03:36/37:41)

4. Lee Dryden (CAN) 2:02:45 (19:41/1:01:22/41:42)

5. Andrew Wright (HKG) 2:02:50 (19:45/1:04:45/38:20)

11. James Chow (HKG) 2:06:15 (23:00/ 1:02:52/40:23)

16. Kenneth Yip (HKG) 2:07:10 (22:01/1:04:05/41:04)

19. Samuel Leung (HKG) 2:09:18 (21:21/1:04:35/43:22)

Female Elite:  

1. Melissa Ashton (AUS) 2:03:34 (21:40/1:03:28/38:26)

2. Nicole Rayson (HKG) 2:07:59 (24:16/1:04:51/38:52)

3. Eri Nakagawa (JAP) 2:09:40 (22:49/1:06:15/40:36)

4. Claire Murray (HKG) 2:10:03 (24:18/1:04:44/41:01)

5. Jill Fung (HKG) 2:11:49 (24:19/1:04:46/42:44)

6. Lau Cheuk Chi (HKG) 2:21:17 (26:37/1:09:05/45:35)

Male Junior:  

1. Lau Ching Yin (HKG) 1:01:43 (11:13/23:49/26:41)

2. Hsien Chun Shing (HKG) 1:02:27 (11:18/23:37/27:32)

3. Syed Jabir (IND) 1:03:50 (11;14/26:36/26:00)

4. Francis Mercado (PHIL) 1:04:50 (13:51/23:16/27:43)

5. Mo Sze Yuen (HKG) 1:08:46 (11:11/25:49/ 31:46)

Female Junior:  

1. Gorilla Chau (HKG) 1:14:14 (11:46/29:06/33:22)

2. Maria Melliza Gayle Lucas (PHIL) 1:27:40 (11:49/35:48/40:03)

Age-Group:  

1. Alvin Alindogan 2:14:42 (24:51/1:09:51/40:00)

2. Jarrod Ballem (HKG) 2:15:07 (18:54/1:09:31/46:42)

24. Richard Cooke (HKG) 2:37:46 (30:32/1:11:23/55:51)