After two years of focusing solely on making the Olympics and short-course racing, it was finally time to do some non-drafting and longer races again, which was perfect timing for Tagaman.  I have always loved this race as it seems to have the perfect mix of commercialism and fun, not to mention a great group of athletes who make the annual pilgrimage.  There are normally about 15-20 pro's vying for the US$10,000 prize purse and 150 age-group athletes racing over the 2/60/15km course, which takes athletes past some of the most beautiful scenery to be found anywhere in the world.  With Continental Airlines sponsoring the race, flights are cheap from all their major routes (Japan, Manila, Hong Kong, Korea, Cairns & USA) and the flight from HK is only 4hrs.  This year, the race formed part of a week long Sports Fest kicking off with the Saipan Xterra triathlon followed by various clinics and seminars throughout the week in the lead up to the Tagaman & Tagakids Triathlons.  This certainly strengthened the field in both the men's and women's races with Olympian & 2000 ITU World Champion, Olivier Marceau from Swizerland and Xterra World #1 Jamie Whitmore of USA showing up to put claim to the double title.  They were joined by Xterra expert Jason Chalker (AUS), previous Tagaman champions Steve Farrell (NZ) & Mike Trees (GBR).  On the women's side, Belinda Baban (AUS) returned to defend her title together with Caroline Cooksley (second at the Forster 1/2 IM earlier this year) and a number of other strong competitors.

Cookie had agreed to be a race photographer and reporter for various triathlon publications and newspapers, so he could join me for the trip and we headed overnight to Saipan on Monday.  Unfortunately, Continental only fly to Saipan twice a week from HK and the Friday flight would not get us to the island in time, so we had to spend a week there.......life can be tough!  Race director, Bill Sakovich and his wife Jean have become friends over the years and they kindly agreed to put us up for the week and then we would stay at the race hotel, PIC for the weekend.  We arrived in Saipan bleary eyed at 7am after only 3hrs sleep, as the flight is too short but Bill & Jean soon cheered us up with a big breakfast at the infamous local cafe, Coffee Care.  How convenient, it was only a 100yds up the road from their house, so I could see this was going to be our hang out for the week.  The weather was gorgeous all week although I was thankful the race was going to start at 5.30am as a 15km run in the midday heat would have been brutal.  We spent a really relaxing week training, sleeping and watching DVD's which made a really pleasant change to our normally hectic lifestyle.  By the time we moved over to PIC on Friday, I was feeling rested and ready to race even though I had done some reasonable miles earlier in the week in preparation for the St Croix 1/2 Ironman the following weekend. PIC is a beautiful resort hotel on the beach where the race starts and they boast one of the best water parks with a huge lazy river meandering through the garden, a lap pool and huge free form pool with multiple slides and games for kids.  They have so many sports facilities it's hard work not to spend all day trying them all out but the newly furbished rooms are pretty awesome too, so they pretty much had all angles covered.

I had won the race two years ago, although Jamie was definitely going in as favorite and I felt she would be my chief rival.  It is always pretty weird getting completely set-up for a race in the dark but at least there was some dim lighting by the hotel pool, so I could get in a quick swim warm-up before we all lined up on the beach.  It is still dark when you are called to the start line and then you wait for a few minutes for the first buoy to come into view and you're off.......I was in the main pack after we came round the first buoy but then things eased up a bit and I got into a bit of a tussle with another swimmer, so I went to the front.  The water was so calm, I felt like I was flying and had the whole ocean to myself - I never thought I would be able to enjoy the swim portion of racing so much.  As we came to the buoy at the end of the first lap, one of the Japanese guys took the lead but again he eased off soon after so I went past as I wanted to push the pace knowing I was probably the strongest female swimmer in the field - another new experience! As we hit the beach, I came out of the water in 6th place overall with only 3 men scattered in front of our group with Marceau leading the race (see right). Our group included Farrell & Scott Penny (Aus) but using my short course experience, I had a quick transition to be 4th onto the bike course which was a pretty cool start to the day. 

The bike started well as I kept Farrell & Penny in sight for the first 10km but having not raced a longer distance in a while, I wondered whether I was getting carried away and should ease back a touch.  In hindsight, this possibly cost me the race but it's all a learning process and it has been a while since I have been at the front of a race.  I felt really good and reasonably comfortable as we headed out to Bird Island (pictured above) despite a headwind. At this point, I still had no idea how close the other women were to me so it was head down and wait until the turn around as Cookie had said he wouldn't give me any splits in case anyone protested he had special rights as media.  Anyway, I had a bet to win with Mike Trees, who is well know as a weak swimmer but strong biker and runner (GB Duathlon Champion on numerous occasions). I had to beat him to the 10km mark on the bike for a bottle of champagne (one of my favorite post race tipples!)  Mission accomplished.......although I later learned he had mechanical problems in T1 but admitted there was no way he was going to make up the 3minutes I had on him out of the water in the first 10km of the bike.  I later saw Mike as he sailed past me like his butt was on fire at 3km into the run!

As I came round the bike turn, I started to watch the clock so I could estimate my lead....2minutes, but I possibly needed more and it was frustrating to see Caroline & Jamie's together (see Jamie right).  As I came out of the Grotto, Jamie was beginning to use her Xterra strength and drop Caroline on the climb and she ended up loosing 2minutes to her on the remaining 25km back to transition. At least we got to enjoy a tailwind back into town and I worked pretty hard to try and maintain my lead to finish the bike 9minutes quicker than my time 2yrs ago. Marceau came back into town with a huge lead and Gillan still a clear second but Farrell & Penny were still very close.  I still had Trees in the hunt for the last podium place as he was probably the fastest runner in the men's field and didn't fail to impress us with a 51minute run split for 15km! 

The run is a flat 6km out and back along the waterfront followed by 3km through the Memoral Park by T2 and the finish line .  We were lucky this year as there seemed to be more cloud cover than normal although it was still pretty scorching conditions.  I headed out as hard as I dared, trying to find a good rythmn in the hope of holding off the girls behind me.  Jamie came into T2 still 2minutes back and Caroline was nearly 4minutes back by this point.  As I came round the turn, I could already seen Jamie so she must have eaten away most of my lead within 6km.......that didn't look too good.  At first, I was almost waiting for her to go sailing past then I gave myself a kick up the butt and tried to pick up the pace.  She eventually got to me at 8km but then I just kept holding on with only 100yds separately us all the way to the finish.  It doesn't sound like much but trying to reel in 30seconds when someone has gone past you is pretty tough.  Caroline ran strongly to take the last spot on the podium and finished a further 1:30 behind me with Belinda Baban in 4th place and my friend, Brigitte (who used to live in HK and now lives in Tokyo) in 5th. Olivier took top spot in the men's race as expected with Dominic Gillan holding onto second, Farrell taking 3rd place and Trees blitzing through the field to claim 4th.

The post race party here is always one of the highlights of the week with an amazing beach location, great food, free beer all night, live band and a pretty amazing crowd of people.  Olivier Marceau & Stephan (his home-stay) turned up with wigs for the awards and I in-herited the purple afro one at some point during the evenings festivities but the deal is that I have to take it with me on my world tour and send photo's back to Stephan in Saipan and return with it next year so watch out for some weird photo's like the one below! We all ate, drank and then danced our way into the night with plenty of fond memories to look back on and all determined to return again next year.

Keep on dancing..........

Cheers Claire

For full results & details see www.tagaman.com &www.xtri.com