I feel completely spoilt after having my sister come to Italy with me and now, my friend Michelle joining me for the Taiwan race....how am I ever going to cope again on my own?  I did wonder at one point though as I held the plane, lying through my teeth that Michelle was only 2minutes from the gate when I couldn't even reach her on the cell phone whether we would both be kicked off the plane!  As soon as we stepped onto the plane, the doors shut and we were off.  Although Taiwan is always a nightmare in terms of logistics and organization, the people try so hard and as long as you go with a sense humor, it can be a fun weekend.  I had come really well prepared with food etc after our stay at the funny farm last year ( see race report from 2003 ) but I didn't need to worry as they put us up in a really nice hotel in mango country by the mountains.  We opted to arrive on Friday afternoon for a Saturday race as I had only just returned from the UK & Italy and why spend an extra night in Taiwan when you don't need to?  After a quick bike ride, we organized our gear for the next day and set about having a really good catch-up.  Michelle is my best friend in HK but we hardly ever get time to really catch except a quick coffee here and there.  She is about to head back to London for a couple of months to look for work and see her boyfriend, who is now based there.  They would both like to be back in HK but things just haven't come together on the work front so I don't know whether or when they will be back.....OKAY, enough sad thoughts, onto the race.

We had both raced the weekend before, me at Powerman where Siri had warned me would take more out of my legs than I would expect as it's a different format of racing and Michelle the Action Asia Adventure Race on Macau.  As we had cycled the day before, our legs had felt pretty dead but then I had experienced that before and wasn't too worried.  After a monster night's sleep, I woke up race morning feeling really stiff, like I had done a race the night before....oh well, work to be done, I convinced myself as I tried to put this out of my thoughts. We arrived at the race site to ridiculous humidity and rapidly rising temperatures....it was amazing to think how many degrees cooler it had been up the mountain.  This is the first year Taiwan have kept the race in the same venue and I really liked the course last year although it takes no prisoners!  After a hot lake swim, it was onto a 2lap hilly bike followed by a seriously hilly run.  The start here is always chaos and after group aerobics as a warm-up (who would have ever thought a swim would do the job), the twenty guns (heaven forbid leaving out one official) went off to start the race.  Everyone plunged into the warm waters and it was a battle to get some space but I soon found myself in a small group of guys.  I was definitely feeling the effects of the racing but still didn't feel too bad even though I ended up loosing the pack to come in 20seconds behind them in 19:50.....not bad considering I haven't been doing so much swimming recently.  There was one girl from Singapore already in transition but a quick turn around saw me drop her and I headed up the first hill.  Within a couple of km, I had caught up with Jason from HK and we worked together for the rest of the bike and we almost caught the lead group but neither of us felt ON that day and I just didn't have it in my legs to bridge across.  I was also aware, the aim of doing this race was to earn some money, look after my body and not break any records.

I would be lying if I didn't say I was looking forward to the end of the bike....this was definitely one of those hard days at the office.  More than anything, I was looking forward to getting to the first aid station on the run and getting some cold fluids in.  I had been getting goose-bumps on the bike which is a sign of de-hydration and I desperately needed to cool down.  I was in first place coming off the bike and all I could think about was getting to the top of the first hill and that aid station and hopefully I would be able to turn things around.  Can you imagine burning up and dreaming of how that cold liquid is going to feel as you pour it over your head and into your mouth.....well, I had been there for a while so you can imagine my thought process when all they had to offer me was HOT water!!  I could have boiled an egg in it for God's sake...........It was hard to pick myself up after that when my legs felt like absolute CRAP, I was de-hydrated and over-heating and knew there wouldn't be any relief for another 9km.  OKAY, time to be tough and get myself together.......while 99% I love my job, everyone has a bad day at the office and I just have to wear it and get to the end.  It has to be said, knowing there was money at the end did help but more so was the fact that I knew Michelle behind me would be tough and not quit, so neither would I.  By 2km, a Taiwanese girl had passed me looking really strong and after a couple of words of encouragement to her, I focused on my own private battle.  At one point, we ran next to a warm, brown looking lake and I had thoughts of jumping in and swimming a km up the run course....that had to be easier?  At about 5km, I had to sit down in the shade for a couple of minutes and try to get my HR and temperature back down.....maybe Michelle would come round the corner soon and help me to the finish.  Finally, I picked myself up and managed to get through the final 5km holding onto 2nd place.  You would have thought the day from hell could end there but no, I must have been really bad somewhere along the line but we got another bottle of hot water at the finish!  I finally found a friend from Taiwan who found me a cold drink and Michelle and I headed to the medical tent.  No ice or cold water there but at least we got three old guys each to pummel and massage us back into some kind of shape. (See picture on the right)

The awards was being held at the race site about 4hrs later and neither of us could face the thought of de-hydrating further so we opted to ride back to the hotel (20km away) via the Seven-Eleven.  We must have looked like warriors coming back from war as we stumbled into the heavenly air-conditioned store and proceeded to stuff our faces with cold coke and salted pringles!  It took us about 50minutes to ride all the way home in the head-wind but it was worth it to get a shower and into the cool.  The other added bonus was the bag full of mango's we picked on route to take home and ripen on the window-sill.  I thought we were busted at one point as this guy started chasing us and all you could see was mango's bursting out the tops of our bags!  I finished the last one the other day and they were so good......way better than the one's you buy in the stores so it was worth it.  We had dinner and mango ice-cream before falling into bed....so much for the big girls night out and were up at 5am the next morning to take an earlier flight home......coffee & breakfast in HK would be loads better than Taiwan!

Happy Travels.......

Cheers Claire