Jason Fonger
Tri Factor Series Hua Hin Sprint Triathlon Race Recap

This was the first race of 2018 for me. It was on June 16th, 2018 in Hua Hin, Thailand which is a beach town on the mainland about 3 hours drive south from Bangkok. I had not raced a triathlon since winning the olympic distance race at Challenge Kanchanaburi in October of 2017. Since then, I had been nursing some issues with one of my legs, and had been taking it very easy when running. By the week before the Hua Hin race came around, I was feeling pretty confident that I could run a half-decent 5km after holding about 300w for the 25km bike ride. The swim was, as usual, a big question mark and depended largely on what kind of feet I could hold onto. The day came and I had been introduced to the best swimmer in the race, so I marked him and tried to swim with him. I wasn't fast enough, and ended up swimming on my own for a long time. 13:13 was my swim split which I find amusing. Unlucky, perhaps? Once I got out on the bike, I quickly took the lead and enjoyed a beautiful, fast bike course cruising at an average speed of 40.6km/h for a 25km bike split which took 36 minutes and 53 seconds. I held 280w average power which was a little lower than I wanted. I was first off the bike with some time to spare and so I decided to take my time and find my running feet a bit on the first 600m section of the run which is on a soft sand beach. I took this section really slowly and took the chance to think about my running form so that I would hit pavement feeling fresh and be able to lay down a decent pace for the rest of the 5k. When I did hit pavement, I felt relaxed. I didn't know who was behind me or how far, so I tried to get into a 3:45 pace but it did seem a little hot at the time. I managed to settle into a four minute pace for kilometres two and three, and was able to pick it up a bit in the last two km after seeing my competitors on the way back after the turnaround point. In the end I ran 21:40 for that 5km run which brings it to 1:13:48 once you add in 83 seconds for transition 1 and 55s for transition 2. I had won by about 6 minutes, and was happy with my performance. It was a good tune up race and my confidence had been boosted. As is often the case, in the days following the Hua Hin race, I was contemplating how I would approach training for my next race. I already had my sights set on the sprint distance non-drafting race at the Toronto Triathlon Festival which was to be about five weeks later. More on the training I did for that race in another post. I have also written a detailed race recap for the Toronto Triathlon Festival. I'm satisfied with this race as far as my performance goes, and how it fits into my season. It was also a road trip with some awesome friends and a great chance to take part in an awesome event in a beautiful part of Thailand. If you get the chance to do this race next year, I would certainly recommend it!
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