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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