May 2-3, 2009
Originally, Coach wanted to drive to Tongyeong together, but since he was an official for the pro races and had certain responsibilites, he was asked to come earlier than I was able to because of school. Thus, his second plan was to have one of my teammates drive me there in Coach's car; however, this plan didn't work out either, as unexpected responsibilities popped up for my teammate. So I called Coach on Friday to ask him what we should do, and he told me that I would have to come myself. With my bike. To a place 2.5 hours away. That would require 4 different forms of transportation.
I wasn't sure this was going to work out, because with my new budget for Kona, I only had a certain amount of money allotted to spend for this weekend, and that money was mostly allotted for food, etc. But after asking Coach how much the intra-city train costed, I was pleasantly surprised at how cheap the tickets were. So, my plan was to ride my bike to the closest subway station about 2.5 miles away (in lieu of taking my bike on an inter-city bus, which is difficult because the space on the bus is very narrow) with my gigantic backback and bike bag on my back, take the subway (involving a line transfer), take the intra-city bus from Busan to Tongyeong, and then take a 20 minute taxi ride to the hotel to meet Coach. Luckily, the overall expense was affordable, and the experience was a good one. Now, I know how to take intra-city buses, and next time I do so it will be much easier because I won't have to lug along my bike :).
So I woke up at 5:30am to get started so that I could meet Coach around 11am. Since there was a bit of traffic, I got to the hotel around 12p, which gave us just enough time to put my bike in his car and have some lunch before he had to start preparing for the Women's Pro Race which started at 2pm. It was a beautiful day, so I decided to venture around the area, scoping out what was to be part of our race course the next day.
After about an hour and a half of discovering that the hills in our race course (a course which was different from the Pro Field's course, because the Pro Field had 5 loops of 8km whereas the normal race only had one loop) were going to cause most athletes a decent amount of agony (although the beautiful scenery was sure to make up for at least some of the pain :) ), I returned to the transition area to watch the Pro Women get ready for the start. There aren't many specifics that I can give about this race - the nuts and bolts of it are that the Pro Women's race and the Pro Men's race was downright inspiring. It was so great to be able to see such great athletes so up close and personal. Seeing Emma Snowsill and Emma Moffatt come in first and second place respectively, a duplicate performance of the Beijing Olympics, was amazing. I can't imagine being that amazing of an athlete to be able to reclaim a title with such a talented field at my back.
After watching the race, I got my bike out of the car, rode around to get a feel of the hills, and then registered and put my bike in transition. Along the way I met a lot of triathletes and triathlon-officials because Coach seemed to know everyone and their mothers. After we had dinner, one of his good friends (whom I had met earlier) called him up and asked him to come out to dinner with some friends. Although we had already eaten, we agreed to come for a little while.
This outing was extremely interesting, because not only were there some pretty important Korean people present (the mayor, or second-to-the mayor, of Tongyeong, for one example), but there were also some Chinese politicians there. They had all already imbibed a decent amount of alcohol, so that made it even more fun :). After eating and drinking (just a little for me because of the race the next morning), they asked us if we would go to the Norebang (karaoke) with them. Since it is culture to accept such invitations if you want to foster good relationships, we accepted, to go for an hour. I was not super psyched about this though, because I don't like to sing or dance when I am sober...and all of these men had one-up on me in that respect. But, whatever. I tried to suck it up and kept telling myself that it would all be over in t-1 hour.
After the Norebang (which was very fun but I would have been more fun to be around if I was in a similar state as my companions), I drove Coach's car home (he had asked me before hand if that would be ok, because he was going to be drinking and since I was racing I would not be). That was a fun ... : )
Race day! I was not mentally at the top of my game because of the unusual activity that we engaged in the night before (normally I like to mentally prepare but in this situation I didn't have much of a choice), but we got there with plenty of time to prepare. The water was extremely cold, so I'm glad I warmed up, because if not I probably would have been at least 5 minutes slower. During the warm up I hyperventilated for most of the time in the water, as many other people seemed to be doing (it was definitely pee-in-your-wetsuit temperature water).
Because of the cold (16 deg C, around 60 deg F I think), I was thinking the swim was going to be a bust - especially because there were so many athletes in the race, and given my predisposition to have trouble in crowded waters...let's just say I was not looking forward to the swim. However, I surprised myself when, after diving into the water, I hardly hyperventilated at all, handling both the cold and the constant splashing much better than I ever have - no comparison. My time wasn't incredibly fast, but for me, the swim was a victory, because I have now crushed the mental barrier that was always lingering, making me wonder when or if I would ever be able to overcome my body's unfortunate response to open water swims.
The bike - was...entertaining. I actually thought I had done well after finishing that leg, because on the flats I was averaging between 29 and 31kph, and while the hills were IMMENSE, there were also some great downhills on which I picked up some serious speed. But alas - the omnipresent, extremely difficult hills must have just killed my overall speed, because my average was under 26kph!!! I could not believe that- but - I guess it just gives me more motivation to train super hard for Kona and to not embarrass myself. However, the bike was not a total bust, because while there was a decent amount of people walking their bikes up some of the hills (yes, that's how hilly this course was), I never once got off, despite the fact that I was using Coach's cassette which had a more difficult smallest gear than my bike. Plus, I made it through the hardest bike course I have ever ridden. So there is the silver lining.
Once I finished the bike, I was pretty tired, because I had really tried my best on that course. Since IM was two weeks beforehand, I knew my body was still recovering (especially from the burns, so I was actually wearing a jacket during the race), so I had made a decision before the race to take it easy on the run. I wanted to just run the whole leg, something which I cannot say that I have accomplished in any recent triathlons (there has been a lot of walking in the past few triathlons, and even a bit in some of my last Olympic distances). I accomplished the no-walking part, but the pace was not fast - 50 minutes for about 9km - basically, wayyy too slow for a race pace. However, considering everything (especially 2 weeks post-IM), I think the race went relatively well. Although Coach and I had agreed that this race was just going to be a fun thing (particularly after I had to be bandaged up for more than a week and not able to do any exercise), I still think that he didn't exactly share my sentiments on the outcome of the race. I think despite the fact that I was just going to race this for experience, he was still expecting me to do well in my age group, so I felt bad about the fact that I only came in 5th out of 9. But again, I can't do anything about that now. I tried my best on the bike, made a lot of personal progress on the swim, and finished the triathlon without burning out, and now we have results from which we can create a more appropriate training plan to help me prepare better for Kona. All in all, it was a great weekend, and a great experience.
After my race, I went to the sauna to shower as Coach got ready for the men's race. After watching the men's race (which, as I mentioned earlier, was fantastic), we headed out for a 4.5 hour drive home (at least 2 hours more than it should have taken, despite the last 30 minutes of speeding). Traffic was so bad that people were selling food on the roads to people in cars, and lots of people were buying. We got some as well - warm chestnuts. They were delicious, but definitely the most overpriced thing I have ever paid for in Korea. But a great experience!
Upon our Busan arrival, we headed to a restaurant for a quick bite. While I knew Coach's brother was in town, I was surprised to see all of his family already at the restaurant waiting for us! It was such a nice dinner - I met his mother, father, brothers, and nieces and nephews. They are all so nice! What a great end to a great day.
Now I am in the midst of a great adventure, showing my parents around Busan. But details will have to wait!
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