Bintan wrap up

Just a quick update on how the half Bintan went today. I will do a proper race report once I have had a chance for it all to sink in.

As predicted It did end up being a pretty tough day, but overall a good one. I ended up coming in 3rd across the line and winning the 30-34 age group. Time was 4 hours, 26 and 47 seconds, which is a time I am pretty happy with. Actually thinking about it, that might be close to a PB. So very happy with  that.

I had a solid swim, but I would question whether it was a full 1.9km, since my time is pretty quick for a non wetsuit swim for me. Anyway, correct distance or not, the course is what it was, we all did the same one. In hindsight I didn't position myself very well on the start line. The pros were all on the left and I was on the right. By the time I got myself clear of the crowd, the pro field had a big gap which I couldn't bridge. As a result I did most of the swim alone. I also stuffed up my sighting a bit, needing two total stops in order to get my bearings, so not perfect, but I was happy enough with it. I was 5th out of the water I think (after checking the results it turns out I was 6th).

It took the transitions handlers a minute to find my bag, and I then ran up the wrong aisle of bikes, so not the smoothest of transitions, but I don't think it cost me all that much time in the end.

Once out on the bike I felt pretty good. I managed to not chase speed, but rather keep myself under control a bit on the early hills. Once we were out of the hills, you hit a highway. The organisers had said that is where the speed would come and they were right. After about 40km I moved into 4th and then quickly into 3rd. That is where I stayed until about the 70km mark, when I moved into 2nd. The ride remained pretty comfortable, although the hills did get tougher towards the end. The nutrition and hydration plan seemed to work out pretty well, with no tummy trouble. All up I drank a bit over 6 litres of fluid on the bike course. It was cool, every time you went past a school or something the route was lined with school kids, all wanting high fives. Turns out giving somebody a high five at 40km/h is quite painful. Still it was pretty cool to see.

Once off the bike I felt terrible for the first couple of kms of the run. I was pretty sure I had spent to much on the bike and I was now paying the price. I could see a very big hole looming. But after the first few kms I found my rhythm and my right speed. Once I had settled down a bit I started to feel a lot better. Every aid station I was taking one of everything, sponges, water, whatever I could get my hands on and I felt pretty comfortable for most of the run temperature wise (other than a couple of patches). By the second lap I was feeling pretty okay. At about the 10km mark I was passed and moved into 3rd. I was expecting to see a lot more of the pros come past so I wasn't that phased about losing 2nd (I also thought I had moved into 4th at the time). I continued to feel pretty okay for the rest of the 2nd lap. After that it was a case of holding on. I also had started to think I might be able to hold off the pros, since I could see on the turn arounds that they had started to slow. So I made sure I worked on that last lap. Plus I really just wanted to get to the finish line as quickly as possible. The last kms seemed to last for ever, but soon enough the finish came, which I was very happy to see. After the finish I was really happy to see my splits, which showed the 3 laps of the run were within about 30 seconds of each other. Overall it was a slow run time, but given the conditions it was probably about right. It was the 3rd quickest run of the day, which for me is pretty much unheard of.

Overall I am very happy with the result. Everything seemed to go pretty much as planned for the race, which I am very happy about. The time is much quicker than I had expected, so I am also very happy about that.

All up just very happy.

Now for some hardcore sitting still.