Vietnam International Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Kind of got stuck in a crowd of guys at the start, but pretty aggressively got out of it and was in a good position by the first buoy and no problem subsequently. Drafted on big guys when I could as waves were high and sometimes I couldn't see to sight. I swam rather conservatively due to illness/asthma issues last week; was scared of having an asthma attack in the water but this didn't happen. I did manage to swallow a huge mouthful of water about 200m from the end (hit in face by chop) and had to stop for maybe 20 seconds to cough and gag but no asthma ensued, so swam for the beach! #11 out of water (including guys) so pretty good effort compared to others; all times quite slow.

Not be so conservative with pacing. Except for the swallowing water incident, I wasn't working that hard. Could easily be at least 1-2 minutes faster.

Time slow but the transition area is long and most people were in the 1:45-2:00 range last year when it was a much shorter run off the beach. There was about 100-150m run along the sand, then into transition and about 100m out to the mount line. Felt kind of sluggish--not a morning person and slightly nauseous again, this time from swallowing all that salt water.

Not stop to take a drink of water from my parked bottle. I always end up doing this for various reasons, when I could just do it on the bike. In this case, due to gagging on seawater, I felt like I needed to get the salt/reflux taste out of my mouth or I'd puke.

Overall was happy with the bike. Much better use of gears! I know I had a strong effort (for me)--my kph was almost always above 30 and I even came close to 40 on the downhills. Was just disappointed that it wasn't a standard distance. I know I broke 1:20, which was my goal, but not sure exactly by how much--probably close to 1:17 flat. Really got into a groove--ignored everyone else, just put my head down and rode. Also did better on hydrating--bigger bottles and drank every 10 minutes after the first 30. Still managed to gag on gel, though!

Not sure, besides make better use of technology to figure out my split for 40 km. I did check roughly at 20 km and then forgot at 40 km. Could have done it with watch and bike computer but didn't have the presence of mind--too busy dodging trucks and dead rats!

A little slow but my assigned spot was one of the furthest from the dismount line. Tried to rack the bike the wrong way and hit my head on the rack (still had helmet on, thank goodness.)

Pay more attention to what I'm doing!

Felt okay coming off bike--legs quite good but a little low-grade nausea and stomach cramps. Just kept picking people off. I thought I was fourth or fifth off the bike but was told I was third---apparently at least one of the "women" who passed me was on a co-ed relay; maybe one was a short guy. Anyway passed them back. On the last lap about 800m in I passed the woman who'd been in second, so assumed I was then in second. Kept passing people; no one passed me. (I have a perfect record, except for my first tri!) I thought I was running conservatively due to the asthma scare. (With typical presence of mind, had left my inhaler on the bike in T2.) About 250m from the end, passed a woman running very slowly. I figured she was on lap 1 or 2, but actually she was leading the race. (She'd gotten dazed with the heat and headed for the finish after 2 loops; someone sent her back out but apparently she really ate it on the last lap.) Had no idea I was winning until our LBS owner (watching) yelled that I was first as I entered the last 50m. I sprinted like hell when I realized it had to have been the woman I just passed. Sure I look extremely shocked in finish photo. Burst into tears in chute. End of race.


Hard to say. Run less conservatively. If I ever get the chance again (at my age, not too likely) try to win a little more commandingly than that, which would be less cruel--at least crush her dreams 800m or so out! Something not right about hydration on run. I think I drank a bit too much trying to keep cool as I actually had to pee while running. They were serving a Vietnamese isotonic drink that turned out to be sweetened with cane sugar. Normally I use sugar-free drinks as I don't tolerate sweet stuff, esp. late in a long race. So that may have worsened the nausea issue. It didn't really affect my pace; might have puked if I'd had to turn on the afterburners, though.

Walked around for a while in an awestruck daze, and stuck ice cubes down my tri top to get cool. Got a quick massage. Tried to go back into ocean but surf was by then so high that I got kicked out (literally) on my butt by the breaks. Gave up, went in to shower and change, and finished my warm-down with about half an hour of joyous paddling in Vietnam's longest hotel swimming pool (150m)! After cleanup and brunch, rented a local bike (bell and basket) and rode about 10 very easy miles round trip into town. Stopped on way for excellent body massage. Whatever I did seemed to work as I feel about 100X better than my last race. (Plus, honestly, I was kind of sandbagging the swim and not totally all-out on the run.) Think better hydration (maybe even a bit too much!) and nutrition helped as well.


Mental stuff--fear of having an asthma attack in open water. It's not terribly rational as I don't have EIA. My asthma is allergy-induced and rarely an issue unless I'm already sick, but I'd just gotten over either a bad allergy incident and/or throat bug, and something that irritates my throat (like inhaling smoke or swallowing water) can occasionally trigger an attack, and in a Vietnamese village, it's possible to have triggers like smoke. (Oh, and did I mention the burning plastic in the rubbish bin right next to my bike as I was setting up transition?!) If not for that I would have pushed the swim and run harder. On the bike I did push hard because I knew I had the inhaler. Other than that, some nausea/gut issues. Probably a combo of antibiotics efffects on gut, AM race, sugary drink on run, and nerves. In retrospect, maybe PMS joined the party, too. Also, bike fitness still not great. Compared to all finishers (inc. guys), I was 7/133 on the run, 11/133 on the swim, 59/133 on the bike. Sigh--progress for me, but still a long way to go!


Please note that normally this race is quite well-organized and fun but they were under severe constraints owing to the political situation and, to a lesser extent, the weather. This meant we had to ride much of the bike leg in traffic with no police support; many local volunteers couldn't come; they weren't allowed to have music or "celebration" type stuff at all. Start was delayed owing to the beach washing away (a tropical depression is offshore and weather/waves have been abnormal for the past few days). I think the organizers and athletes did a good job of pulling it off in really tough circumstances. My only complaint is the awards--first place male and female didn't get any special trophy or medal, just the one for winning AG. They just get a huge umbrella (really) advertising that horrid sugary drink and a goodie bag. Got some good goggles but there were other items that I couldn't use and/or were hard to transport back. I'd happily give them up (well, maybe except for the cool reflective OWS goggles) for a piece of metal stating I actually won a race! At my age, there probably aren't too many chance for getting that kind of hardware again!