Tour of Matabungkay 2011 (a view from the back of the peloton)

A race report coming from a neophyte in the cycling world and a first-timer to Tour of Matabungkay. In fact, you probably never even heard of me or know my name, or recognize my face beyond my uniform. If you do remember me, I will be called "that girl" from 711 with the yellow bike. Well, can't complain, at least I strike a chord with my team name and bike color :)

Me and team mate Michell at the start of the ITT stage

I barely have enough to say about what went on during the race for the Cat A and Cat B men as I was never in any action in the lead pack, or surged up in front during any of the stages, much less during the climbs. With full knowledge of my present capabilities, I was happy to finish at least two stages out of three.

STAGE 1:

711 came late at the start of stage one. I heard they were calling the team as none of us had signed beside our names 5 minutes before gun start. I'll go ahead and say this was not the best moment for us. But well and thanks to the organizers for being patient with us.

Ironman Korea

There is nothing more fulfilling at any given moment than crossing an item off your bucket list. Perhaps that was all the motivation I needed to finish the race. That and the thought of my friends and family rooting and praying with me as I trudged towards the last kilometers to a finish line. Finishing this Ironman pretty much felt like crossing any other finish line in a race one is doing for the first time. You had a goal in mind, and the realization of that goal will always leave you dumbfounded.

With the cancellation of  IM China, which was my target race and the usher of a new race, IM Korea, all I had on my mind was, "let's get this over with". I had no expectations, no aiming for a PR. I knew I did not train specifically for this course, I know I did not train at all for the whole month prior to this race. Period.

A weeks worth of riding the course, swimming the waters with a wetsuit on does not necessarily prepare one for what happens on race day. Here's a recap of the day I wrote on my facebook page:

I had a way too relaxed 4 km swim as I was saving my energy for the bike and run leg. As I was swimming, I kept singing Ave Maria in my head for some weird reason. But the beat kept my stroke. Then one guy swam beside me and he swam like he was doing ballet, so I switched to classical music. Swimming that long in cold water, you have to think of things to keep you occupied. I was just hapy to have made the swim cut-off of 2 hours 20 minutes. I was surprised to finish in 1 hour 47 minutes hours considering I could count with my fingers the number of times I trained for swim. But I was one of the last few ones coming out of the swim.. I took my time taking a shower, changing all my clothes from top and bottom for comfort and slathering petroleum jelly all over the chaffe-prone areas.

BIKE: I started out really well, but once I got to the hills, I was struggling. I did not notice anything wrong until I felt my seat slip and slide around. No wonder I wasn't getting any power into my pedal stroke. After that I was really disheartened to see that most of the athletes had already covered 20kms more that I had. I was still struggling to keep a decent pace up the hills with my seat moving around the whole time, trying hard to look for a bike mechanic but no one that I asked spoke a word of English or understood what I needed. It was frustrating.

After about 100kms into the bike leg, I finally got a guy manning the aid station to tighten my seat. But when he tightened it, I did not notice he did so with the seat slid way back. So I was straining in my aero position the rest of the way. I could feel me neck muscles getting pinched, so much so that I couldn't look to the left. My shoulders hurt like hell when I used the aero bars, so I had to rely on my drop bars to keep me low in the windy sections. I was panicking as I had to make the bike cut-off of what I thought was 8 hours. I learned afterwards that it was 8 hours 30 minutes. Biked the 180 kilometers in 7:45 and got into transition to run with 45 minutes to spare.

RUN: The run was way off what I trained for. The course was either going uphill or downhill. I only ran in flat roads and the distance I had trained for wasn't even half of 42kms. I only had one or two 20 km runs, and it was all either 10k or 15 km max the rest of the time. But I had your names and faces to keep me occupied. The first loop wasn't easy but I finished it as planned in 3 hours. But once it started to get dark at around 8 pm and I still had 21 kilometers to cover, my enthusiasm just died down. By the time I was going into my second loop, most of the athletes were already finishing. I kept in mind all the time I sacrificed just to train for this and  I wasn't about to give up that easily. I met another lady along the way, who spoke just enough English to understand when I asked her if we could walk and run at the same pace, just so I wouldn't let my pace slow down considerably. She didn't look like a triathlete whatsoever. She was 49 years old, has two kids, one 21 year old son in the military. And that was our entire conversation for the next ten kilometers. The plan for the rest of it was simple, walk the hills, run the semi-flats and  downhills. By the second loop I could feel the blisters in my feet start to burn up. But I kept my mind occupied by finding my pace. I was thankful most of the course was uphill as I had an excuse to walk it, but I had to still walk it as fast as I could, military style. Of course the flats and downhills were just plain torture.

My breaks were every 2.2kms. I ate bananas, drank coke, water and took my gels and anti-fatigue capsules religiously. By the 30th kilometer, my feet just wouldn't move as fast as I wanted it to. My blisters were starting to hurt so bad, I couldn't keep ignoring it as I had the last 20 kilometers.I just kept thinking off all of you and ran a kilometer or two for you :) I wanted to just sit down and rest for a long while, but I know if I did that my leg muscles would cramp and i would not make it to the cut-off. So I trudged into the night, with only one reflective arm band letting the motorists know I was there. This was around 9:30 in the evening and while I still saw brave souls doing the rest of the course, they were few and far in between and most were ahead of me.

The last ten kilometers felt like a daze, I just wanted to see the finish line so bad I wanted to literally scream at my blisters to stop bugging me. By then my leg muscles were also beginning to cramp as it had been really beat up by the pounding of running downhill. The stretch from 4.4 km to 2.2km with the steepest climbs felt like eternity. I was then walking behind a bunch of people who I thankfully caught up with. At least I had their conversation to keep me from stopping and just sleeping in the side of the road even if I never understood a word they said. I was really getting sleepy then, and hungry and needed to go to the bathroom so bad. I hadn't eaten anything the whole day. Just bananas, energy bars and gels the whole 15 hours of it. By then even the cars passing us were getting fewer and fewer at 10:30 in the evening.

When I saw the 2.2. km aid station, I felt like I was in heaven. The run 2.2 km to the finish was all downhill. I ran down as fast as I could and caught up with another athlete from the Philippines who was walking. I told him to come run with me and he told me he couldn't as he had blisters. I told him I had blisters all over as well, but we should just push on. I was glad he listened so we ran down to the finish where someone handed us a Philippine flag to carry to the finish line. It was a proud moment. I can't describe how I felt then. I was relieved, sad and happy it was over. Meyo was there to see me finish.

 Best Post-race recovery

An Ironman is never a race to mess with. One should never go into it without proper training, much like I did. But it is also true that most of it is mental. And what kep me mentally tough was the thought of disappointing a lot of you and myself if I didn't finish. That was enough to get me through 42 kilometers, after biking 180 kms and swimming 4 kms.

 best support ever

Why I NEED the Helix Blue Seventy wetsuit

I'm doing my first full Ironman in China in less than two months. After a short-lived battle with myself, I finally gave in to my crazy, happy-go-lucky ways and clicked the register button at the start of this year. What made me finally decide to go for it was because I promised myself I would finish one on or before I'm 30. I'll be past this age by November this year, so what better way to beat my deadline than do Ironman China.


Problem is, China is way colder than the Philippines. And this means that one must wear a wetsuit during the swim if one doesn't want to catch hypothermia and die. So here I am, with 6 weeks to go and still without a wetsuit. I was prepared to borrow one from my friend who does scuba diving, but when she told me the material would not be suitable for racing as it would be too warm and will hamper arm movement, I decided against it. I was almost sure I would have to scrape the bottom of the barrel just to buy one.

Then comes this ad from www.swimbikerun.ph ... (Thanks Carlo!)

I initially wanted to tell a story, about me and my boyfriend training and racing together and all that. And I think I made a pretty good one. But after I got initial reactions from friends, I thought, who would have time to download a long presentation and put up with a slideshow that doesn't have any music in it. It just looked totally drab. (I tried to put music but I'm running out of time and I'm just not a techie).

With one more day to go, I racked my brains for WHY I REALLY REALLY BADLY NEED THE HELIX BLUE SEVENTY WETSUIT and I could only come up with two:

1. Wearing a Helix Blue Seventy Wetsuit would make me look totally hot...

and 

2. I would rather spare you the image of me wearing some other brand ;)

NOT!

NOTE: The author would like to thank Jana Strain for being her body double and the Blue Seventy blog for the picture (http://thewaterisopen.blogspot.com/2009/04/blueseventy-nero-used-to-set-pan.html)

My thanks also to www.whoispapak.com for a picture of my other body double.

Most importantly, the author would  like to thank Val (you don't have to know his last name) for being such a good sport and not suing me for using his picture.

Cheers!

P.S. If you really want to see what I originally made, the presentation is linked in the word "Presentation" above. When you get to the site, just click the word download. I must warn you, it's a bit cheesy 

P.P.S. My friend just asked me to post a picture of me wearing the Helix wetsuit if I won, I told her it might not be that far from the 2nd pic. Just to set your expectations straight.

Biking in the Cordilleras

I find myself celebrating my birthday up in the mountains of Luzon for two consecutive years now. Last year was Sagada, with its crispy pine trails for running, amazing caves and freezing waterfalls, the yummy dinner by Chef Aklay, the bonfire, pinikpikan, tapuy, gulay, and the company of my skyrunning karass. That birthday was definitely one for the bio. 

Last 2010's birthday marked my 30th. For some turning 30 is sort of a milestone, a welcome to mid-life crisis for most. But I have decided, mid-life will come in the 40's for me. For one, at 30 I was still brave enough to do something I have to say was a suicide mission. I rode a mountain bike, for only my third time, and on the steepest, rockiest roads I have ever biked in.

     

The Marlboro Country Area... right before the dangerously steep, rocky, curvaceous descents!

This biking saga began when Jaja, a friend from triathlon casually invited me to join a 24-hour mountain bike ride. As soon as I heard the word 24-hours, I said yes without a moment's thought. You see I am a sucker for anything that will test my endurance, and 24-hour biking sounds like my cup of tea.  Despite the fact that I haven't touched a mountain bike for more than two years, or that the last time I biked, I had to get off and walk in the downhill portions because I'm a scaredy cat, I gave no thought to what lay ahead for me. 

I eventually learned along the way that the ride was dubbed the Padyak Para sa Binhi ng Cordillera (PPB). This is an endeavor which has been organized annually for three years now by the Cordillera Conservation Trust to raise funds to buy seedling to reforest the Cordillera mountains. Know more about them here.

The Padyak Para sa Binhi was scheduled to take place in January 2011, so in order to prepare for it, and to give the ladies who would be doing this year's ride an idea of the terrain, PPB's main organizer JP, invited us to ride in the mountain bike trails in Benguet.

So there I was on the bus on the eve of my 30th birthday with my boyfriend Meyo (who forgot to greet me on my birthday and will never live it down! :P ) We got to Baguio around 2am and settled in to Jaja's house. 

Off we go

We took our time preparing breakfast and our bikes for what lay ahead. And If I had known how long it was going to be until I get my next meal, I would have wolfed down that entire serving of noodles. At 8am promptly, we got to Wright Park to meet up with the rest of the women and our very supportive men who would serve as guides, mechanics and photographers.

 I was panicking by the time we got to the rough roads as they were all going downhill. My companions must have been chuckling to themselves at the back or slapping their foreheads to say " Oh no, she's doing the 24-hour ride??"

 I settled with the motions after a while though and slowly gained some confidence. By the time we got to the mid-point rest stop, I was shrieking less and less.

Here they finally are... probably laughing at my downhill ineptitude :D

This downhill portion is tame compared to the rest

The rest of the ride was a roller coaster. Which is short to say that everytime we go down, we must go up. And in Cordillera, up is synonymous to push. This time I was not only dreading the downhills, I was also not looking forward to the uphills. So left with no choice, I chose to look sideways.

This uphill part is only one of the many parts where we had to push our bikes

And lo and behold! The view river and the mountains. Refreshing.

 As my tires rolled of their own accord down the steepest portions of the ride, going all the way down to the riverbed, I kept praying to God to give me a crash free ride as a birthday gift. I was almost tempted to close my eyes in some parts so I wouldn't see the cliffside and the abyss that was waiting to swallow me should I make a wrong move. I never held on to anything as hard as I did to my handlebars and my faith that day. As I got to the bottom and saw the rest of the team and the sparkling waters, I tried to act non-chalant, hoping to mask the fear that only recently got the best of me. God had chosen to answer my prayers.

And push some more we did.

The training for the Padyak Para sa Binhi would prove to be more of upper body strength training than pedaling as we had to push our bikes for almost the rest of the way. We started to call it the Tulak Para sa Binhi. I did not mind though, I think I would rather push than go on another wild downhill ride.

We got to the top at almost two in the afternoon. We had the greatest view of mountains and green. But I could not ignore any longer my stomach clamoring for food. Despite my best efforts to enjoy and have fun, I admittedly gave in to my mood. And you don't want to deal with my mood when I'm hungry :P

It was about after 20 minutes when the crew decided to move and head back to civilization. I was so looking forward to that warm plate of food and coke!

When we got to Kapangan, it was about past 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I decided it might not be safe for us to continue with the ride. So I tried to convince the group to hire a jeepney to take us back to the city proper. Fortunately, most of them agreed and we got back to the city just in time for me and Meyo to go out for dinner where he treated (to make up for forgetting my birthday).

This was one hell of a ride, and I keep asking myself if I would be doing it again. Maybe with loads of food and more downhill training, why not?

Padyak Para sa Binhi: Gaia edition is up next ;)

I will do it all over again if only for this view

*** Photos courtesy of Allan Olipane. Thanks Allan!