Taiwan 70.3

Hello and welcome to Kenting, Taiwan!

So after 2 plane trips and a 2hr car trip we arrived at the Yoho Beach Resort at about 2am on Wednesday morning.  The pre-race email said to expect sunny weather 25-30 degrees. Wednesday was overcast, about 22deg and very windy, probably better for racing anyway (maybe not the wind...).

Artwork at the Yoho Beach Resort

Since then I have been for a few rides and runs on the course and swum in the pool at the resort.
Swimming in the pool has been interesting, its pretty big but a funny shape so I reckon I can get ~22m end to end.  One end was on a curved wall which made for some pretty interesting tumble turns but better than nothing I guess.
The roads are pretty bad - a far cry from the smooth roads of Wisconsin and Syracuse but riding the Karapiro Half course recently has prepared me for bad roads.  The bike course is pretty much flat except for a couple of little hills with a few obstacles in the form of road works, dogs and giant geese/ducks (think Jemima Puddleduck on steroids...).

Scenes from the bike course

More bike course

Ducks? Geese? Not too friendly whatever they were. I was worried they would develop a pack mentality on me...

Helpful signs so I knew I was going the right way

Getting my game face on

I see the sea

 

 The run just goes along the main road from the swim to the resort so will be a bit Syracuse-esque but is pretty much flat so should be good.

Local village on my run

We have just found out that the swim will be wetsuit legal YIPPEEEEEE!! The website had always said wetsuit legal but last week they dropped a bomb on me and said the water would be too warm and wetuits would be banned. However some cold currents (or maybe some creative temperature recording...?!) have brought the temperature down to a legal 24.2 to the dismay of the people in the race who can actually swim. Lucky I brought my trusty Blue Seventy MuppetSuit with me!!

Beach where the swim is. Note the grey hump over the hill - just the local Nuclear Power Plant. But its ok I read the sign which tells you what to do if the emergency siren goes off.

 

So RooRoo is all racked and ready to go. Lucky they have the fancy racks that your rear wheel goes into rather than the usual kind which we dislike so much - we would have been seriously flapping around with the wind down at transition when we checked in.

Hello RooRoo

So the race starts tomorrow at 11.30am NZ time for anyone who is interested and should be up on ironman.com.

I have just realized that the buffet breakfast here is open until 1pm and since the race finishes at the resort I should have plenty of time to get in for a post-race breakfast woohoo!!!