2019 marks the 5th edition of Ironman 70.3 Vietnam and the venue of 2019 Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championship. This year’s event featured special appearances of the Ironman World Champion, Patrick Lange from Germany, the Asia Pacific Champion Mauricio Mendez and the 2018 Ironman 70.3 Vietnam Champion Tim Reed on the starting line. It was truly a privilege to race alongside these amazing champions on the same race course. This is also my second Ironman 70.3 Vietnam race in two consecutive years.
I participated in Ironman 70.3 Vietnam last year totally under-prepared upon returning from a month-long assignment in London. Not only was it due to the lack of training volume and intensity but also the weather shock from 5 °C in London to 41 °C in Vietnam in the span of a week.
This year I spent adequate time and effort to prepare for the race. All went well according to the plan until five weeks prior to the race day when I fell off the bike, hit the construction zone road signage so hard that I somersaulted before landing on the road on my right ribs and was immediately admitted to the Accident & Emergency at Changi General Hospital. I felt excruciating pain from my ribs when breathing, when turning the hips to the side or when picking up something from the floor. It raised doubts if I would be fit enough to take part in the Ironman 70.3 Vietnam on May 12, 2019. Thankfully, the X-ray scan showed no sign of fracture though the recovery process seemed long and slow.
In the first two weeks after the accident, I sought treatments from doctors, physio therapists, sport masseurs and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. As such, I accumulated zero training during the most critical weeks of build periodization – Peak Week,which was sort of bad news.
Light at the end of tunnel started to appear three weeks before the race day. I endured through the pain and resumed the training plan to regain my fitness in the remaining weeks. On a positive note, I did not have to endure the accumulated fatigue thanks to the long rest of two weeks. 😃
Pre-Race
The Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championship, Vietnam was held in Da Nang, a beautiful coastal city situated in the central Vietnam. The race venue was located at Hyatt Regency Da Nang. There were plenty of affordable accommodations to choose from within 5km of the race venue along the beautiful Da Nang beach stretching for miles. Besides, you could find big minivan taxi to transport the bike easily 24×7. Upon checking in the Adamo hotel, I went straightaway for ‘carbo-loading’ at the best seafood restaurants in town where I savvied tasty prawns, crabs, shitake mushroom, etc.
Saturday was for the athlete check-in followed by bike service by race mechanics in the Hyatt Regency Da Nang. I spent 11 USD for the bike mechanic service and found it was the best decision of the day as they cleaned up the clogs and dirt off my bike – Tested the bike afterwards and it felt really good!
Swim
A T-shaped 1.9 km ocean swim course was formed in front of the Hyatt Regency Da Nang. There were visible ropes and huge Ironman floating buoys along the swim course. I expected a brutal swim with similar high and rough ocean waves of last year, that caused the organizer to consider cancelling the swim leg in the last minute but eventually the race still proceeded.
The pro male athletes started the swim at 5.45 am and we started the Ocean swim at 6.03 am. The waves were high and rough for initial 300 meters in the ocean, but I reckon they were less brutal than last year. The water became calm for the next 1300 meters until we approached the last 300 meters stretch towards the shore, or the swim exit, where we encountered high waves once more. This time, from behind. I swam along other 31-35 minutes batch of swimmers and thankfully found some legs to draft behind in a few occasions. The only hurdle was when a bunch of swimmers and I made the turn around the marking buoy and it felt as though we were thrown into the washing machine, bumping into each others faces, arms and legs. We were all fine at the end and I completed the swim leg in 00:37:24, which meant a pace of 1:58 minutes per 100 meters.
Bike
The post impact of the high waves and struggling against other swimmers came when I approached T1 area. I vomited air and sea water and it helped to relieve the dizziness. After spending 4 minutes long at T1, I started cruising on my bike at moderate pace as planned. The sky was bright and clear, exposing us to the infamous 40 °C weather of Da Nang for many hours throughout the race. The bike course was an amazing experience. We rode along the beautiful beach up to the foot of the mountain on the horizon near Lady Buddha statue, Da Nang. We then crossed the Thuan Phuoc bridge – the country’s longest cabled stay bridge with a long uphill. Once we passed the bridge, there were 4 closed lanes for us to make a loop, which was a good improvement compared to the 2 closed lane loops in last year’s race.
My legs felt really good throughout the 90km bike course and I stayed focused to maintain my target pace of an average of 35 to 36 kph. At times, I was tempted to race with some fast cyclists along the way but then quickly realized It could cause severe jelly legs and intentionally slowed down so that I would not in trouble in the running leg later on.
As the bike leg and run leg shared the same road but different lanes, at km 70 bike leg, I saw pro athletes were already running at 5 km mark where Tim Reed was leading followed by Tim Van Berkel at 2nd and Patrick Lange at 3rd. I bumped into every single of them again later in the running legs.
I had been maintaining an average of 35 to 36 kph up till the 78km where we passed through the Hyatt regency again and this time to the other direction for 6 km back and forth.
In the last 12 km I purposely slowed down the pace to get my legs ready for the unforgiving running leg. I completed the bike leg in 02:36:20 which translated to 34.8 kph in average.
Run
The running course consist of 1 loop and we run along the beautiful DaNang beach for 10.55 km out and 10.55 km back to the finish line at Hyatt Regency DaNang.
Having completed 2XU half marathon race in 5:30 minutes / km average six weeks before, I aimed to complete it under 2 hours this time. A quick mental math gave me the finish time of 5 hours 25 minutes. Despite 40 °C scorching heat, I felt my legs were relatively fresh when entering the T2.
But 2 km into the running leg,the quad muscle on my right leg was becoming swollen on each stride. It felt better only when I slowed down, so I kept it that way for the first 5km while consuming energy gel in every 1.5 km.
Not long after, I saw pro athletes ran towards the other side (finish line) with Patrick Lange was leading the pack followed by Tim Van Berkel and Tim Reed. The world champ Patrick Lange ran very strong and steady as if he has no sign of pain under the brutal hot weather of DaNang.
Suddenly my memory flashed back to the day the accident occurred 5 weeks ago. How I wish to avoid it to get a better fitness level and more brick run practice. But it did not matter anymore now and I kept the stride going while nursing the pain on the quads muscle.
Under intense heat, showering my head with ice water or a bottle of cold water in every aid station was very essential. At times, I swallowed an ice cube and ate a chunk of it. At 6-7 km mark, I stopped moving and vomited. It happened twice more throughout the running leg.
I got mixed feeling when approaching the finish line. I felt quite disappointed with what happened in the running leg and could not meet my running target. On the other hand, I was grateful of being able to complete this race given that I had trouble breathing properly for two weeks after the bike accident last month.
