Race report: TriUnited 1 Subic –  March 1, 2015

I love the TriUnited events! Not only because they are UNILAB races, but because I think they are really fun and extraordinarily-well organized.

I went to the race with a slightly different objective this time. My focus this year is clearly more on the half-ironman distance events, so I considered the Olympic distance TU1 as a training race.

The venue at Dungaree Beach guaranteed a great swim and I was in the first wave with all the other elites, mostly my team mates but we also had some overseas surprise participants, like Australian Pro Mitch Robins, Spanish Pro Eneko Elosegui and Slanon “Smart” Chantaraj from Thailand.

I managed to swim the first 100m or so with the fast guys but then reminded myself that this was just a training. And honestly, no chance to stay with Claire Adorna and Mitch Robins who were leading the field anyway. I settle with Anna instead 🙂

We entered T1 together and it was kind of fun that I was behind Anna out of T1. When I passed her I realized that something was wrong with my rear wheel, and when I stopped to look at it I saw that the break was hitting the wheel. As I couldn’t fix it quickly I thought that maybe this was the reminder not to go too fast. I decided to stay with Anna and we had a really good time racing together.

The run was a shorter loop than the previous years so we had to do 4 laps, which was fun because this way there were more spectators on the course and you would see everyone on the run.

That also gave us the chance to observe the battle for the podium between the other male elites and Anna and I were commentating on their positioning while we were running.

It was great to see our team mates Rambo and Ben chasing Mitch and finishing second and third behind him! And happy Anna got 2nd behind fast Claire Adorna. Overall, a fun race and great training for me! 🙂