A race in paradise but the closest I have been to hell,
Xterra Phillipines hosted by Sunrise Events was one of my most looked forward to race of the 2017 calendar. Sunrise events always put on a very well organised and professional run event and anyone thinking of racing in Asia should look out for there events across the year, From Xterra to Ironman and everything in between they should have an event for you.
The 2017 Event had moved from Albay where last year I placed 5th in the professional field. With a much higher quality of field this year, the race was going to be super hard. The event was hosted in Danao on footsteps of a large mountain range, where both the bike and run course headed up and down and back up and back down again.
I spent the week with eventual winner Brad Weiss from South Africa, and was awesome to be able to learn so much off him in the week leading into the race. You can ready about his race HERE.
The race started super fast with Ben Allen (aus) and Sam Osbourn (nz) laying down the hammer early on in the swim to brake away from the rest of the group. The swim was a clock-wise direction rectangular course with the longest straight being into a current. It was along here that the group stretched out and I lost touch of the top 5. I exited the water in 6th place, in transition I lost a lot of time trying to get a top on and was passed in transition by 3 athletes putting me into 9th out of transition.
We were told from the start that the bike course was going to be not only physically tough but technically it had some challenging descents and some hike a bike sections. I was very angry on the start of the bike after loosing a number of places and I rode really aggressive over the first 10km. At the top of the major climb on the first lap the heat was starting to take its toll sitting around 41 degree and the time gaps between everyone were increasing. I came off the bike in 8th place with a taxing 10km trail run ahead,
The damage had been done by the time I got to the run, All I wanted to do was get to the finish, I started of running quiet strong over the first 2km. The run was across a lot of coral rocks and on a technically decent around the 2.5km mark I sliced my shoe open. This made it really difficult to run let alone run off road. I had to submit to a slow jog and walk to make sure I didn't slice my foot open.
I crossed the line in 8th place, not completely satisfied with the day considering the errors I made were my own fault. Things that I know better not to do but for some reason decided to still attempt. The old saying don't do anything you haven't done in training definitely came into play.
