I signed up for Ironman Taiwan to race for a Kona bid and it was quite a short turn around to last minute sign up and race within 2 months. I’ve raced four 5150 olympic distances and one half ironman within half a year, but it was still quite a jump. Fast twitch muscles and constant grinding ask the body to do different things.

My mom was captain of this whole escapade. She planned a family reunion around my race. Her friends were my all star support crew. They rode mopeds to take my mom and me around on Penghu. My mom and aunt booked out a whole airbnb, bought everyone’s flights, and got the time table of everyone’s arrival and departure. My mom was also the main contact for borrowing my friend’s TT bike and bike box and meeting up to grab everything. We rode out the back and forth and snafus along the way. Up until the day we were supposed to pick up the bike, my friend was did not provide clear indication as to where the bike was or whether she was back from her Xterra race. I also assumed boating allowed me to keep an eye on the bike at all times where as plane would incur higher risk. Luggage handlers are rarely careful in the states. I ended up being completely mistaken. Luckily, high winds threatening to halt all boats which forced us to switched our travel method to plane. This saved us time and money traveling another hour south to board a boat, but then incurred a very frustrating bike packing incident. To assure my friend that her basically untouched bike would be okay, we agreed to get a shop of her choice to pack the bike. I know how to break down a bike, just haven’t packed up the Liv Avow TT. I didn’t communicate this in a manner for it to be well received. After finding someone willing to fit me on the bike really last minute, the very next day, we took the bike to get packed at a shop my friend used to frequent. THE MAN HAD NO IDEA HOW TO PACK THE BIKE. He was reading the manual the whole 2 hours we were there. Spoiler alert: after much anxiety we got the bike, got it fitted and packed, and got on a plane, made it to Penghu. 😪

The first moment I wasn’t trying to scramble and close enough to the race that I had no excuse not to know my number and read the athlete guide, I had major freak out, realizing the other 3 girls in my age group had pretty solid stats. My internal monologue was I wasn't fast enough, I didn't train hard enough, I'm not sure I'm going to accomplish what I set out to do. I wasn't enough. It was a wave of emotions mixed between anxiety and anger. My heart started racing and has no words to explain my frustration. It was super difficult to explain my mom and friends the training load put into increasing distancing at the rate I did within half a year. I flew all the way to Taiwan for the best chance at this slot. It was within my reach but I had to swim my fastest, bike well, and run.

I finally calmed down, leaning into how grateful and blessed I was to be racing. I was healthy, young, and had a great support team. I had to soak up every moment of it. Once that passed, I was completely focused on pre race mentality.

Leading up to the race is where the last shake out swim, run, and bike happens and the final mental commitments are made. I got a chance to take the TT out for a spin on the main island and get two jogs in. Once in Penghu, we checked into a 3 story airbnb with multiple rooms to house my extended family. I stocked the kitchen with bare sustenance. One of the mornings, I decided to do my own pre-race undies run in this small fishing town. Haha no, just kidding. I ran down the streets in my one piece swim wear for a run-swim-run but because of cultural differences, I might as well have been running down the street naked. My last long ride to preview part of the course was hot and windy. Weather forecast was supposed to be even more windy race day. I decided to go with the Adidas Ultra Boost, Giro Empires with elastic laces (not clipped in), and bikini shorts and sport bra instead of the wetsuit. Water was warm, crystal blue, and choppy both days I jumped in. I decide to go without a rear bottle cage because it wasn’t worth the impulse buy; it would be an inconvenience but I could make it work. I was working with a front cage bottle that would consistently be refueled and a reserve bottle on the frame.

The morning of the wind was already howling. I dropped off a frozen bottle at T2 and then headed to T1 to set up the rest of my stuff. Walking towards GuanYiTing the cove and bridge where the swim would take place was a sight to see. The bridge and park area had neon lights illuminating the night scene. As I padded back and forth along the transition path that was being nailed down, I made the game time decision of wearing my wetsuit. The chop was pretty bad in the water and I needed to survive 3800m. Just as I headed back to the swam of people near swim start, the announcers broadcasted that there was a special announcement: due to high winds, the swim has been shortened to 400m. That’s a huge difference! The section between swim exit and T1 was longer than the swim. The organizers needed time to pull the course line back in, so race start was pushed back. I didn't really register or have emotions towards the announcement, as I was zoning out external stimuli to focus on the race. But the shortened swim was in my favor, as I am not a strong swimmer. I guess I could've gone without the wetsuit, but I already made the decision to put my neoprene on and had my bib shorts underneath. I would just have to deal with the extra transition time.

After warm up, the pros were off and we were crammed like sardine into the queue. Originally, the rolling start based on expected completion times was split into 3 zones. With the swim shortened, I couldn’t gauge exactly how fast people around me were. Basically impossible to put myself with people I could draft off of. The volunteers were also letting people in 2 by 2 into the water, as the entrance was down a set of concrete stairs. Unfortunately, I picked wrong section and the men that dove into the water with me were doggy paddling and swimming breaststroke. I swam around them only to have sea water seeped into one goggle. One eye handicapped, the double left turns back toward shore had lines going all over the place. Atlas, my swim route was not optimal.

I came up a set of stairs then ran up a hill and continued along the red mat, long and straight into transition. I tried going in and out the changing tent fast, but I was soaking wet. Socks were on wet feet. As I ran to my bike with my cycling shoes in tow, my feet picked up some debris before going into my cycling shoe. Wet soles, socks, then soil...this is a bad recipe.

I pushed the bike to the mount line, clipped in, and was off. Within the first 20 minutes, I got caught between 3 cars and made a face of disbelief to a volunteer. Once out of the city, I was biking out on the open road. I stuck with the aero position for most the ride. Cept for the other 2 close calls when the police officer didn’t make an asserted effort to halt oncoming cars. I was decently comfortable on the Liv Avow TT bike. The long distance seat was sightly wider than my pelvic bone structure so I expect there to be minor aggravation. My left arm went number in the first hour and my pelvic floor felt pressure after 80k. If anyone wonder what a bike seat burn is....

And mang the wind was brutal. I’ve never felt so scared on a bike. It was a consistent force with gust bust that made you thankful you somehow were still upright. The course had some hills embedded in the 180k and infrequent tree lines provided fleeting shelter from the sun.

The thing that killed me were blisters on the balls of my feet. They were so concentrated within the cycling shoe that the pain felt like I fractured my fourth toe. I was moaning just to pedal through the last 20 kilometer. And this is where I lost the race. I had an internal timer going for the chase. I figured I was about 40 minutes behind on the next girl, so actually about 20 minutes. What I didn’t realized was I was in second; I thought I was sitting in 3rd.

Coming into T2 I just wanted to get off my bike. My feet were still wet and the sun was blazing at 2pm. I’ve been racing for almost 7 hours. Switching into my runnings shoes took the pressure point off where it hurt the most. I was barely moving at the start of the run. I ran from sun up to sun set. The wind was relentless. I started with a hat and had to ditch it with my family during the first loop because of the wind.