So let's start there. The hotel was not in the complex where the race was which added complications. After arriving in Jeju everyone took the city airport/limo bus to the tourist complex. The buses could only hold 2-3 bikes at a time and came every 15-20 min. So I didn't get on until the 3rd bus finally. My hotel turned out to be about 10k from the race site and right next door to the World Cup Stadium. Relatively new but it had its kinks. Like no toiletries provided (had to purchase them downstairs), only hand towels no bath towels, no food other than what was similar to a 7-11. So I munched on chips, string cheese and a snickers Friday night. And to top it off they had zero comprehension of English, much worse than any Chinese hotel from that standpoint. On Saturday I convinced a taxi to take me to the race area with my bike (no small feat there).
There was lots more interesting on Saturday like the mandatory race course talk that was supposed to be in English (later ones were in Korea and Japanese) but was really very broken English that ended up confusing more than helping most competitors. Before taking a taxi back to the hotel that night I went door to door to see if any hotels in the complex had cancellations by any chance. Only one did but it was a suite that was going for 1,400,000 won ($1,400USD/night). Not quite my budget. My last stop was the Hyatt so I figured I would grab pasta dinner there. So at least night before the race I got some good eats in.
Race morning as always comes early. However with the full Ironman distance starting at 7AM and the 70.3 at 9AM I did have a bit extra time after getting to the race around 6AM. I could describe the race in one word for each segment:
Swim: Water
Bike: Hills
Run: Hills
The swim was described on the official website as:
There will be 2 swim loops (1 loop for 70.3 Ironman) designed based on straight 950 meters long swim course. Even under extreme weather condition, this new swim course will always enlighten athletes to perform their maximum ability at average ocean tides due to long breakwater already built to protect such natural obstacles.
Can you tell me what that means????
As for the hills on the bike and run these weren't like the mountains I experienced riding in Phuket, Thailand back in December. Rather they were long steady inclines and declines. The maximum length I heard was 3k for one of the climbs. In other words they totally burned me out.
I thought I did ok on the bike but my computer wasn't showing speed or distance and there wasn't any mile markers on the course anywhere. But once I got to the run I realized my legs were shot once again. It was all I could do to stand up let alone run. From there the heat started kicking in and my sunscreen that they supplied must not have been waterproof so it really didn't do squat. I finally figured out that if I kept dunking my arms and head in buckets of ice for 2-3 min at each aid station I would be able to cool off enough to make it to the next one.
It was probably the first race where I had multiple serious thoughts about quitting. At the turn around for the run I was probably only 2-3 blocks away from my hotel. It was so very tempting. However I persevered didn't care about my time, just finally decided I really wanted to finish. And so I did, in pain, full of hunger and sunburn but pleased that I had conquered the brutal course.
There were two final obstacles. First was convincing another taxi to take sweaty, smelly me and my bike back to my hotel. After 2 said no I got one that would help out. The last challenge was the 1 hour flight back to SH. With my challenges of getting a bus on Friday I figured I would go early and not risk it. That plan worked but the nearly 7 hours of flight delays blew that plan and I finally got home last night around 10:30 when I should have been home to enjoy the evening of the 4th in Shanghai.
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