Pattana sprint triathlon - hot and humid race (1st AG, 3rd Overall)

This year I had a chance to race a sprint triathlon in Thailand during my visit. I signed up for a race organized by the same company before COVID but it was canceled due to COVID. I saw that they had another sprint tri this summer during my visit to Thailand. So, I signed up for the race. 

The problem was I did not want to ship my bike to Thailand with me (due to many logistic problems) so I borrowed a bike from my friend who is also training for an Ironman. I use her bike to train for the Ironman when I am in Bangkok. 

The race was on Sunday (June 26) in Chonburi, which is about 1.5 hours from Bangkok. The course was actually in a golf resort owned by my college friend. So, we decided to go there a day early and stayed there on Saturday night. I did not want to wake up super early to drive to Chonburi on Sunday morning. We arrived in Chonburi about 5pm, checked in at the hotel, and went out to dinner at a restaurant by the sea. We missed fresh seafood. 

On Sunday morning, I woke up at 5am and got ready for the race. P. dropped me off at the transition area around 6am. 

I collected the race packet, set up the transition area, and walked around waiting for the race briefing. 

It was very hot and humid (86F/90% humidity). The swim began in waves because it's a pool swim. Each wave had 8-10 athletes based on the bib number. I was in the last wave. At the start, I was pretty excited as it was my first outdoor tri race of the year (still rusty). Because of the heat, my goal was to finish the race without having a heatstroke. 

The swim was in a 50-meter pool. We had to swim 750 meters, which meant we enter the water on one side and exit the water on the other side of the pool. I could have pushed the pace a little bit more but I was afraid of using my legs too much that I did not have the legs for the bike and run. 

T1 went pretty smoothly. I did not forget anything and grabbed a gel to eat on the bike. I really like gels from Thai companies because they use tropical fruit flavors e.g., passion fruit, lychee, etc. 

The bike course was a 6-km loop and we had to do 3 loops. Because I did not bike the course the day before, so the first loop was slower to memorize the turns and hills. The run was a 1-km loop and we had to do 5 loops. It was really hot and humid by the time I got to the run but luckily there was some breeze. At the water station, they also had sponges and iced water. I squeezed the sponge on my head every time I run by the water station to cool down. I crossed the finish line and they handed me a medal. 

Then, they encouraged people to stay for the award ceremony. It turned out that I came in first in my age group (40-49) 

And 3rd place overall female. 

In summary, I think the race was well-organized and I like that I could stay at the resort the night before. The whole race was in the golf resort so it was very safe. Since this is the rainy season in Thailand, we were lucky that it did not rain during the race. 

The next race is at the end of July in Columbus, OH.