Laguna Phuket is a 1000 acre complex containing six luxury hotels interlinked by canals and tree lined avenues, an 18 hole golf course, sparkling palm-fringed lagoons, spas and so many restaurants it was difficult to choose.

We stayed at the Allamanda Best Western hotel which was the cheapest out of the six, but it didn’t matter which hotel you stayed at because you were also allowed to use all the facilities of the other hotels.

There were 600 athletes racing, coming from all around the world.  The days leading up to the event were well planned, there were a couple of organized bike group rides covering the entire 90km of the bike course, fully escorted by lots of police on scooters. Around 50 triathletes turned up, and if people wanted to cut the ride shorter, they could just turn back at an earlier stage. On the first day I rode 60km, and managed to get lost on the way back with 5 others – then had to rely on my (very vague) GPS map to get us back to the start. Was fun! The next day I just rode 40km loop.

The day before race day, and I was getting my stuff prepared, and opened my tub of Endura Opti. Huh? There looks like barely 2 scoops in there… not going to be enough for race day morning and during the race…. Jimmy!! Note to self – don’t leave anything chocolate flavoured in a room with Jimmy. Haha. To be fair, I did tell him he needed to re-fuel after his run that day, but I just didn’t think he would use all my race nutrition.

Plan B, instead of Endura + opti, I will just use Endura. Race day morning and I am filling up my water bottles with Endura – I asked Jimmy for the bottle that I had lent to him the day before. “OOPs“ he says, “I lost it”.

Oh well, on to plan C then – not enough bottles to fill up with Endura, so will need to pick up drink bottles from the aid stations, which is Power Plus.

We made it down to the transition area drama free, and set up my bike and cycling gear, all ready to go. I asked Jimmy to hold my bag while I went to the toilet, but when I came out I couldn’t see him anywhere. I hung around for about 10 minutes, and then went over to the volunteers, a thai girl, and explained to her that I had lost someone. She asked what his race number was, and then with a big smile and expression like she knew where he was - she said "oh!!! He sleeping!!!"

I then asked the MC to make an announcement over the loudspeaker. “Jimmy Acomb from team Bikeology, the runner number 857, please come to the finish line area, your team mate Anna is looking for you”.  

I waited there another 10 minutes or so, still no sign of him.

He had my bag, so I had no googles, no swim cap, no sunscreen, no water, and no money...

From the finish line where I currently was, I had to get the ferry across the lagoon over to the swim start, and there had already been a final call for the remaining athletes to get to the swim start, so being the only athlete left, I was just thinking I was going to suck it up and swim without goggles.

Then a guy came up to me and asked if I was ok, and I told him I had no goggles or swim cap so he took me straight into the expo tent, gave me a brand new spanking pair of aqua sphere mask goggles and a new swim cap, and said – now GO! Thanks mr whoever you are, so kind!!

I legged it to the ferry, and got to the swim start. I managed to get about 30 seconds warm up time in the water before they pulled everyone out to start the first wave. About 1 minute before my wave was about the start, I spotted Jimmy, and he was totally oblivious to the fact that I had even been looking for him. He had been wondering around taking photos and then got on the ferry to the swim start. I grabbed my swim cap (the official race one) from him, he tried to explain why he disappeared but I just told him to go and find the expo dude to pay for the goggles, then ran to start my wave.

Swim 1.9km

I had good fast beach start, one of the first to enter the water. Loved the new goggles!! So much visibility, great race goggles. The water got deep really quickly, and saw two massive jellyfish.. I have never seen any as big, they were as big as a bike wheels. Was looking down at one as I swam a couple of meters above it thinking how glad I was that it wasn't any nearer, and then felt my hand in front of me going straight into the middle of one, like right into the tentacles. I quickly rolled sideways and carried on swimming, then wondered if it got the person who had been drafting behind me on my toes... ha. This is the second time a jellyfish has got me in a race but a least didn’t get me on my face this time! It stopped stinging after about 5 minutes anyway.

After swimming 1280m in the ocean we have to sprint 100m across the beach then swim across the tropical lagoon for the last 620m back to the transition area.

Total swim time: 34:54 

Bike 90km

The bike was great for the first 30km… I was flying. Although the roads have a few cracks and potholes so just needed a bit of extra concentration in places, but they were still pretty smooth. Lots of people had been complaining about the road surface being really rough… erm… would love to see what they would say about Yeppoon!

I controlled my speed for the first 10 minutes just to get into the rhythm. We weaved through little villages, towns and farms and all the locals were out on the streets cheering us on, great atmosphere. We passed several schools where all the kids were outside in uniform cheering and making heaps of noise.

No-one seemed to understand the concept of keeping left, I don’t know why!! It was annoying because I had to overtake everyone on the other side of the road – which is not good…

At the 15km mark you have to dismount your bike, and cross the expressway on a pedestrian bridge.

Around the 40km mark I picked up a red bottle containing Power Plus, and was surprised it was only about 1/4 full. Then I tasted it, oh gross that is sooo sweet and concentrated... Think someone missed putting the water in this one....

55km, start of the first hills.... I hadn't actually cycled the hilly part of the course in practice so wasn't sure what to expect. The official course description was “the bike course includes some extremely steep hilly sections in the islands north-east”. Even though I hadn’t done any specific hill training LOL I thought it would be easy just like Cootha as it was the roughly the same ascent in metres. I was surprised to be faced with a hill so steep it was covered with riders walking up pushing their bikes!!! I have never seen that in a race before. There was one guy who was cycling up, and he was zig-zagging across both sides of the road and everyone was clearing the way for him, and cheering. I took my bike shoes off and went up bare feet because it was much faster than cleat-skating. The guy who was cycling up because his ego refused to walk was absolutely trashed at the top! So I soon passed him, feeling fresh as a daisy.

Then came the descents where they were waving the yellow flag which meant you were not allowed to go faster than 20kph... Well... There's a rule thats begging to be broken... Hehe.. I did put my brakes on a little bit though.

At 60km my stomach wasn't feeling too good... I felt really sick, and had a bad headache. At 65km decided I really needed to pick up water from the aid station, picked up a white bottle - again, it wasn’t even half full!!!! Tasted it ... Yuk!! More frigging super strength Power Plus drink ... WTF? is there like a water shortage round here or what? I just couldn't drink it…

70km - next set of hills, half of the riders getting off their bikes and walking! These hills were bigger, but definitely not as steep as the first ones. Looking upwards at the hills hurt my eyes because of my pounding headache, so looking down, I didn’t really ever know how much further to go up. Two girls overtook me on the hills, but I chased them both down and flew passed them as soon as we were back on the flat roads.

Arrived back at transition, and a bike handler took my bike from me at the dismount line. These guys rock.

Total bike time: 2:53:54

T2

Looked around and no sign of Jimmy... as we are doing the team, I am supposed to pass him my timing chip so that he can then start the run.

I grabbed the race director, who let me try and phone Jimmy on his phone. No answer…

The race director then said he would go and get the MC to announce it over the loudspeaker. The MC said "looking for number 857 the runner for team Bikeology.. Oh wait.. this is the second time today… is he STILL lost, or lost AGAIN? Guess he didn't want to run!!".

I wouldn’t have minded waiting in transition except that I still had no sunscreen on, and more importantly the food tent was on the other side of the field!!

I started chatting to a guy in transition who was getting first aid treatment because a massive hornet flew inside his cycling glasses and stung him on his eyelid. Ow!

Jimmy finally showed up after about 40 minutes, thinking he was 15 minutes early… he had been back in the hotel watching movies. We had a good laugh about it before he set off on the run.

Run 21km

Jimmy had only been given about 3 weeks’ notice that he was even going to do the run section for me. I had pulled out because of a previous tendon strain in my foot, and although it was healed I didn’t want to risk overdoing it again just yet.

Jimmy smashed the run, didn’t even walk the aid stations, and even sprinted the last 3km. Go Jimmy!! His first ever running race, and his first ever 21km (half marathon) distance, and he kicked ass.

I was sat at the finish line for about an hour and a half waiting for Jimmy to finish, but somehow still managed to miss him coming through the finish line… whoops.

Total run time: 2:16:13 

Finish 

With our super long transition time we came 15th out of 17 in the mixed teams.

With my split times I got 3rd in my category for the swim, and 3rd for my bike leg, so my swim has definitely improved!!   Jimmy’s run time was 2:16:13 – came 53rd in his category, great work for first ever running race! You just need to practice your transitions now hey Jimmy hahaha.

It was fun doing it as a team for a change instead of individual, and thanks Jimmy for making sure my bike was in top form as usual… and for getting my bike in and out of that stupid box, and most of all thanks so much for lending me your race wheels - I LOVE them!!! (so good luck trying to get them back!! hehe)

I am definitely going back there to race next year! The whole resort that it is run from is just gorgeous, and as it is an official WTC Ironman event it was so well organized.

So, who is joining me next year!!! the hills aren't that bad I promise ;) 

Anna