A rainy day in Siam

Here is a short race report from the Phuket 70.3. My swimming sucks, at least it was uneventful, 1250 metres in the ocean then 650 metres in a fresh water lagoon. Conditions were great,I just didn't go very fast. They describe the bike course as technical, that being negotiating villages with chickens, water buffalo, scooters, motorbikes and dogs. Also lots of tight corners, limited opportunity to be in the aerobars. Yes those dogs. On the route recon on Thursday I noticed hundreds of street wise Thai muts everywhere, lounging on the side of the road. Race day got them mobilized, you really had to be sharp and try to predict where they were headed. It started to pour rain at about 30k into the bike. Torrential downpour, Bangkok style, made the steep uphills and downhills really difficult. The only way to get traction was to sit and crank at about a 40 cadence. The upside of the weather was there was no sun, still hot and 100% humid but not bad for racing. Being a little bit fearless on the bike gained me a few positions, being half blind and riding without glasses made it interesting. The run was ok, I raced maybe slightly above my current level of fitness, almost collapsed in the last kilometre of the run. I talked to an Aussie in my age group after the race, he told me I had a good chance of a rolldown slot, Vegas is a little far for the asia pacific guys. So i went to the ATM and pulled out 12,000 Baht and was lucky enough to get the second and last slot in my age group on the rolldown, that was exciting. There was a Kona slot as well but that didn't roll down. I'm sure that's the closest I'll get to a Kona slot. Fantastic event, great organization and volunteers, the peninsula takes this event seriously, great for the economy. Now i'm going on Thai time for a while. Thanks for reading.