Jocelyn Wong

My mottos going into this race were:

“I eat pain for breakfast” and

“focused and fierce!”

Following my meltdown of a race at Buffalo Springs 70.3 just 3 weeks ago, I knew what I needed to work on–primarily my mental attitude, my willingness to suffer when the going went rough, and to focus on the things that I had control over, not the weather or competition. I am no longer an age grouper who is there to just have fun and finish, but a future pro athlete who needs to start thinking and racing like a pro. The desire to race well had to exceed the desire to back off when the pain hit. Just going through race photos of me at races this past year, I learned that I am fierce at the Oly distance, but had to master being fierce at the half level.

“Winning comes to those who want it most” was another one.

To me, winning at Vineman would be a sub-5 performance, regardless of how I placed. For about a year I have had a sign on my dashboard that says “HOW BAD DO YOU WANT SUB-5?”

The adventure began on Saturday as my friend Larry and I carpooled to Sarah’s place in Santa Rosa. I had met Sarah at Big Kahuna last September and we got along awesomely, as we are in the same AG and had both podium’d there. Christine was also staying with us, she is only 22 and just getting into tris from a pretty impressive athletic background–watch out for this one!! It was like a little triathlon slumber party and I had the best time hanging out with a couple triathlete girls my age. Sarah and her bf Matt made us a great pre-race dinner complete with homemade nectarine cobbler and ice cream for my fat-loading strategy. I slept so well that I thought I was in my own bed!

Race morning I was already focused and fierce! Mom and G-dog met up with us at the swim start, with Blue Steel. I was racing on my training wheels (saying that makes me feel like a toddler), because Coach says I need to prove myself fast enough for race wheels, and there are less mechanical issues if I just race on what I train on. Mom wanted to know my goal splits so she would know when to see me, so I wrote them on her hand: :32 swim, 2:40 bike, 1:40 run. with 8 minutes for transitions (generous for some time cushion), that would be 5 hours exactly.

It was a bit chilly and overcast, but no rain, ideal conditions for a PR! I popped a hard candy in my mouth as we got in the water–I like to suck on one before swimming in open water because my throat tends to dry out and make me gag while swimming. I started my watch at about the 1-minute countdown, this way I don’t worry about missing hitting the button right at the gun (which I’ve done, ha!). It is also a great mind-fuck when you are trying to break 5 hours and you look at your watch and keep thinking “oh shit, I need to go faster…faster!!” that was on purpose.

Unfortunately I lost the pack right away. I am in the midst of switching over my breathing to the right vs. the left on Coach’s recommendation, which I am starting to master in the pool, but open water seems to be a different story. I have trouble sighting from the right and in fact, learned that I veer to the right when breathing on the right…taking me off course and towards the river bank. Goddamn. Nevertheless, I powered my way through the swim, mostly solo, staying focused and working hard. The turnaround seemed to take forever to reach, and once I got there realized the water wasn’t even knee deep. I actually stood up and took several steps before resuming my stroke whence it got deeper. I ended up switching back to left breathing, stayed on course and probably headed back faster, as the river current was with me on the return.

34:15. crap! oh well, move on. Except I couldn’t move on through as fast as I wanted–the women’s 29 & under wave started 1 hour and 45 minutes after the first wave. We were wave 14 of 16. This meant the entire race course would already be clogged up with slower athletes who had no desire to hustle through transitions–over 2000 athletes. Out of the water, I was the only athlete trying to sprint to my bike…I wasn’t sure how to get people to move out of my way without being rude, so I tried a few “Excuse me! excuse me!”’s Sarah came into transition right after I did, so we exchanged some cheers while getting our bike gear. I started the bike out at around 37 minutes, so I was still on pace for a sub-5 performance, I was NOT worried.

Onto the bike and away I went. It was still overcast and I already thought “should’ve worn toewarmers, your feet will be numb when you get off!” I felt GREAT and FAST. Despite my lack of fancy deep dish carbon fiber race wheels, I was passing, passing, passing. Coach’s orders: hammer the bike like it’s an Olympic. I knew the course pretty well having raced it twice before and training on it twice in the last 2 months, and surprised myself with how quickly I was hitting the major intersections. One thing that was different than the training rides though, was the sheer amount of athletes on the course. I couldn’t hit the corners or downhills nearly as fast as I wanted; the last thing I’d want was a magnificent crash.

I huffed and puffed up the hill, feeling the fantastic burn in my legs, and thinking “BRING IT ON.” My mind started chanting “focused…and fierce! focused…and fierce!” I wasn’t saving anything for the run. I would deal with the consequences when the time came. There was definitely some sketchy bumpy pavement throughout the whole bike course, luckily I was not one of those who lost their nutrition bottles, but I did hit a bump pretty hard at about the halfway mark, which knocked my saddle downwards. Shit. I tried to ride it for a couple miles, even though my pelvis was sliding down, I kept thinking “NO STOPPING!! NO STOPPING!!” but it was killing my back and quads, and I finally stopped for a quickie adjustment, getting passed by a zillion people in 60 seconds. It was worth it though. I ended up catching all of them back, and when I saw the mile 35 marker on the road, my computer said 1:39, and I knew I could still break 2:40 on the bike if I just held 21mph.

This proved to be difficult as I began to encounter narrow stretches of road filled with slower bikers, cars trying to pass us, and a draft marshall on a motorcycle that blocked the left side of our lane. Going the same pace as the slower riders. It was one huge congested clusterfuck. I was SO frustrated. This happened several times in the last 15 miles, and I was actually leapfrogging with the motorcycle, it was ridiculous. There was a good headwind on one stretch of road, but I continued to power through the crowds, passing a good number of strong-looking guys with fast race wheels and big aero helmets. Soon enough we were at Chalk Hill, I was still hammering and a little perplexed…am I really at Chalk Hill already and why isn’t this harder than I thought it would be?? We literally got over the hump and I knew, this was it. GO TIME! I never hurt so bad, but it was no time to let up. This was when I started having thoughts about pain…Make pain your bitch…tell it to BEND OVER…OWN IT…

I rolled into the high school parking lot, taking my feet out of the shoes in between speed bumps, jumped off and got caught up in another clogged up transition area. Again I was the only one trying to run through…there were only a handful of bikes at the racks designated for my age group, so I had a good feeling. I hadn’t gotten passed on the bike by any women, and hit a 2:39 bike split. Perfect. I took more seconds in T2 than I wanted…there were some burrs stuck in my left sock, then I tried to hustle through, but it was simply too crowded. My feet felt numb, as predicted, so I told myself to trust my feet to know how to strike the ground properly instead of getting my ankles all twisted up.

A glance at my watch put me at 3:20 starting the run. OHHH DAMN. This was it, the moment of truth. No more time cushion–I had to run a 1:40 half marathon to seal the deal! I went out at a good clip, perfect form, focus-focus-focus, and hit mile 1 at 7:22. Nice. Hold this pace. Just like an Olympic tri. C’mon. My feet slowly thawed and I could feel there was still something in my shoe, a small rock or something. Ignore it…ignore it…no stopping! This was going to give me a blister, I realized, stepping off the road and pulling two more burrs out of my left sock. Mile 2 was in the 7:30’s. Mile 3 was in the 7:30’s. Ok. Focus. Focus. Focus.

There was not very much thought going through my head at this point, I was surviving one mile at a time. The only thoughts in my head were “focus-focus-focus,” “pain is my bitch,” and whatever mile marker I was approaching. “5…5…5…5…ok…6…6…6…” Also the variations of pain: “fuck you, pain, I’m not listening!!!” and “I eat pain for breakfast! and lunch!” Each mile came and went, my quads had threatened to cramp at the start of the run, but I threw down some Gatorade and they eventually shut up. and I literally threw down the Gatorade–I opted not to race with my Fuelbelt, as it made me feel slow and heavy, instead I would blow through aid stations, grab a cup and try to drink it while breathing very heavily. This resulted in a third of it getting to my mouth, a third up my nose and the rest all over my face. I felt like a rabid dog, foaming at the mouth, because I was NOT STOPPING to drink.

I could not talk to people, and stopped looking at women’s ages, because it didn’t matter, there were masses of people and I was on a mission to simply move up through the field in my battle against the clock, I wasn’t racing anybody but myself. I saw Sarah with Christine hot on her heels as I exited the vineyard, they both yelled for me but I’m not sure I could say anything back, I was so focused and hurting so bad. At mile 10 things got dicey–I realized that I had become stagnant in the field, and that I must be slowing down because I wasn’t moving through people. My slowest mile was #11, 8:03, the only one that was not under 8 minutes. LET’S GO!!! I told myself, NO BACKING DOWN!!! this was the hardest part of the whole race for me to focus on, meanwhile the clock was ticking towards 5:00 and because I had started my watch about a minute (or so?) before the gun, I couldn’t be completely sure I was safe… Like I said, a brilliant mind-fuck. I hit mile 12 and told myself “This is it. JUST FUCKIN’ GOOOO!!!” I picked up the pace, then picked it up more, telling myself “c’mon, you’re a TRACK STAR” and “I don’t care if you go BLIND from this effort!” and I couldn’t back down, couldn’t give up, not now, I’d never forgive myself. Instead I dug deeper, and then deeper, deeper than I’ve ever gone, while the voice in my head said “HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT????”

I was so in the zone, and there it was, the finish, and I could stop, and normal life resumed. My watch said 4:59:something and I was so happy I could’ve cried, but I was too absolutely SPENT and just had the hugest smile on my face. All I could think was…holy shit, I did it. I REALLY FUCKING DID IT.

My official time was 4:58:52, my first time under 5 hours and I am absolutely ecstatic…things are only going to go even faster from here on out. I ended up 5th in my AG (good for a bottle of wine!!) and 15th amateur…every woman that beat me destroyed me in the swim, so it’s obvious what I need the most work on. No more racing until I take off for Subic in early September for my first training camp experience with the team. In the meantime I have a residency to finish and a research paper to write, I remember having the thought of “why did you think it would be a good idea to race two 70.3’s in the last 2 months of your residency?!” but hey now, it is all worth it after this race.

Thank you Brett, Alex, and teamTBB for everything, like teaching me how to face pain head-on in order to become a future champion! I have grown so much as an athlete in this short year and look forward to stepping it up very soon. Thank you to my teammates for the inspiration and words of encouragement–I remember thinking “I have 4 female teammates that can go under 9 hrs in an ironman, there is NO GOOD REASON why I should not be able to break 5 in a half!” Finally, thanks most to my Mom and Dad who have been completely supportive of my athletic endeavors and have given me their blessing to go overseas to a pro training camp. I love you! sorry for all the bad words in this race report. I only say them in my head!

today was the San Jose International Triathlon, an almost-Olympic distance. all the distances are standard except the swim, which was 250 meters shy of 1.5km. goals today were to break 2:20, finish high in the amateur standings, win my age group and maybe most importantly, finish within 8% of the winning elite time, as there was prize money for the elites, this would count towards my pro card. I picked up my bib on race morning, and found I had the luckiest number of all, #888! (FYI, if you are not Chinese, 8 means prosperity. that is why the Beijing Olympics are scheduled for the date 8-8-08 at 8am.) Surely a sign that I would have a good race today.

splits:
swim 22:08 (SWEET)
T1 2:30
bike 1:06:53 (rocked it, 2nd fastest amateur bike split)
T2 1:12
run 46:02 (eh.)

total 2:18:48. 3rd amateur OA, 2nd in AG but pulled out of AG awards for the OA podium.
3 elites beat me, so I got 6th OA female, not bad!

it was a great feeling going fast for the first time this season. after the slow times at Ironman China and World’s Toughest, I wanted a little confidence builder that said, no, really, you can go fast! I attacked the swim from the get go, lining up at the front, and stayed with the front pack almost until the first buoy. dropped off a little, then realized I was matching strokes with the girl next to me and tucked in behind her, drafting at least half the swim. She got a little tired and I picked it up for the last two buoys. according to the results I came out of the water 13th in my wave (29 & under).

out on the bike and I put it in the big ring and just went. GO GO GO! the course was pretty flat and I was seeing anywhere from 23 to 25 to 27 to 30mph on my bike computer. fabulous. Boss had told me I won’t benefit from race wheels until I can average something like 38kph on the bike, which is like 23.6mph, so that was my top secret goal. It was kind of fun blowing by all these guys. When I started catching college boys, I realized I was doing rather well because they had a 12-minute head start. Then I went so fast my bike computer exploded. It got stuck at 65.9mph, whatever that means! (I don’t think I was really going THAT fast… )

I don’t remember catching 12 women on the bike, but apparently I did, because I came off the bike as the first amateur. then out on the run… hustle hustle hustle. There were a few out-and-backs, so I could see that there were women right behind me…aw crap. My watch was ticking off the miles just under 7:30, and I had expected to be faster for what I felt was…”blazing.” The mile markers seemed to materialize rather slowly (ha!) and at mile 4, I got caught by a Swedish girl in my AG. (She had a small Swedish flag patch on her uni.) She wasn’t going all that blazing fast either, and I stayed right at her shoulder for a bit. But I faltered and eventually she opened up a small gap on me. ARGH ARGH ARGH. I know letting her go was part mental as well as physical. She ended up finishing 22 seconds ahead of me, and getting 2nd amateur, we both got schooled by a 40-year-old in a later wave who took the amateur title.

my run time was pretty stinky, but this was probably the fastest “workout” of the year though with all the long course stuff. On the plus side, looking at my Oly splits from last season, I had a pretty stellar swim today, 22 minutes for 1.25k when I was hitting 27-28 for 1.5k last year. and I think my bike split today might be a 40k bike PR for me. go Blue Steel! so did putting it all out there on the swim and bike hinder my running ability? quite possible. Triathlon is a balancing act between the 3 disciplines.

so overall, I’m very happy with how I did today. #888 served me well–I did end up finishing within 8% of the elite winner, with an entire minute to spare. (If I can do this 2 more times at prize money races, I am golden for the pro card.) 3 weeks to Buffalo Springs, and then another 3 weeks to Vineman. My Swedish nemesis will be at Vineman, so I’ll be looking for some payback!

Mom and G-dog were my lucky sherpas today too…although instead of taking pictures, they accidentally took little race videos…! Apparently when Mom helped me take swim videos for the Boss we left the camera on video mode…so for your viewing pleasure, here I am blazing out of T2 while Mom is cheering for me:

Today Menlo Masters/Team Sheeper had its annual Memorial Day Swim/Run Duathlon. I hadn’t done a swim/run du since…oh, 2002, the summer I lived in Las Vegas and trained with Henderson Masters, coached by Frank Lowery (now race director of SilverMan). There was a Splash N Dash series, where we would swim 1.5 miles in Lake Mead (no wetsuit, too hot!), then jump out and run 5k. I would get so far behind everyone else that the fastest people would be done running by the time I came out of the water. GRR!

so even though Boss still thinks my swim is terrible, and it is, at least it has come a long way since 2002. Today I was able to hold my own in the water, at least enough that I wasn’t losing too much time and able to balance it out with the run. The format was a run/swim/run/swim/run in the pool and outside on the grass field. 3 laps running (~1 miles), then 800 yards swimming split into 2×400 with 5 push-ups in the middle, then 2 laps running (~2/3 mile), followed by 400y swimming as 2×200 with 5 push-ups, and finally half a lap running (~1/6 mile).

I learned one advantage of starting with the swim. I was the only girl wearing my regular one-piece swimsuit, the customary one or two sizes too small so that would be extra tight and more hydrodynamic in the water. Everyone else had pulled shorts over their suits or wore tri shorts. I had only gotten this swimsuit a couple swims ago, so it was not very stretched out at all yet, thus causing a massive wedgie from the get-go, which I tried to adjust, er, pick out, every 10 steps, as I was just sure it looked obscene, like I was racing in a thong, and even more uncomfortable. This wouldn’t have been as concerning if I was in the back of the pack, but it turned out I was one of the faster runners on the swim team, starting out the first lap in 3rd overall behind two guys, then fading to 5th as the wedgie-picking slowed me down.

It was cool and foggy, and jumping in the water felt like a sauna. I had trouble pulling myself up and banging out the 5 push-ups, but got through the first swim, and slipped on the shoes. I happily learned that once my suit was wet, it clung to the butt cheeks better, so no more wedgies, but wet feet in shoes with no socks made my feet slip around, not fun. I got re-passed by Lennard, who ran it barefooted, and I figured he saved transition time and I would do it for the last lap. Back in the water, then roll onto the deck for some weak girly push-ups, roll back into the pool, just 200y more, then pull myself back out.

Forewent the soggy shoes for the last half lap, it was all on grass, so off I went, sprinting in. As 1st woman and 4th overall, Coach Tim said maybe I should forgo Ironman and do short course instead, haha yeah right! Arms and shoulders have been sore lately as Boss is trying to convert me from a leg swimmer to an arm swimmer…makes it extra hard to get out of the pool. yes, the pulling of self out and onto the deck and push-ups were the hardest part of the duathlon. I was happy to hold my own against the swimmers today, things are improving, slowly but surely!

so 4 weeks post Ironman and ready to rumble again. I travelled with the Stanford University Triathlon Team for the first time, driving 2 hours north-ish to Auburn, CA where ex-pro Brad Kearns was hosting his hometown event, the Auburn Triathlon. There would be an Olympic-distance race that would serve as the West Coast conference championships for the college kids the same time as the long course event, dubbed “World’s Toughest Half.” abbreviated WTH, I would always think “what the hell?!” I think this might not be a coincidence, however, as come race day there would be plenty of “what the hell?!” moments.

I had dinner with the Stanfords at Pasquale T’s, a cute little Italian restaurant in the cute little town, carbo-loading on garlic bread and pasta, and fat-loading on Kahlua-flavored gelato. We had brought our camping gear to camp out by the finish line, which was sparsely underpopulated–I think because it was a “hot” weekend, 20 deg F hotter than normal, and many of the racers opted to stay in air-conditioned hotels. “hot” in quotes because after Ironman China, no other race would feel as HOT. Turns out the medical tent by the finish came equipped with fold-up cots…there would be no pitching a tent or sleeping on the ground tonight! (I know, the irony of finishing my last race in the med tent and starting this next race in the med tent…)

I happily wiggled halfway into a sleeping bag and settled in on my cot, but barely got any sleep. A train would go by a few times throughout the night, and then the wind picked up, blowing Blue Steel (my bike) onto my shins (OW! WTH?!) and making the tent creak-creak-creak every ten minutes. 4:30am came too soon, and I finished up some leftover garlic bread for breakfast (mmm) and was already in my race kit, as I had slept in it. Just roll over and go!

It was a two transition race, so we had to ride our bikes downhill for 6 miles to the swim start/T1. Remember that. Apparently a swim buoy had gotten blown off course during the night, and the swim was rather long–I believe the fastest swimmer went 31 minutes. I started off strong, but felt deflated the longer the swim carried on, as it seemed to be going on forever. WTH?! I had just done a one-mile open water swim race–no wetsuit!–the weekend before, and had a pretty good idea of how long a mile in the water should last. 1.2 miles this was not. halfway through, I opted to give myself a bitch-slap and snapped out of it. The swim was long, but it was long for everybody. I started to pick off people and passing groups of men who had been given a 5-minute head start. I hadn’t hit my watch in time at the gun, so it still said 00:00.00 as I exited the boat ramp.

remember the two transition set-up? this is so that the bike course can be a net uphill. sweet, huh? The first 6 miles were all uphill, and somewhere in there were 16 consecutive miles of climbing. It was fun having the Stanfords out on the course at the same time, although difficult to gauge my effort, as the Olympic-distance athletes would fly by, and there was also the National Long Course Duathlon Championships as well. It was very challenging, very hilly, all up and down, up and down. I remember Marilyn telling me to be patient on the bike, so patient I was, although my climbing and descending skills left much to be desired. (argh, another hill, WTH?!) For a technical course like this I could see how having raced it before would have helped immensely, but for me it was my first time seeing the course. There was enough climbing and a hot enough weather forecast that I forewent the aero helmet this time, which let me dump water over my head a couple times. The bike, much like the swim, seemed to take forever. W…T…H… It was a beautiful course and fun because of the challenge, but definitely not fast. Finally by mile 40 the road levelled out and my speed probably increased by 10mph, I started to catch people that had motored past me up the hills and just felt awesome!

it was warm–some said hot, but it was not hot at all like Ironman China, and more than half the course was shaded. the run was mostly off road and on trails, away from most spectators. I went off quickly on the run, but my stomach was bothering me (WTH?!), and then to make it worse, I forced down a gel at about mile 3 because I thought I needed the calories. WRONG! this made my stomach even angrier, and I developed a horrible stitch on my side (WTH?!) and resorted to shuffling along while holding my stomach. I switched to water only, and the pain subsided by mile 6, at which point I finished the first lap of the run, going by a ton of spectators and feeling a second wind.

I started feeling fantastic, in fact. I went back to drinking some Gatorade from my Fuelbelt and while switching out a bottle, suddenly found myself EATING IT right at mile 7. and by “eating it,” I mean the ground. WHAT THE HELL?! just a little blood, trail dust all up my right leg, two bruised knees and a bruised ego later, I stormed the rest of the half marathon. I finally felt absolutely incredible, there was a slight breeze and I began passing back tons of runners and nary getting passed. A rather long day for a half iron though, and I was happy as usual to see the finish line.

A hard-fought battle to win my age group and take 11th woman overall. The Stanfords made me proud, winning the team title, with a 1st and 5th on the girls’ side and 2nd and 5th on the boys’ side. The finish awards were fun, I got to take my pick of two items on The Big Table O’ Prizes. While some chose a bottle of olive oil (wth??), I went with a really nice technical top by DeSoto and a gift certificate to Sports Basement, which is like going to my local crack dealer.

Special thanks to my sponsors teamTBB/The Bike Boutique and Mom & Dad Wong; Oomph! Sports for my cute retro tri shorts to go with the pink compression socks; the Stanford triathletes for letting me join the fun; and Brad Kearns for putting on such a challenging and stellar race venue.

oh, and one final “what the hell?!” moment…people actually thought my knee-high pink compression socks were…COOL. more pics soon.

3 weeks after China, and I’m having some writer’s block on my race report. I figured I should post something…as I’ll be racing again next weekend at the World’s Toughest Half in Auburn, CA (2 hrs drive from home). so for the World’s Toughest Full aka Ironman China, I’ve been compiling my most memorable moments during my trip. enjoy!

Favorite memories of my first trip to Asia
(in no particular order)

- that first !!stamp!! on the passport in Singapore.

- singing…well, performing Madonna’s True Blue at our post-race pro party in the karaoke bar

- the Aussies cursing us “bloody Americans!!” (me and Tim Marr) for requesting too many Madonna songs

- being embraced by the people of China, even though Wo shi Meiguoren!

- seeing TBB with my very own eyes

- shopping with Donna in the madness of the Chinese mega mall, which had a HUGE billboard of David Beckham on one side

- eating coconut cookies (bought from the mega mall) on the bike, since “the bike is a restaurant” as coach said

- drinking Chrysanthemum-flavored Gatorade during the race, and realizing what the flavor was after 3 bottles

- seeing my name on the pro start list… as “Jocelyn Sui-Yee Wong”… the first time I’ve ever used my Chinese middle name in a race, and it was accidental!

- almost throwing up and/or crying (almost!) before the carbo dinner after meeting all the other pros because I temporarily freaked out and thought “what the F@*& am I doing here?!”

- new pro friend Amanda Balding giving me a little medium-sized pep talk after witnessing the above incident, after which I felt tons better

- actually throwing up uncontrollably post-race: 3-4 times in the med tent, finally getting into a cab after midnight and after 15 seconds yelling “PULL OVER!!”, and at last making it to the hotel lobby but turning 180 degrees at the elevators, speed-walking, then running outside to the bushes for one final hurl.

- getting totally busted in Hong Kong for leaving CO2’s in my bike box and getting called off the plane right before take-off. “Miss Wong, please bring your passport as we escort you off the plane…”

- staying up all night in Singapore with new pro friends Abi Bayley and her beau Steve: hanging out in the airport (mmm Mr. Bean!) and having a cabbie take it upon himself to give us a tour of the city

- new pro friends. and hearing Doc’s words in my head “You are no longer a groupie”

- seeing a 2:50 bike split after finishing the first loop I had totally held back on, and thinking “well, that’s just a touch slower than I wanted to go, but ok”

- realizing later that almost exactly a year ago, I would have killed for a 2:50 half iron bike split! (April 22, 2007 I went 3:05 on the bike at the Playtri half iron)

- the little kids in the villages yelling “Jai yo! Jai yo!” (literal translation? “pump gas! pump gas!”)

- the smiles on their faces when I would yell “Xie xie!” or “ni hao!”

- the lights coming on and firecrackers going off as I crossed the New Century Bridge toward the end of the marathon. because it was getting dark.

- BUT soon, all the lights came on in the city, bright neon lights in Chinese characters…and it was…magical

- ugh, having to go #2 during the marathon because it ended up being such a long day, and realizing that it would also be my first experience in a squatter toilet. (not a favorite memory, but very memorable.)

- taking my sunglasses off later in the marathon, which evidently made it more obvious to volunteers and spectators that I was Chinese, and hearing the excited whispers and exclamations of “Zhong-guo?” and “Zhong-guoren!” Yes, I am Chinese and I had never felt more proud of my heritage.

- passing the last pro woman walking. and realizing, I was no longer DFL pro AND top 10!!

- approaching the finish line in the dark and having the motorcycle with the ginormous Chinese flag escorting me for 10 or so strides to the fanatical cheers of the crowd, before someone walkie-talkied motorcycle and… probably told him I was American.

- experiencing that a huge smile and thumbs up are universal.

(note: not a race report. i’ll write it when i’m un-jet-lagged.)

1. in Asia, hotels like to conserve energy. you have to stick your key card in a slot by the light switches in order for the electricity to go on. I couldn’t figure this out and kept flipping all the switches, wondering why I had to pee in the dark, then went downstairs to tell them my lights didn’t work. the bike mechanics thought I was stupid.

2. real Chinese people like their mattresses hard. which makes me not a real Chinese person.
however, they were surprisingly easy to fall asleep on, or maybe we were just exhausted.

3. in Japan, green tea is a common Haagan-dazs ice cream flavor.

4. in Singapore, if you go shopping in the Little India area, the security guards will zip-tie your bag so that you don’t shop lift.

5. in China, the official Gatorade flavor was chrysanthemum. (I know this not because I could read the bottle, but recognized it during my 3rd bottle… very much like the juice boxes my mom bought from the local Asian supermarket when we were kids.)

6. in Hong Kong, they get really upset if you accidentally leave your CO2 cartridges in your bike box, and make you get off the plane before it takes off so you can show them it’s not a bomb.

7. bring enough cash. Even if local places say they take credit card, and you are about to buy your brother and dad the coolest Chinese shirts ever for only $15 US each, all of your credit cards will inexplicably not work, and the cashier will start talking to you in really fast Chinese you don’t understand, and you will talk back in English and they won’t understand.

8. David Beckham is on Pepsi billboards in China.

9. I am such a sucker for all kinds of accents. I don’t discriminate.

10. I have a fascination with the different types of toilets. I’m not saying I like them all. curse the squatting types when you have just done an ironman. hey, I didn’t fall in!

ni hao, blog friends! sorry that is almost the extent of my Mandarin skills. I am staying in room number liu er er if you want to come over and hang out.

today was a grocery trip adventure and well, it as quite the adventure. I went with my roommate Donna and Amanda and Luke MacKenzie, two Aussies, and we were promptly dropped off a this huge shopping complex in town, and this was the part where I really wish I could speak better Chinese. first off, we couldn’t even find where the grocery store part was. it was like Super Walmart meets Costco meets a ginormous department store in a huge mall. Luckily we didn’t stray too far. I went a little crazy with the groceries (ah, never shop when you are hungry, oh well) because my eldest aunt had said to bring back some coconut candies for all my friends and family who helped pitch in for my airplane ticket (THANKS VERY MUCH LOVE YOU ALL!!!), apparently that is what Hainan province is known for, the excellent coconut candies. I will have to post up some pictures later. Donna had trouble finding the skim milk and I was not very much help. All the milk seems to come in juice boxes like when you packed your lunch for grade school. Amanda got distracted with the uber cheap ipods on our way out! $10 for a Shuffle or something… and I thought they were cheap when they went on sale for $50 at Target.

I had a fabulous massage from Olivia who is from Oahu, yes I paid the full price for the official massage therapists at Ironman Village. Been a little sketched out with reports that the hotel massagers offer “full service” massage here, not that I should have much to worry about. it was cute though, Olivia asked to take a picture with me after my massage, because I’m a PRO! and the only American female pro (therefore I will be 1st American pro woman, heh heh) here, so they were all excited. I also signed my first autograph yesterday, when we had a “meet & greet the pros” at the TBB tent.

I attended the press conference today even though I’m not yet special enough to be invited to sit up front with the microphones. The Chinese press were very excited, there was a cute local boy racing pro and he got all the attention. They wanted to know why there weren’t any Chinese women racing pro, and I had to admit I wanted to jump up and down in my seat and tell them I’m Chinese! I’m racing pro! I just happen to have been born in a different country!! but I restrained myself.

the weather here is kind of nasty, there’s a typhoon (or a “whirly” as I heard an Aussie call it) headed our way, but it’s due to hit the southern end of Hainan island tomorrow, and there should be gorgeous weather race day here. A lot of people are worrying about it, but I’m not bothered. Can’t control the weather, so why fret, my pet? We’ll all have to face the same conditions whatever they may be.

I went on a run down the main road yesterday, and got TONS of stares. Of course all the Caucasians here are getting stared at, but somehow I feel I almost got extra stares during my run, like if I were white, they would just think “oh, it’s a crazy white person doing something crazy.” but they kind of do a double-take-stare with me, like “wait, she’s one of ours, what is she doing?!” I’m looking forward to race day, when I can show them that Chinese folks can do Ironman, and do it fast!

thanks for all the good luck messages, I just checked the forum the carbo dinner is tonight and I’m interested in seeing if we get rice and noodles instead of the usual pasta. There is also a lot of interest in my custom disc wheel cover from wheelbuilder.com, I painted a really cool design on it that you will get to see later, and I guess a lot of people here have never seen a wheel cover before. Well, they all just have enough money for a REAL disc wheel. haha!

also I wanted to give a big thanks to my friend Heather at Atalanta Running Skirts (skirtgoddess.com) for my send-off gift, she gave me a couple skirts to run around in, yeah, to pick up cute foreign triathletes. You can see me wearing it in some of our team photos on the front page of the team website. maybe we’ll even start carrying them at the TBB store eh??

zou le! zaijian!

hello, internet access is limited so my updates will come in spurts when possible.

There is a slightly longer story about looking for a massage place in Singapore that wasn’t “dodgy” as they like to say here, but I can save that for later. hehe. My biggest memory in Singapore is running from Grace’s condo to the bike shop downtown, getting completely poured on for 20 minutes straight (out of NOWHERE!), while trying to remember which way the cars drive and turn into every time I crossed the street (as they drive on the WRONG SIDE of the road), and finally arriving to the hot pink store front, where I stared at the sign for a few moments before walking in. my thought: THE BIKE BOUTIQUE IS REAL. maybe a strange concept but I’ve been living on the other side of the globe since getting in contact with teamTBB about a year ago, so almost everything has been a virtual reality.

so now I’m here in China. we got here Tuesday afternoon, a big entourage as I was travelling with the mechanics and head honchos of the Bike Boutique.

it’s like being on a different planet. Everything is so different and strange. and yet, strangely familiar.

there are water buffalo hanging out on the side of the road in the more rural areas, and Chinese workers with the stereotypical Chinese rice farmer hats. all the signs are in Chinese, and my first twinge of nostalgia brought me back to my elementary school days when my siblings and I were forced to go to Chinese school on Sundays (as all Chinese-American kids have to do, just like how the Jews have to go to Hebrew school).

everyone is speaking to me in Mandarin and I really wish I had worked on my language skills a little more. of course choosing to spend time training more or practicing Chinese more, well, you can see which I picked. The frustrating thing is that when I try to get the right words out of my head, I find that it’s a mixture of Mandarin, Taishanese (my family’s dialect), and…this is totally embarassing…but I think in Spanish also when trying to come up with the right terms. I took 3 years of Spanish in high school and it seems all the foreign languages have gotten jumbled up in my brain.

the food is familiar too. It is a lot of the same Chinese food I am used to, but slightly different flavors.

today they posted the pro list and there are 11 female pros registered. So I have an excellent shot at coming in top 10! I am also the only American female that is racing pro. gotta represent! I am bib #19, which is obviously the lowest number I’ve ever gotten. I was actually #52 in my very first Ironman, because it was also the collegiate championships and they let the collegiates have the next numbers after the pros, going up by age and starting with the girls. Since I was the youngest college girl, I got the lowest non-pro number!

ok, I should go get ready to swim the course. yesterday I got to meet the big team of local lifeguards and took a picture with them. Caroline from Singapore said “oh, they are tall!” well, the tallest ones were my height, so I guess I’m tall for a Chinese boy??

more soon! my bike and luggage made it safely and I don’t have traveller’s diarrhea, so life is good.

hello I’m at the Tokyo airport! I will be updating the blog more frequently throughout my first big adventure here. The toilets are a little funny, I tried the butt spraying thing and it tickled. Everyone is speaking to me in Japanese and I don’t understand. Internet is only $1US for 10 minutes. the flight was long here, almost 11 hrs but they played Enchanted which was awesome, and I brought some trashy novels from the library to keep me entertained. I managed to only need one pee break. next time I’m getting an aisle seat! legs feel a little swollen, got compression stockings on, now I’m off for a little airport massage. gotta go! on to Singapore!

I’ve made it! making it to 8 days out from an Ironman without major incident is a big deal for me, in a superstitious kind of way. yes, 8 is a very lucky number in Chinese (which is why the Olympics begin on 8-8-08 this year) but that is not why.

when I was 18 years old I saw my first triathlon ever, it was the inaugural Ironman California at Camp Pendleton (before it become a 70.3). This was just a month before I did my first triathlon ever and I was so inspired that I decided then and there that I would sign up to race Ironman the next year. Luckily this was before the crazy Ironman craze where all the events in North America sell out in a couple days, or even hours, so I was able to actually get some triathlons under my belt over the summer, and evaluate if I would really be able to complete an Ironman in the next year. I worked at a sporting goods store (running shoe department) over the summer and saved up enough money to register for my first Ironman!

Over the next year, I didn’t really know what I was doing and just trained a lot rather haphazardly. There wasn’t as much information out there as there is now, even though it was only 8-9 yrs ago. I had all these odd injuries, falling off my bike and getting nasty scars, getting tendonitis in my foot, and the strangest one–bruising my sternum from the odd wrestling match at a college party. It got to the point where a couple months out from my first Ironman, I wasn’t able to swim or run, so I biked a lot. On a routine visit to the campus health clinic, I needed to get some allergy pills, and when they looked in my throat the nurses saw something strange. apparently there was a mass that was growing on my tonsil, and it didn’t hurt or anything. I didn’t think much of having to get a CT scan, other than the inconvenience of missing a workout.

When the results came back, less than 2 weeks before Ironman, the doctor said it was urgent that I have the mass removed IMMEDIATELY. E.g. have surgery to remove both tonsils, which would be pretty painful and I would need 2-3 weeks recovery. Are you kidding, I’m doing the IRONMAN!! I told him. he threw out words like “cancer” and “chemotherapy” but all I could think was, I got through all the training obstacles–injuries, bruised sternum, etc, and I’m not going to let a little bump in my throat stop me now. I was actually in a place where I knew I would be able to finish Ironman; it wouldn’t be pretty, but I would finish.

No, this isn’t a Lance Armstrong-type story about how I was diagnosed with cancer and battled it and became this phenomenal triathlete. This is the story of how 8 days out from my first Ironman, I had to accept defeat before the starting line and listen to the doctor, my mother, and my grandma. I was DEVASTATED. But I had to realize that some things (not many eh!) were more important than Ironman. Like my health. Instead of doing my first Ironman, I went into surgery to remove both tonsils. The mass growing inside my throat ended up being benign. And let me tell you, tonsil surgery hurts like hell. People always say you can eat as much ice cream as you want afterwards, but that’s a lie. Every swallow hurts. You take for granted not noticing every time you swallow until you get them tonsils out.

I went on to do my first Ironman another year later, at 20 years old, with better preparation and greater respect for the race. But at 8 days out, I had to breathe a sigh of relief. And I’ve done it for every Ironman since.

Just like today.