The last few months after Taitung did not pan out as expected. I was hoping that I would have a reasonable period of serious training and be stronger and faster for the next race. Instead, I ended up traveling a ton and also had few bouts of illness. From March to July I went to Hawaii, South of France, Amsterdam, and Amsterdam again! While I tried to fit in some workouts during these trips, I definitely drank and ate more than I trained… the random episodes of sickness also left me feeling fatigued and frustrated.

I was not feeling prepared at all as the race came closer and closer but decided that I would do it anyways to keep the momentum up. Jerry and I packed up my stuff and went to bed as we had a 1:55 pm flight the next day.

At around 10 am, Jerry called me and said “We have an issue.” Apparently our flight was at 1:55 am (last night)!!! He said that his secretary was seeing if there were any availability for tonight, which means we would get in at noon on Saturday. Thoughts starting swarming in my head… I was already feeling unprepared, and now we will be taking a brutal night flight where I would get around 4 hours of sleep and arrive in the middle of the day for check in. Jerry, being the calm and rational one, sent me a supportive email listing out the pros and cons of both options. After thinking it over, I decided that we would still go. It is a little stressful, but it is still super doable and I should not give up on this race just yet!

As expected, the flight was super exhausting as we flew to Pusan from Hong Kong in around 3-4 hours. We luckily were able to grab an earlier flight from Pusan to Jeju but the dumb car rental would not let us get our car earlier. After some grumpy waiting, we grabbed our car (which was in the carpark the entire time anyways!) and drove to the race resort.

We started laughing nervously when we saw the crashing waves in the ocean and saw the trees around us sway dangerously against the strong winds. How was I to race in this weather? The Jeju race group chat was abuzz with messages about the possibility of shortening the swim and also the bike course.

In the end, it was announced that the swim would be shorted to only 500 m in the harbor and that no disk wheels were allowed in the bike course due to strong winds. We weren’t able to check in our bikes either because the winds were blowing everything down. We were told to check in our bikes early tomorrow morning before the start of the race. With so many changes and uncertain weather conditions, I went to bed incredibly nervous and had a hard time sleeping.

Ready or not… it’s race time! I took my bike to the check in area and had to rack it the other way because the winds were blowing it side to side.

There wasn’t a swim warm up so the first 100 meters felt incredibly sluggish and I lost my breath quickly. Luckily I quickly got into the flow soon and the rest of the swim felt great. The buoys were also much closer together and I was able to sight much better than all my previous races! Let’s hope that this is a trend that will carry onto the future races!

I felt great coming out of the water and hurried off to T1. I was most worried about the bike with the strong wind and rain. The first 10-15 km felt great, my legs were going smoothly and I was whizzing through. But then suddenly there was some uphills… then some more uphills. The hills were not super steep, but the sheer number of them made it a difficult and long climb. The rain also started pelting down and at times I could hardly keep my eyes opened even with the screen on my helmet. I was hardly ever in aero position because I was always trying to stay secure on the bike amidst the winds. After the climb, it was a long downhill!

The bike is a 2 loop course so whatever suffering I endured in the first loop I had to do again. The uphill for the second loop actually felt better but I later realized that my pace was much slower… oops. Funny thing during the ride… there is one part where there is a pretty abrupt turn and as I approached it I heard a loud “STEPH!”. I screamed “WHAT” and zoomed off, and only realized a second later that it must have been Jerry. The poor guy probably ran to that pitstop in the rain only to get yelled at by me!

So happy to be done with the bike course! I almost fell while getting off the bike because my wrists were so stiff from grasping onto the handlebars to tightly… luckily I was able to pop off successfully.

The run is a 2 loops out and back. The first 1 km was a little painful because my body was quite sore from the bike course. I had not biked outside in ages and I could definitely feel the effects. My knees and lower back were so sore. My run felt a lot better soon and I was happy to see my teammates passing by on the run course. It got a little hotter during the run but the weather was still nice and breezy overall.

During the bike, I saw at least 4 people in my age group pass me. I knew that I was falling behind and was wondering whether I should keep a decent pace in the run and just to use it as training instead of trying to catch up. However, I suddenly saw one girl in front of me who was only one bib number away (so must be same age group!)… as I passed her, I started to regain hope and decided to push it a little bit more. Soon there was another girl in front of me that was also in my age group! I increased my speed and past her as well! This means that I may be in third place! While it is not guaranteed and their net time may still be faster than me… passing them both gave me a new jolt of energy. Each race is an opportunity to push yourself… I should give it my all and see what I can do.

Finally I see the finish line! The finish line for this race was great… a red carpet leading up to the finish. I heard the cheers of the Tritons and Jerry’s whooping. This was it! I do what I always do in races and sprinted towards the end. I like to leave it all behind and just end with a burst of speed. And just like that, it was done!

While the weather conditions were less than ideal, I must say I really enjoyed the race. I am particularly grateful to the race organizers who had to deal with so many last minute logistical changes to make sure all athletes were safe and also to the wonderful volunteers! There were so many cheerful and encouraging volunteers who stood in the wind and rain cheering for us and yelling “Fighting!” continuously. There are moments in triathlon where you’re like “F this why am I doing this”, but the uplifting and positive moments will always triumph and push you to sign up for the next one!

After taking a nice hot shower, it was time for the World Championship roll down. Jerry had qualified 3 months before in Taitung so it was time to see whether I would be attending as a participant or a cheerleader. I ended up with 4th place so there were a few people that needed to say NO so that I could go. Number 1 and Number 2 did not want it…. Number 3 took it but luckily my age group had one more slot!

I jumped up when I heard my name and ran up to the stage to claim my slot. This was SO exciting! I really would have never expected this when I first started doing triathlons – I just wanted to try something new and challenge myself, now I am heading to South Africa with my teammates and boyfriend to compete in the World Championships!

This had been a roller coaster weekend. There were times were I felt really uncertain and stressed, but in the end I am so glad that I decided to come and feel more motivated than ever! Some parts of the race were painful and I wish I could push more, but this is a good reminder of why training is so important and I am going to make sure that I am more disciplined in the future. After the race, my teammates and I had such much delicious Korean food and of course beer! I’ve said this once but I will say it again, it’s so wonderful to be surrounded by people who are not only strong athletes but also encouraging and positive people, they motivate me to be work harder and strive for a higher level. Being with a good team adds an entirely new level to racing and I can’t even begin to imagine how amazing South Africa will be! Lastly I could not thank my amazing boyfriend enough, he did not race this time but was the most dedicated bike mechanic, porter, cheerleader, and all around MVP.