While browsing through Facebook one day, I chanced upon an entry on my feed that showed a friend of mine adding a friend named "Camaya Coast Aquathlon". Interesting, so I said. One click and a few more minutes of browsing on that page and I told myself that I'm joining this aquathlon.
True enough, at 4:00am on May 29, 2010, I found myself sitting on a bus outside the Camaya Coast showroom along Edsa with a hundred other nameless faces. Just like all the other races I've attended, I was there alone. As I had never experienced racing in an aquathlon before, much less competing in open water, I battled with the nervousness and the anxiety of venturing into the unknown all alone. Not that I bothered. The nice thing about joining events like these by yourself is that you get to observe every one else. All the men and women with their bags, running gear, cameras (but of course), and tanned skin that tells you these guys have had a little too many runs than most people. Everyone seemed to know each other so it did feel like it was one big field trip.
We left around 5:00am for Mariveles, Bataan. After two rest stops, we arrive at the Mariveles port at around 8:00am and took a short boat ride to Camaya Coast.
Hello there! Just seeing the sight of the beach made me forget about the aquathlon. Everything was quick once we got there. They gave us nice welcome drinks and the registration slash distribution of singlet, bib numbers, etc. were done right away. Minutes after some guys wrote on my arms my race number with pentel pens, I found myself wearing the nice running singlet, swim shorts, and trail shoes. Not exactly my most fashionable choice for race wardrobe but who cares.
The race director then explained the route for those who were joining the adventure trail, run extreme trail run, and aquathlon. For the aquathlon, we were to make one loop in the 3.5km trail then make 3 loops in the water, then one loop on the trail again. All participants, regardless of category, were to start at the same time.
I didn't even have time to stretch. After leaving some hydration and swim gear on the transition area (tents with little baskets with your race number on it), I lined up somewhere at the back of the participants at the starting line and the race started.
The trail run was, well, difficult. I did a 16km trail run a few weeks before this aquathlon so when I found out that this was a mere 3.5km loop, I told myself this has got to be easy for sure. Wrong. Little did I know that the trail was to climb up a hill the whole time. Drat. To make things even more challenging, the trail is a bit narrow and some parts of it are sloping downwards so it totally changes the way you run. Not to mention it makes you think if you'd ever survive if you fall down that deep bangin right beside you at one part of it. Have I mentioned we started at around 10am? Think about the heat! Crazy. The trail is beautiful though. Lots of trees and there's a stream crossing. There's also a water station before you turn around.
I actually did well during the first loop because when I exited the trail and headed toward the beach, the marshal told the guy in front of me that he was third place so far in the adventure trail run. That's not so bad. Unfortunately, when I got to the transition area, I saw maybe around 10 swimmers splashing away. Wow, these aquathletes run fast.
I'll be honest, I was still removing my shoes in the transition area (as seen on the photo above) when I started to wonder if I'd even have enough strength to last the open water swim and another loop in the trail. Was I going to quit? Whoa, the thought scared me. As I wore my goggles and walked to the shore, a guy was sitting there and I heard him tell some one "First time to get injured, ever!". Boy, he sounded upset at himself. So I faced the ocean and braced myself for my first ever official open water race.
It was... cold. Refreshing even. I was overjoyed at the fact that the water was cooling me down from the intense heat I went through in the trail. The water wasn't salty and I was swimming pretty much the same way I would have swam in a pool. I wasn't swimming fast though, I didn't know how to pace myself in something like this so all I was thinking about now was just making sure that the buoy line was still in sight. That way, I'd know that I was swimming straight. I'm no triathlete, so tactics like sighting are foreign to me.
First loop done. Not too tired. In fact, I felt very relaxed in the water. Second loop went by quite well too. The whole time, by the way, I found myself getting overtaken by other faster swimmer. During the second loop, I was getting worried that once I get back to the shore to complete the third loop, I would be all alone. Ngak. Winning this race was obviously not a goal for me. Luckily enough, once I reached the shore to start my third loop, there were around a dozen other swimmers in the sea behind me. Yey. At least I wasn't last.
I finished the third loop in the water and walked to the transition area feeling absolutely relieved that I survived the open water swim feeling ok. During the transition, I must have downed an entire bottle of Pocari sweat. I wear my shoes, put on my singlet and race belt, and start running again. Last stretch!
The second loop in the trail wasn't so bad. Since I knew what to expect, I didn't even think of running the trail the whole time. It was hotter, of course, and all I wanted was to finish. Going up the trail, I managed to overtake more than a few guys who were just walking. One guy had his trail shoes give up on him with half the sole ripped off on one shoe. Halfway through the second loop on the trail, a girl participant of the adventure trail run who was walking in my direction suddenly had cramps on her legs. She just stopped, screamed for help, and fell to the ground. Three of us runners assisted her and kept her company for a good 8 minutes. We gave her water and tried to get her to relax because she was just screaming in pain. Poor girl. It eventually subsided and we asked her if she would be OK. She said yes so we all went on with our respective runs. That didn't help in my time, obviously, but again, it didn't matter at that point. I reach the loop, run a little more since it was now downhill, reach the beach, and run to the finish line.
Though I was tired and thirsty, I felt so glad that I finished this race. I was overjoyed that after getting worried if I were even capable of finishing it after the first trail loop, I crossed the finish line feeling good. And that, to me, was reward enough.
Ice cold fruit juice were overflowing plus the buffet wasn't bad at all. After the awarding ceremonies and after everybody had showered and cleaned themselves up, a good number of people were just by the pavilion... sleeping. Including me. I learned a lot from this race, my first multi-sport event. And seeing how everybody else seems to have enjoyed it as much as I did, it inspires me to even train harder so that next time I ever run a trail, swim, then run again, I finish strong and maybe even get to stand on a podium at the end. I will definitely register for next year's aquathlon
True enough, at 4:00am on May 29, 2010, I found myself sitting on a bus outside the Camaya Coast showroom along Edsa with a hundred other nameless faces. Just like all the other races I've attended, I was there alone. As I had never experienced racing in an aquathlon before, much less competing in open water, I battled with the nervousness and the anxiety of venturing into the unknown all alone. Not that I bothered. The nice thing about joining events like these by yourself is that you get to observe every one else. All the men and women with their bags, running gear, cameras (but of course), and tanned skin that tells you these guys have had a little too many runs than most people. Everyone seemed to know each other so it did feel like it was one big field trip.
We left around 5:00am for Mariveles, Bataan. After two rest stops, we arrive at the Mariveles port at around 8:00am and took a short boat ride to Camaya Coast.
Hello there! Just seeing the sight of the beach made me forget about the aquathlon. Everything was quick once we got there. They gave us nice welcome drinks and the registration slash distribution of singlet, bib numbers, etc. were done right away. Minutes after some guys wrote on my arms my race number with pentel pens, I found myself wearing the nice running singlet, swim shorts, and trail shoes. Not exactly my most fashionable choice for race wardrobe but who cares.
The race director then explained the route for those who were joining the adventure trail, run extreme trail run, and aquathlon. For the aquathlon, we were to make one loop in the 3.5km trail then make 3 loops in the water, then one loop on the trail again. All participants, regardless of category, were to start at the same time.
I didn't even have time to stretch. After leaving some hydration and swim gear on the transition area (tents with little baskets with your race number on it), I lined up somewhere at the back of the participants at the starting line and the race started.
Photos taken from this site.
The trail run was, well, difficult. I did a 16km trail run a few weeks before this aquathlon so when I found out that this was a mere 3.5km loop, I told myself this has got to be easy for sure. Wrong. Little did I know that the trail was to climb up a hill the whole time. Drat. To make things even more challenging, the trail is a bit narrow and some parts of it are sloping downwards so it totally changes the way you run. Not to mention it makes you think if you'd ever survive if you fall down that deep bangin right beside you at one part of it. Have I mentioned we started at around 10am? Think about the heat! Crazy. The trail is beautiful though. Lots of trees and there's a stream crossing. There's also a water station before you turn around.
I actually did well during the first loop because when I exited the trail and headed toward the beach, the marshal told the guy in front of me that he was third place so far in the adventure trail run. That's not so bad. Unfortunately, when I got to the transition area, I saw maybe around 10 swimmers splashing away. Wow, these aquathletes run fast.
I'll be honest, I was still removing my shoes in the transition area (as seen on the photo above) when I started to wonder if I'd even have enough strength to last the open water swim and another loop in the trail. Was I going to quit? Whoa, the thought scared me. As I wore my goggles and walked to the shore, a guy was sitting there and I heard him tell some one "First time to get injured, ever!". Boy, he sounded upset at himself. So I faced the ocean and braced myself for my first ever official open water race.
It was... cold. Refreshing even. I was overjoyed at the fact that the water was cooling me down from the intense heat I went through in the trail. The water wasn't salty and I was swimming pretty much the same way I would have swam in a pool. I wasn't swimming fast though, I didn't know how to pace myself in something like this so all I was thinking about now was just making sure that the buoy line was still in sight. That way, I'd know that I was swimming straight. I'm no triathlete, so tactics like sighting are foreign to me.
First loop done. Not too tired. In fact, I felt very relaxed in the water. Second loop went by quite well too. The whole time, by the way, I found myself getting overtaken by other faster swimmer. During the second loop, I was getting worried that once I get back to the shore to complete the third loop, I would be all alone. Ngak. Winning this race was obviously not a goal for me. Luckily enough, once I reached the shore to start my third loop, there were around a dozen other swimmers in the sea behind me. Yey. At least I wasn't last.
I finished the third loop in the water and walked to the transition area feeling absolutely relieved that I survived the open water swim feeling ok. During the transition, I must have downed an entire bottle of Pocari sweat. I wear my shoes, put on my singlet and race belt, and start running again. Last stretch!
The second loop in the trail wasn't so bad. Since I knew what to expect, I didn't even think of running the trail the whole time. It was hotter, of course, and all I wanted was to finish. Going up the trail, I managed to overtake more than a few guys who were just walking. One guy had his trail shoes give up on him with half the sole ripped off on one shoe. Halfway through the second loop on the trail, a girl participant of the adventure trail run who was walking in my direction suddenly had cramps on her legs. She just stopped, screamed for help, and fell to the ground. Three of us runners assisted her and kept her company for a good 8 minutes. We gave her water and tried to get her to relax because she was just screaming in pain. Poor girl. It eventually subsided and we asked her if she would be OK. She said yes so we all went on with our respective runs. That didn't help in my time, obviously, but again, it didn't matter at that point. I reach the loop, run a little more since it was now downhill, reach the beach, and run to the finish line.
Though I was tired and thirsty, I felt so glad that I finished this race. I was overjoyed that after getting worried if I were even capable of finishing it after the first trail loop, I crossed the finish line feeling good. And that, to me, was reward enough.
Ice cold fruit juice were overflowing plus the buffet wasn't bad at all. After the awarding ceremonies and after everybody had showered and cleaned themselves up, a good number of people were just by the pavilion... sleeping. Including me. I learned a lot from this race, my first multi-sport event. And seeing how everybody else seems to have enjoyed it as much as I did, it inspires me to even train harder so that next time I ever run a trail, swim, then run again, I finish strong and maybe even get to stand on a podium at the end. I will definitely register for next year's aquathlon
1 comment:
hey bennie! glad to see your back. actually, i've been gone a while also. still have this blogger's block. augh!
Post a Comment