Blog » Challenge Taiwan 2014
Challenge Taiwan 2014
I arrived in Taiwan in some of the best form of my life… drinking form that was. However, in saying that I had also managed to fit in some decent weeks of training and combined with my Wanaka build-up I was confident that I had enough work under the belt to get through the race.
My biggest concern for my second attempt at the title was my lack of riding form and the threat of some pretty intense heat. Luckily for me only one of those came to fruition with the sun packing a punch through the ride and early on the run.
All in all I was happy to get back to Taiwan and was a lot more relaxed heading in for round 2 with a good understanding of the course and the conditions.
The call was made early for a wetsuit swim this year, which I wasn’t overly happy with, but got on with it none the less. I wish I had some riveting story to tell about the swim, but I don’t, and after 46 and a bit minutes I made my way out of the water and towards my bike.
On to the bike and I was beginning to realize that 180km never gets any less daunting no matter how many of these things you do.
The legs felt pretty good and the air was a pretty mild 26ish by 7am. I rolled through the first 45km in under 1.03, possibly a little on the fast side, but wanted to make sure I made the most of my lead. By the 100km mark I had extended my lead on the closest chaser/s to 10+ minutes, but was starting to suffer a little in the heat and over the next 80km’s I was off the bike with about a 7 minute margin to the chase group, with Freddie a further minute back. Freddie (Croneburg) and Jason Shortis were my 2 biggest concerns and although I was happy enough with 7 and 8 minutes on them to start the run, I still wasn’t all that comfortable.
One of the hardest things coming out of Wanaka this year was that my day there was as close to perfect as I think I’ll ever have and I may never be able emulate that feeling. In Wanaka the body just responded to everything and in the end I was always in Control. I told myself constantly before Taiwan and during the swim and bike that things were going to be a bit tougher today.
Sure enough the first few strides off the bike told me everything I needed and dreaded to know… it was going to be a long, hot, and very hard marathon.
It was stinking hot for the first 5-10km and I seriously doubted my ability to finish the race. I pulled my head in and just ran, drunk, and forced down my beloved gels. By the time I hit the 45minute mark I was starting to find some sort of form. For the next hour I managed to run semi-decently and during this period I got my first time-split. Supposedly I had 13 minutes to second place, Till Schramm, but although I wanted nothing more than to believe this, I didn’t, and knew that Freddie and Jason wouldn’t be far behind and chasing hard. By the time I hit the 27km mark and 1 lap of town to go I was pretty much shot. The next 5km’s involved me jogging from aid station to aid station and walking through them while taking on a lot of fluid.
At the 32km mark I got my next time split and that was 6minutes to Freddie. 6 minutes over 10km might sound like a lot, but it was enough to give me a kick up the ass and I started running properly again. Little known to me I actually only had around a 2 minute gap. I was still walking aid-stations, but running well between them. At about 2km to go Macca came riding towards me yelling for me to hang tough!? All I thought was what is this guy yelling about? I am 6 minutes in front! At 1 km to go I got told once again that my lead was 6 minutes… Sweet as, I stopped at the last aid station, drunk some coke, drenched myself in water and then hobbled towards the finish line.
I’m not usually an emotional racer, I tend to be more relieved at the finish line than ecstatic, but approaching this finish line I felt some tears well up. I managed to control them and cruised down the finish line with all the time in the world, super happy with my physical and mental effort out there and very proud that I did it on less than ideal preparation.
38 seconds later Freddie crossed the finish line and not more than 1 minute after Freddie was Jason.
Safe to say I was extremely lucky out there and another reminder to always push to the finish line and never give up.
Thanks as always to all my supporters. I have an awesome crew of friends, family, sponsors and fans out there who keep me honest through every moment of racing.
Thanks also to the Challenge Taiwan crew who put on such an awesome event and look after their athletes so well.
My Northern Hemisphere plans are being finalised as I write this and will post another update once all confirmed.
Hope you are all doing well out there and good luck to all those racing in the North and stay safe to those training out the Southern winter.
Cheers
Dylan
(Photo's thanks to Darryl Carey and Tu Jingwen)
