DUing It Westgrove Style!

Dont just Tri! Du it!

Looks like I made the right decision. :)

Before anything else, I got the "Dont just Tri, Du it" line on one of our Duathlon events. Kinda catchy :)

A couple of days before the Westgrove Duathlon, I've been tormented on whether or not I should the duathlon or the 10k Healthway Marathon held at the fort. I already pre-registered for the 10k a month ago and was already dead set on joining it. Besides, it would be my mini-reunion race with some of my batchmates from AMCI so I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, a few days prior to the race I was asking the one who invited me whether or not the marathon is still pushing thru. I wasnt able get a reply from her so just I decided to join the Westgrove Duathlon.

Funny thing is , I got a confirmation from her that the marathon is still on AFTER i confirmed to my fellow PUHCers that I'm joining the Westgrove Duathlon instead hehe.. But its all good though... not much of a biggie. Its just sad because I myself have invited a couple of marathon newbies from PUHC to join the 10k. Good thing some of the PUHCers decided to join the Duathlon instead also.

Its been a hectic weekend for me last week. I was starting to get sick around friday if I remember correctly. That was a long day for me. It was the ingress of my 2nd consecutive carshow week (shiro didnt win anything =P) plus it was also our referees clinic for PUHC. So I just hurriedly left my car at Silvercity then went off to the clinic. Good thing I was able to bring our driver because after the meeting I was feeling sick as hell. Was able to sleep around 3am na . Then the morning after that I woke around 5am and immediately went to the Mall of Asia to bike and run a couple of kms with my training buddies. I dunno what has gotten into me but I still played hockey that night. Hoping that would somehow cure my flu. Was able to go home that night around 1am already. Was able to sleep around 3am then have to wake up at 5:30am to meet my duathlon buddies at our designated meeting place. On the way to Westgrove I was still trying to catch a quick 5-10mins powernap. Which I of course wasnt able to get.

During the entire race, I felt like a zombie. I was really feeling groggy and sleepy the whole time. Good thing the race was short. The Westgrove atmosphere was very unique. I dunno... maybe its because of the place which I heard was touted to be the next ayala alabang. The place looked really great and the houses were awesome.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a couple of familiar hardcore triathletes/duathletes doing the race also. Team PMI was there in full force along with racers from Team Al-terra and some other teams. Heck, even one of my bike mechanics was there also! Their presence alone made it clear that this is going to be a FAST sprint race. My bike mechanic alone can do a 10k marathon in 39 mins! We also saw fellow PUHCer and Triathlete Rafa in the mix. It was also fun seeing the young ones do their first triathlons! Going out T1 with their kiddie bikes! Some even had rollers!

I went there along with my fellow PUHC riders/training buddies Bong, Julian, Nadj, Jc, and Chari. From the get-go we made it clear that this is just going to be a tune-up race for us (yeah right!) so everyone should just take it easy and should prioritize their safety above anything else. (yeah right again!) With the 1st Asian Underwater Hockey Championship happening next week, risking and flirting with injury is a big NO-NO. Especially in a non-bearing and fun race such as this one.

During the registration I got the scare of my life when I saw the dreaded #66 race packet heading towards me. The guys in front of me got the #'s 60-64. I was really hell bent on avoiding that race packet no matter what. Good thing I got #65. One # shy away from the very unlucky # which went to my training buddy Julian. Goodluck to him I said to myself.

10, 9, 8, 7.. the countdown was on and the race went off! Team PMI immediately took the lead right from the start and never relinquished it. Julian got off to a fast start as usual with Chari following him a couple of meters behind. During the turnaround I was able to overtake Chari and managed to catch up with Julian during the transition. I think we went off t1 around the same time. Bong was right behind us while Jc and Nadj were a couple of mins behind.

The run route was short (yup we measured it). But I enjoyed the bike portion! Especially the uphill climbs! The rest of the route of was rolling. It was very tempting to go flat out on the downhill portion but I was hesitant to do so for fear of a crash. One mistake and its bye-bye to my international hockey career. Not to mention having a very badly bruised ego.

I was trailing Julian for the 1st 1/4 stint of the ride, with Chari following me closely behind. I managed to overtake Julian before the first u-turn but he managed to out-sprint me on the downhill part. Its ok though. There are still a couple of kms of pure uphill cycling up ahead. *grin* hehe.. I didnt notice Chari was behind me but she told me after the race that she was just tailing me for the entire 1st lap of the 2 lap bike portion. Thinking whether or not she'll overtake me on the downhill part since she noticed I was braking very erratically. Well honestly I WAS really braking a lot because I didnt want to go flat out at all. Hey, better be safe than sorry :) Crash on a concrete pavement? Yup, you guessed it. TOCINO wounds.

I managed to overtake Julian again on the pre-uphill portion of the steepest climb section. After that I was looking for him at the first turnaround but didnt see him anymore. I saw Chari and then Bong a couple of kms behind but no sign of Julian.

After the bike, the rest was easy. One more lap of the short run distance and it was all over. I managed to clock a respectable time of 52:55 while Chari managed to get the 3rd best among the ladies with a very fast 55:01 finish.

While fixing our stuff at the transition area, we saw Julian going in for his T2. It turns out he had a flat... and surprise surprise, what was his race number again? :) Bong had a strong finish as well along with Nadj and JC.

The post-race buffet was DELICIOUS! As usual, the PUHC riders had their fill of bottomless pasta, iced tea, cheese sticks (yup meron nito!), chicken fingers and bbq! SOSYAL! Hahaha.

The 400 registration fee was all worth it! Not to mention that you get a shirt and medal as well to boot after the race. :)

But for this certain PUHCrider... the race didnt end there. Not being content of doing just a Duathlon. She decided to up the ante and do a Quadathlon! She added a 10k marathon!!!

Instead of a Run, Bike, Run... She did a Run, Bike, Run, BUY! Hahaha. We managed to convince Nadj to buy this 10k worth, bang for the buck, trek mountain bike! After a couple of haggling with the shop clerk we managed to get it at 9k. P9500 if you charge it which Nadj did. Which was still a very good deal considering the parts included on the bike.

It was a beautiful green/floral themed Trek mountain bike armed with bontrager stems, seatposts, and handlebars. Though the groupset leaves much to be desired, it was still OK considering that Nadj is still very new to the sport and it would take awhile before she even maximizes the full potential of her current 7 speeder or the full benefits of having a better group set. So given the conditions plus the budget contraints, that bike was more than enough for her. It was still a very, very, very, very, good buy. I was really glad that Nadj bought the bike. Aside from being a mega good deal, the bike fits her and her personality.

During our impromtu dinner at this bbq place in katipunan, we all thought of a name for Nadj's new ride. When I suggested "GAGAY" I knew immediately that we had a winner. Hehe. So on that night, we christened her bike as "GAGAY: Ang Bulaklaking Manglalakbay" Hahahaha!

So much for the hell week. I was knocked out as soon as I got home.

Looking forward to a brand a new week! I'm now fully recharged and looking forward to represent PUHC and our beloved motherland at the 1st Asian Underwater Hockey Championship in Singapore! La! Hehe..