Getting back in SHAPE



Yesterday saw me taking part in my first race in Taiwan… The Chi Shan Duathlon. As per usual it was something that I decided to do on short notice, so even though it was a relatively short race it definitely made me realize in what bad shape I actually am.
Apart from playing a little squash since we’ve been in Taiwan, we haven’t really been doing anything else when it comes to exercise. The race consisted of a 5.5km run, 20km cycle and another 5.5km run. Starting out the legs felt a little numb but after a kilometre or so I they started loosening up a bit and I thought to myself “Hey, this might not be so bad”.
The 5.5km run was broken up into 2 laps of about 2.5km each with the rest being made up by the run to the transition area. Even though the first kilometre consisted of one big hill that we would end up doing 4 times, I came in feeling pretty good and considering my fitness level, thought my time looked pretty good.

So on to the cycling leg… This is where things started to derail a little bit. Being on a rented touring bike wasn’t exactly ideal either. My legs started to realise something funny was going on and they weren’t entirely happy. But entering the stadium again, I was well below the time I was hoping for so I thought the worst was over, I only had another 5.5km run to go, which in all fairness couldn't have been all that bad.
 I also have to add that I witnessed one of the worst crashes I’ve ever seen. About 10km into the race just as we started to descend the guy in front of me went right over his handlebars crashing into the ground face first with the bike landing on top of him. All I remember seeing was his back wheel sliding. He must have been a little hard on the brakes, but in his panic he grabbed his front brake bringing him to a complete stop. We notified the road crew and even though he was banged up pretty bad, we saw him being taken care of when we finished the race.

So back on the road for the run I could immediately feel that it might not all go my way. As I went up that climb on the first lap it was as if my legs decided that, enough is enough. Let’s just say it took me quite a bit longer to finish than anticipated.
At least now I can say I’ve done my first international event and hopefully it would be the start of me regaining some fitness and getting back into shape.
Before I finish I just have to mention something pretty funny and so typically Taiwanese. Apparently the area we were in is quite well known for its bananas, so of course everyone who made it to the podium got a nice big bunch of bananas instead of flowers. Even the trophy was golden bananas.


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