We bodysurfed, we biked, and as Nanbanners, we ran past most of the triathletes in the field...Read our stories below on the Oshima Triathlon, the largest of the 7 Izu islands.
Final times were:
Mika: 2:29 Stuart: 2:12 Akira: 2:18 David: 2:11
See also our in-house IT specialist post of the action photos of the race
at:http://www.stuartmcintosh.com/blogs/Oshima2006.php----------------------------------------------------------------
Mika Tokairin
overall place: 120thoverall time: 02:29:15women: 7thswim: 0:22:25 188thbike: 1:20:55 133th (overall 151st)run: 0:45:55 70thIt was soooooo much fun! I really enjoyed this pack of assorted aerobic sports. The swim part was not easy even it was cut in half because the sea was so rough. While I was waiting at the sta
rting area watching the big waves that kept coming, I almost wanted to run away. I am so glad that I didn't die, really. The bike part was super enjoyable! Just enjoyed hills and curves so much. The 10k run part was totally different experience, especially at the beginning, my legs were like puppet's, so awkward. But gradually I started to enjoy catching people in front of me. I passed 22 people and finished within my target time range. At last, I would like to thank Taeko- san, Mami-chan, Kanako-chan, David, Gary, Akira-kun and Stuart for sharing this great race experience with me.Arigato! Yoroshiku, Mika
Stuart:It was a pity they shortened the swim - it wasn't as bad as last year once you got past the bigwaves at the start.Felt good during the race, even though I did Ironman Japan only two weeks ago. Improved both mycycle and run times by several minutes each compared with last year! 48th place overall, totaltime 2:12:06 Swim 17:27 Bike 1:12:46 Run 41:53Really appreciated the Namban cheering section - thanks guys!-Stuart.
Akira: Akira Hoyanagioverall place: 79thoverall time: 02:18:43swim: 0:19:26 130thbike: 1:13:13 75th (overall 85th)run: 0:46:04 74thIn this race, I was targetting only the finish. Because I wasn't confident in myself due to retiring Ironman Japan two weeks before. So I am satisfied with my result basically, but I would be happier if my result this year was better than that last year ! Incidentally, I appreciate Nambanners' cheering me up in the race and giving me lots of delightful memories. Cheers, Akira
David Motozo: Ooohhh shima Whadda big feeling!Other than the sudden change in swim course, this was the most gratifying tri for me in my shortand humble triathlete life. The swim was tough over large swells for the first 100 meters, butbike and run showed good improvement. I finished in the middle of the pack for the swim, about75th percentile on the bike, and 86th percentile on the run. 2:11:15 time was 43rd overall out of 206 men. (winning time was 1:53)Swim was 101st place, 18:17Bike was 51st place, 1:10:38 Run was 28th place, 42:20Swim: I think we were all a bit more nervous than usual before the swim. The weather was partlysunny, but the ocean was kicking up large swells and the breakers on the beach were a bitintimidating. Indeed, after the first few meters, I could see 20-30 little men in green capsgetting swamped. It seemed like they stopped swimming at a few points just to steady themselvesover the tsunamis.They shortened the course from 1.5k to about 0.9k or so (judging from the fasterswim times of 13-14 minutes, which are usually around 20 minutes for a 1.5k swim). Anyway, it wasfun to ride the waves into the finish (but a less than auspicious start) and get off the beachwithout too much trouble..Bike: Really good ride. I pushed it a lot harder this time and improved from last race by about 8minutes. I passed about 40 riders and tried to keep the speed above 35KPH as much as possible.Great to have the cheering nanban section of Kanako, Mami, Gary, Taeko near the start. Maido domo! Run: As usual, the legs were stiff for the first 1-2k, but quickly found the groove and ran a21:17 first 5k. At the turnaround, I got a second wind and picked it up slig
htly, brought it homein 21:03. Nice to have that fantastic view of the ocean and red rocks on the 5k run back to base.Total of 42:20 for run was a 1 1/2 minute improvement over last race. Overall, a great day and satisfying result of 2:11. My last Olympic distance was 2:33, so addingon the extra 600 meter swim would normalize my time to about 2:25. I think we all could have swamfaster if the ocean had been calmer, so an encouraging sign for future ironman races. My strategyto go hard on the bike worked. The key point being that a 100% effort on the bike won't inhibityour run performance too much, at least at the olympic distance level.Thanks again to Kanako (Kamu!), Mami, Gary, Taeko for riding the jet foil all the way down tosupport us. Ouen shite kurete arigatou! Good stuff from ironmen Stuart and Akira to show up andcompete at a high level a mere 2 weeks after the Japan ironman. And congrats to Mika on finishingher first triathalon and not drowning!-David Motozo
Total: 2:11:16
Previous best was 2:32 for olympic distance, which is about another 15 minutes of swim...
