Triathlon: After waking up, I gathered my stuff for the final race of the weekend. It was then I noticed the bib number was not included in my registration bag. It looked like we would have to visit the race registration office to straighten things out. The glue on my shoe had dried well overnight and ending up holding for the race.
We drove to the finish line area and as I parked my bike, Peep walked ahead to the race office to remedy the situation with my number. Before she could start explaining what had happened, she was handed my bib number by one of the race workers. We went to the bike-to-run transition area to set up and noticed there was no spot allocated for my number. At first, the race officials wanted me to use a bag to store my race gear, but I protested and was given the standard basket used by the other racers. They then shifted some of the racers spots next to mine over and squeezed my spot in. I wasn't too happy, thinking it would be a bit crowded during the transition, but accepted it and headed for the swim venue.
Since the swim venue was located some distance from the end of the bike course, the swim-to-bike transition area, know as Transition 1 or simply T1, was located in a different area than the bike-to-run transition area, or Transition 2 (T2). Again, I did not have a spot allocated and found a worker to explain the problem. This time, however, I was placed in a spot at the end of the bike rack, ensuring I would have ample room to maneuver as I prepared to go out on the bike ride following my swim. After everything was set up and I completed my stretches, there was a short ceremony with music, dancing, and speeches, culminating in some fireworks. All the racers then boarded the boats to ride to the start of the swim course.
The swim was the same as on Friday, but felt faster for me, maybe because I had become acclimated to swimming in the river two days earlier. T1 was the longest transition area of any race I have run, with a long run from the swim's exit point to the bike rack, and then another long run to the transition area exit, where I could finally mount my bike and start riding.
This time, we made up the distance between the swim venue and finish area on the bike, as we had done with the run during the aquathlon. There was a little more sun, and with it wind, than the previous two days. However, it was still nice race weather overall. With the extra wind my average speed on the bike was slightly slower than on Saturday during the duathlon.
The run went well but I did get quite hot on the second lap of the 2-lap course. I made use of most of the water stations, pouring more of the ice cold water over my head than what I was drinking. It helped me cool off some. The run was the slowest of the three days, but was exactly what I had expected it to be. And so ended my three days of racing. I was extremely happy to finally be back racing after a full two year of no races.
Headed Home: After the race we went back to the hotel so I could shower off before checking out and making the 30 minute drive to Udon Thani for lunch at Sizzler. We then drove to Mukdahan, where we stopped for some grocery shopping before crossing the bridge into Savannakhet. We arrived home just before 9 p.m. I had some dinner and then went to bed.