johansvennung(臺灣)

2011 Taitung International 226K Ultra Triathlon, a.k.a Ironman..even though Im not sure if they paid alot of money for the name, was what I did last weekend...

I left Hsinchu by train...since it was on the east coast...the most exotic place and my favorite city in taiwan...Taitung...

I signed up to live in dorm...like I use to do in sweden when I do interesting physical challenges...however it turned out to be the most fancy hotel in town...

We got the equipment in the lobby of the hotel...it was interesting, and good service...

It is interesting at the east coast of taiwan, cuz everthing must be typhoon and earthquake safe...

We got a nice dinner in the evening...

It was also an information section for the participants...

Just like in sweden they serve beer (or sometimes wine) when it is sports event...as a complement to the sports drinks...

While my room mates left their stuff very neat and nice...

... I spread out over the room, showing my territory...as usual...

We couldnt keep the bikes in the rooms, so they had guards in the basement...

I didnt know how to find the start...but one of the staff promised a japanese to show him 5 in the morning, so I joined them...resulting that I was one of the first to arrive to the starting point...

they had 3 sections in the tent, one for equipment...

...One for changing (for the ones who were not professional)...

and one section for bikes...

As usual in Taiwan U never run a route...u always run back and forth on the same road...the same was with the swimming, 2 laps around a river that they ones made to a lake...

After some hour, more people showed up to the starting point...

And 30 mins before start...almost all the 321 participants were there...many people were using buoyant wetsuits, which is considering cheating in many races..since it goes faster...but people r not that strict in this part of the world...

I knew I was a slow swimmer, and I was careful not to get cramp...

Instead I catched up during the cycling...I was the only one with surfer shorts and the official T-shirt...when doing the race...all the rest had professional clothes...just like when im compeding at home...im not a gadget guy...

The cycling was ok...more like a long boring transportation part...with street dogs walking on the road (I almost hit one, like 50 cm close), another disturbing thing here in taiwan...not sure if it is culture...is when a tai is passing you buy, they hail you, and go super close in front of you and the slow down...so annoying...many times i bumped into them to show them that they have to take distance.

When I reached the goal later on there were still alot of people out running...i came in as 65 of 321 i think...I think it was good, concidering that I took it easy.. I wonder what position I would get in Sweden...probably not that good in position (the cut off time in sweden is 15 hours i heard) not 17 hours),...at least the first people finish within 8 hours, here they were in at 10...could also be due to it was warmer here that in Kalmar...where the swedish dito is...

This is how the finish looked like...they had a stage for people to take pics on...

They had a nice breakfast...not like the one in Pusan in Korea...but it was still ok...

The staff were all wearing hawaii shirts...so exotic...

Taitung is famous for its hotsprings I think...and maybe for surfing...however, a visit to a farm was payed...I found a cow with Bhutans flag on it...so exotic...

It alsya wonder who this area remains after all the typhoons (I really  need to go here some day to find out), however most of the trees were supported by sticks etc...

They also had buffalos...covered in mud...

Many times here in taiwan it can b hard to find the toilet...u need to know the characters..and not that many people speak englosh, nor understand my chinese...so it is convenient when they have the international sign for resrooms...(in this case they also had english text). It was really a touristic place...with most thing where the cusomers could waste their money...

They also ahd places reminded me of the alps...like places with grass, which I dont find that common in Taiwan...it was exotic...

After this visit it was time to take the train back...

Now I wanna do a Ultraman instead, hopefully it will be more challangeing...