Surviving Kaike

This trip was unbelievable. The way we were treated by the Kaike Triathlon committee staff was nothing short of first class. They personally drove us around the bike and run courses and took us out for some great meals. We felt like VIPs for the whole time we were there. Much thanks must go out to Ed Diaz from MVA and Hiroko-san from PDI. They really made the whole trip run smoothly and bent over backwards to help us out.

As for the race, it was the most difficult undertaking I’ve ever been part of. The heat was amazing. About four or five degrees (celsius) hotter than Saipan. The swim was pretty violent with over 800 people starting at once. Mai and I both had solid swims of 54 and 56 minutes respectively. Mai was 54th out of the water and I was 78th. I was hit and kicked many times in the first two kilometers.

The bike course was brutal. Only 20-30 kilometers of the 145 kilometers was flat. Mai (fellow CNMI entrant Maimi Shimizu) and I rode together for the first 60 kilometers but then I had a mechanical problem with one of my pedals almost falling off. I lost about 10 minutes waiting for the bike mechanic to fix it but still had a decent ride of five hours and 31 minutes.

When I started the marathon I started to get severe stomach cramps due to a lack of salt in my body. When you sweat out salt and don’t replace it, your body has difficulty absorbing fluids. What I was drinking and eating was sloshing around in my stomach and not going to where it was needed. This cost me a lot of time in the first half of the marathon as running was extremely painful. A passing triathlete gave me some salt tablets which began to work after 30-40 minutes. After a three-hour 10-minute first half I ran the second half in one hour 53 minutes passing over 100 people on the way back to the finish line. The race was very well organized and the volunteers were wonderful. They really helped get me to the finish line. There were over 3,000 volunteers for 850 racers! All in all it was still a great race despite my problems (which were mostly my own fault) and I’m very proud to have represented the CNMI at this wonderful event.

Mai had a fantastic race and I’m very proud of her effort also.

I would like to thank all the sponsors of this event—Marianas Visitors Authority, Pacific Development, Inc., Pacific Islands Club, and Northwest Airlines. It really was one of the greatest experiences of my life.