From XL to XTERRA…to Tagaman

What a difference a week makes! After a couple of days of feeling like sore mama-jama following the XTERRA Saipan Championship, I finally felt like walking around again. It was a good thing too, because I was able to talk to a lot of the veteran triathletes about my race day experience and I picked up a few tips that helped me immensely for the 16th Annual Tagaman Triathlon.

I took advantage of the events of the 2nd Annual Saipan Sports Fest and attended Jamie Whitmore’s instructional session at the Pacific Islands Club. I picked up so much useful information about nutrition and preparation that I couldn’t wait to get out onto the course.

After my bout with brutal leg cramps, I was tipped off to taking salt tablets during the race. The general consensus as to the reason I started to fade and cramp up was because I drank water instead of a sports drink on the course, and that I needed at least a 3-to-1 mixture of an electrolyte drink to water in my Camelback.

In the days before the Tagaman, I picked up the salt tabs, and stopped by to visit my sponsor Kathryn Barry of PowerAde for another case of the blue-colored Mountain Blast, but I still needed to secure a road bike for the course. Thanks to Marianas High School teacher Donald Blondin, I was able to trade in my mighty mountain bike from Romey at Saipan Bike Pro for his feather-light roadster. Now I was all set for race day!

The night before Tagaman, I got all of my gear together, taped the gel packs to the handle bars, and packed an extra pair of swim goggles—just in case. The good thing about Tagaman is that it starts early and kept us out of the hottest sun of the day, but it didn’t help my sleep pattern at all. I fell asleep around midnight and woke up in a near panic around 4:45am. The registration was supposed to end at 5am, but luckily island time was in effect, and the race didn’t get started until around 6am.

Tagaman also gives the professional a one minute head start on the swim, so when they hit the water there was a little more anticipation. I was actually really relaxed for the start of the swim because I had nothing to prove, but I didn’t make any last minute adjustments to my goggles—again, just in case.

When we got the signal, I ran into the water with the pack instead of being behind it, and I got off to a good start along the 2-kilometer course. Actually, it was a great start because the placid waters of the Saipan Lagoon are much nicer than the choppy surf off Micro Beach, and I settled into my stroke right from the start. I remember feeling great, and thinking how much better it was to not have my goggles break at the start of a race. I even smiled underwater when I thought about it.

Before we reached the first buoy, I saw a woman in a red bathing suit pass in front of me with “I Love PDI” written on her leg. I knew it had to be my friend Akiko Hagiwara form Pacific Development, Inc. She’s one heck of an athlete, so I just tried to stay to pace off of her until the finish, and it worked.

So early on in the race and everything was going swimmingly, and before I knew it, I had rounded the final buoy and was in the final stretch toward the big white sail at the beach. I felt so good that I picked up the pace and passed a bunch of people as I neared the small yellow buoy at the end of the swim.

When I came out of the water, I could hear announcer Jon Cramer calling my name, and I was all juiced up to get to the transition point. I don’t know why, but there is just something about hearing your name in a loud speaker that really gets you going.

So across the sand, onto the carpet, and through the shower I went en route to the speedy road bike, where I was really happy to see a lot of bikes still on the racks.

I dried off my feet, hopped into the bike shoes, donned the Camelback with the new and improved formula, put the little plastic bag with the salt tabs in my pocket, ran my bike out to the start line, and saddled up for the 60-km second phase.