Last year was my first time racing on the
island paradise of Bohol and to win the event was a real highlight of my 2015
racing calendar. Coming back to the event in 2016 as the defending champion
added some additional pressure and I was really motivated to win again. On a
personal note, whenever I race in the Philippines it is always an unforgettable
experience. The stunning event locations and professionalism with how the event
organisation runs races such as Bellevue 5150 needs to be seen and experienced
in person to truly be appreciated.
There had been some heavy rain the night before the race making the temperatures a little cooler than usual for race morning. Usually, the Philippines heat and humidity make racing that much harder so the rain was actually a welcome change. The plan was to go hard from the get go and just to enjoy pushing hard and testing myself out on the course. I hit the gas in the opening few minutes of the 1500 meter swim leg and soon had a growing gap which extended to just under a minute by the time I hit transition over German, Henry Beck.
Image Anthony Yu
Image Jamil Buergo
I was careful to pay attention to the wet
roads out on the bike course but still pushed the opening kilometres of the
40km bike leg quite hard wanting to extend my lead.
Image AsiaTri.com
Image AsiaTri.com
The bike course was flat
and fast and I finished the bike leg with an average speed of 42.5km bringing
me into transition in a bike split of under the hour.
Image Anthony Yu
The out and back 10 kilometre run course
was deceptively tough with the humidity and heat rising steadily. I took out
the opening few kilometres quite solidly before lifting off the pace during the
final 5-6 kilometres.
Image Anthony Yu
Image Jamil Buergo
Usually I would thrive in putting myself in the hurt box
by running as hard as I could but with another race (Challenge Shepparton
Triathlon) the following weekend the smarter option was to ease off the pace.
Running down towards the finishing line on
the white sandy beach outside the five-star Bellevue Resort is something
special and to win the race for the second year in a row was a great feeling.
Image Anthony Yu
Image AsiaTri.com
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