The SPORTT team thought it would be a good idea to go over
to Tobago to test the course before the actual race. It was something that I
considered before, but a combination of laziness and anxiety forced me to keep
the idea to myself. Gershwynn called my extension and basically stated
“Tobago….leave on the 13th June come back on the 14th. We
are going to do the course”. I was not trying
to be ‘that guy’ to chicken out and also knowing there would be some benefit to
going over, I agreed and started to put things in place.
We left Trinidad for Tobago on Friday afternoon and made our
way to our accommodation at a villa on Tobago Plantations. After getting
something to eat, we sat to watch the sheer annihilation that was the
Netherlands vs. Spain game. I did feel a bit sorry for Cassillas though. His
facial expression more or less said “Finally getting some playing time, and now
I am going to put +5 by my name” He probably would have also anticipated the
explosion of memes on social media of fans making fun of his unfortunate
demise..but that is the cruelty of sport sometimes.
 |
| Poor Cassillas |
Any who, after the game, we drove to the course to get an
appreciation of what we will be facing in terms of terrain. The idea was to do
the test at 8am on Saturday morning to simulate the conditions as best as
possible. We all jumped into the car and drove down to Turtle Beach to check it
out.
For the swim portion, we felt it would be easiest to
estimate 375 meters along the shore and use that as a guide. Luckily for us,
the other parts of the race were clearly marked out with it being a 5k loop for
both the 20k ride and the 5k run.
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| Rainbow Cup race course |
As we drove along the course, and the reality of the
undertaking started to become more evident, I instantly came down with a fever
and a belly pain. No really…immediately. I began quietly questioning my sanity
and wondering…. “Kairon….why are you doing this to yourself???”
On Saturday morning we rode from Tobago Plantations to Turtle
Beach. Gina (Mikey’s wife and de facto Team Management) gave us an opportunity
to try on our brand spanking new #2XU Tri-suits to get accustomed to the feel
and comfort.
 |
| Getting ready to leave |
When we got down to the beach, we set up our own little
transition area and then began.
Swimming.
By now, we all know about my journey with swimming. I will
admit that I have gotten much better and took that confidence with me into the
swim. Right away, I learned why it was important to do the trial and understood
the importance of the concept known as #sighting in the open water. I started
off with all the enthusiasm in the world, proud of my much improved stroke and
building momentum. I thought to myself with each breath..”Yesssss Kairon, you
are swimming ..in a Forrest Gump voice albeit. After about 150 meters I
realized that I hadn't really looked forward for the entire time, so I stopped
to get my bearings. View exhibit A. With my excitement, I was going off course
to say the very least and was more or less swimming in the direction of
Grenada. I looked on shore to see some of my colleagues waving frantically and
gesturing that I had gone woefully astray. It wasn't a huge tragedy though.
I swam back in and continued along the route. I navigated the swim fairly okay.
My only other problem was negotiating the waves and the currents that would
push me close to the shore every so often causing me to stop and swim back out.
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| The importance of sighting. The black lines show my initial course while the blue lines show the intended course. |
T1 à
Cycle
My First transition wasn't bad at all. I got out of the
water, ran to the bike and started the process. Helmet first, then shoes. I
learned another lesson in this. It is absolutely CRITICAL for you to wash your
feet off as best as possible. I had the unfortunate experience of riding and
later on running with sand in my shoes. Not the most pleasant feeling by any
means. As for the ride, that went pretty okay as well. The course was fairly
windy that morning so it was a bit of an exercise.
T2 à
Run
After finishing the cycle, I came in to change into my
sneakers. I don’t know what it is, but it is the HARDEST thing for me to get my
helmet off after I cycle. Much like the Duathlon earlier in the year, I had to
resort to pulling the helmet off. The run itself was fine. The Tobago Sun is
unforgiving and I surely felt it. Other than experiencing some cramping on the
last half a mile or so, the run was decent. I wasn't too perturbed by this as I
realized that I simply need to hydrate better.
Thankfully I was able to complete the trial #triathlon without any
major incident.
After the trial, and feeling that I can improve a bit on the day, I would like to aim for the following times;
20 minutes for the 750m swim
42 minutes on the 20K bike
26 minutes on the 5K run
Add in transitions of about 1-2 minutes each to be conservative, giving a total race time of 1 hour and 32 minutes.
T-8 days until
the competition J
Funny enough, I am now looking forward to it.
