MAIN PHOTO: (Left to Right) Philippe Bonalos, Joey Rufo, Marlon Narvaez, Elmer Santiago (Team Captain), Glenn Benigla, Rupert Ines, Chuck Maceda, Louie Villanueva, Benjo Garcia, Vic Bracamonte, Ivan Fojas, Renz Formoso.
About 14 members of the Globe Triathlon Team (Elmer Santiago-Team Captain, Marlon Narvaez, Ivan Fojas, Chuck Maceda, Philippe Bonalos, CS Gacoscosim, Glenn Benigla, Rupert Ines, Vic Bracamonte, Joey Rufo, Renz Formoso, Louie Villanueva, Benjo Garcia and Toni Favis) signed up and competed at the Subic Bay International Triathlon (SuBIT) last April 30.
SuBIT is an Olympic-distance race comprising of a 1.5-km ocean swim followed by a 40-km bike ride and finishing off with a 10-km run. SuBIT is organized by the Triathlon Association of the Philippines (TRAP) and is the only race in the country recognized by the International Triathlon Union (ITU). Now on its 24th year, it is one of the oldest and most popular triathlon races in the Philippines.
1.5 KM SWIM
Swim venue is at the Dungaree Beach, ACEA Subic Resort. The Globe Team, donning their brand new 0917 tri suits (thanks to the Globe Lifestyle team for helping out with the design), toed the line alongside 800+ other athletes. When the gun went off, it was chaos. The usual calm waters of Dungaree Beach transformed into a washing machine with triathletes diving in, jockeying for position and swimming away. This is the portion of the race where one's heart rate normally shoots up because of the adrenaline rush with all the elbowing, foot-pulling and kicking going on (MMA style). But once everyone settles in and finds his/her own space and pace, it’s pretty much a nice enjoyable swim.
I have completed several triathlons in the past but I admit that the swim portion still scares me. I find Dungaree beach eerie. As you swim farther from the shore, there is a sudden drop in the depth (known as the Dungaree Abyss). It is like swimming with your eyes closed as you could not see anything except the feet of the people swimming in front of you. Then you will notice the temperature of the water drop and the soundtrack of the movie Jaws starts playing in your head. But no need to panic really as there are no sharks here, only small jellyfish (yes, they will give you little love bites if you are a slow swimmer).
Towards the halfway point of the swim, the current will also be stronger - which makes the swim course more challenging as it causes some navigation problems most especially for the newbies. The elites will complete the swim course under 25 minutes while most age groupers will clock in somewhere between 30-40 minutes.
40 KM BIKE
Once done with the swim (considered to be the easiest leg), triathletes will run for about 200 meters to the first transition area (T1) to get ready for the bike leg. Once you find your bike, you put on your helmet, wear your bike shoes, and start pedaling for 40 kms. The first 5 minutes of biking will feel a bit weird since your body is still adjusting to being vertical after being horizontal for quite some time during the swim. The first half of the bike leg involves a lot of climbing as the route will take you to the winding road and rolling hills of Subic all the way towards the 1st U-turn at the Subic Morong Gate (which leads to Anvaya Cove). From this point, everyone will turn and ride back through the same rolling hills and proceed towards the Subic Bay Yacht Club where the 2nd U-turn is located.
The second half of the bike leg is mostly flat and fast. It is during this segment that triathletes are able to go full speed while tucked into aero position, maximizing their triathlon bikes as they head back to the ACEA Resort for the last U-turn and proceed to the end of the bike leg located just outside of Remy Field. It was tempting to go all out, but pacing yourself is the key in triathlon as you wouldn't want to "burn all your matches" with still the run leg up ahead.
10 KM RUN
With 2/3 of the race done, it was now time to run. A 10-km run is hard on its own but doing it after more than 2-2.5 hours of swimming and biking makes it even more difficult.
As the triathletes finish the 40-km bike ride, they proceed to the second transition area (T2) beside Remy Field where you rack your bike, remove your bike shoes and helmet and put on your favorite running shoes and visor to run three loops around the Subic Boardwalk. The first kilometer of running will feel heavy and uncomfortable – legs will be very wobbly as your tired legs adjust to running from biking.
Aside from having very little left in the tank by this time, everyone will also have to run under the intense heat of the summer sun. At this point, it now becomes a mental game. You now begin to ask yourself, why you are doing this when I can instead be drinking beer in the shade while listening to tunes on Spotify. A little voice in your head will tell you to just quit, but you have to ignore this, just dig deep and leave everything on the course.
FINISH
Elite athletes from Japan, Korea and Hong Kong dominated the race. All Globe triathletes were able to complete the course and most of us did so within our target time. Top 5 finishers from Globe include Elmer Santiago, Rupert Ines, Renz Formoso, Ivan Fojas and CS Gacoscosim. And yes... after crossing the finish line, we all cooled down in the shade, and drank beer (c/o Team Manager Monch Gonzales who distributed beer to all Globe finishers).
TEAMWORK
Louie Villanueva joined SuBIT to train and prepare for his first Ironman 70.3 in August. At the 3km mark of the bike leg, he suffered a flat tire. Being a newbie to the sport, he did not know how to change a flat nor did he bring tools/spare tube with him. Frustrated with his misfortune, he helplessly sat on the side of the road resigned to the fact that his race was over. After a few minutes, teammate Vic Bracamonte who is Globe’s fastest runner and a mainstay in Globe’s Ayala Olympics Team, happen to come to Louie’s rescue. Vic decided to stop and help Louie change his flat tire. Vic, who was targeting a specific finish time, sacrificed his own race to come to Louie’s aide, allowing Louie to continue the race and finish it.
ALL HEART
As the whole team was celebrating at the finish line, we realized that someone was still missing. Turns out that Benjo Garcia was still on the run course. We felt that it was inappropriate to celebrate with a teammate still out there. As such, four of our teammates got on their bikes and went back to the run course to look for Benjo. They found him at the 3-km mark trotting along patiently. There were only about five runners left on the course and his sense of urgency was apparent. With the support and encouragement of his teammates, Benjo soldiered on to finish the race. He ran-walked the remaining 7 kms with his teammates by his side – handing him water, Gatorade and ice sponge at the aid stations.
After over five hours of racing, Benjo finally crossed the finish line of his first ever triathlon race. The record books will show that he finished last among all the participants but if this were about the size of one’s heart, Benjo would be on the podium.
Tough and hot race but everyone was smiling at the end. The team’s next race is at Tri United 2 on July 2.
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About the ICONtributor
Chuck Maceda (of Enterprise Group) has been a member of the Globe Triathlon Team since 2010. He is a 4-time Ironman 70.3 finisher. When not training for a race, Chuck is a full-time couch potato.
