Corregidor Aquathlon Challenge … braving the waves…

I was never anxious nor excited about this event which was totally unlike the night before my first open water aquathlon in Camaya a few months back when I hardly slept. Even on the ferry on our way to Corregidor, I was all calm and composed. Still reflecting on the great flood of 2 weekends before... But then I saw the raging waters of the swim course from a distance… then I got real anxious… probably a post traumatic stress after my Ondoy experience.

After doing a test ride, I found out that It was not all that bad... the swim course was shallow, just about 5ft when you stay close to the bouy line. I did not dare to try how deep it was 10meters farther. The course was parallel to the shore.

Psyching up!

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The first 400m swim leg was more of a fun swim rather than competetive, everybody was all smiles braving the nasty waves. And like most of the participants, I did the swim walk swim strategy… hahaha

where are the racers?... they're pratically engulfed by the waves...

Socializing at the transtition.. hehehe.. competetive eh... we're actually trash talking.. (pic from Alman of AMCI)

Unlike the swim, the 7km run was no fun for me. I was running on all fours to make up for my miserable swim(slash walk). Running uphill half the course totally took the wind out of me. This was the part of the race where I ask myself why the hell I do this. I didn’t even notice the historic scenery around me except for the lighthouse (which registered only because that part of the course was a deviation from the main road). I was real cautious running the downhill portions. I was running right in the middle of the road for the most part to avoid the mossy parts of the road (only tour buses use the roads of Corregidor.. nice!). A spill would’ve resulted to rolling down the rest of the course. (that would’ve been faster though, but I wouldn’t want to do an ocean swim with road rashes all over).

Still managed to regain my running form for the camera.. thanks Carina!

The 2nd swim leg was walk swim walk swim swim walk walk walk walk swim walk walk walk … just like that … I was done in 55mins, surprisingly finished 8th overall and 5th among men… unofficially..

Ziggy placed 2nd finishing in 52min.

Takbo.ph aquathletes.. where's commissioner Rico?

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After we had our free lunch, we took a tour around Corregidor. Only then I realized what I have missed while I was grinding it out in the run course...

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Nice place! Creepy though...