2010 Already?

With so many races around the world we could think that it's just a matter of choosing where to race, but it's much more complicated than that. You have to plan your training months ahead and then, there's the registration to the event.
I've been thinking in my 2010 season and if I don't decide and register almost right now, I might find the events "sold out" in a couple of months.
Next year I will do my first Full Ironman in Langkawi, this race doesn't fills out that fast, but there's also the flight prices, here it's the same, if you wait to buy the tickets and hotels you will be paying more as the date gets closer.
So... I guess that 2010 is already here, I already decided to race Langkawi, and Ironman 70.3 Hawaii, but it seems that I will have to keep going till the end of the year if I don't want to find myself left out of other races.
After 70.3 Hawaii in June, Paola and I want to rent a Motorhome or RV, and drive from Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Niagara Falls, and in the way race at Ironman 70.3 Muskoka and a week later Ironman 70.3 Syracuse, that's in September but again, If we don't decide (and pay) now, we might have problems either with the planes, the RV, or with the registration to the events.
I reckon that soon I will have to register to a 2011 Ironman Distance event.
(I want to do IM Western Australia, and IM Canada)
How crazy is that?

Back from Malaysia and USA. And now Clearwater is around the corner.

Finally a solid 10 days of training after Malaysia.

After the race in Putrajaya, we went to Kuala Lumpur, where we had a great time, KL is an amazing city and we left with the feeling that we needed a little more than the 4 days we spent there.

In the way back to the U.S.A. we had the longest (and strangest) day of our lives.

It started waking up in Kuala Lumpur with the amazing and surreal view of the Petronas Towers in our window, we spend the morning at KL, we had lunch there, and then we took a "teksi" to the airport, our plane left at 2pm to Taiwan, where we arrived at about 7pm, and the next flight to L.A. was at 11pm, so we had 4 hours to be at the Airport, the Taipei Airport is very interesting so it really gives you the feeling that you are in Taiwan.

So we left Taiwan at 11pm heading to L.A. and here's where everything starts to get a little strange, after a 13 hours flight, we arrived L.A. at 8pm of the same day, we waited 2 hours to get in our third plane of the day, heading to Las Vegas, where we arrived at 11pm, so there we were... at Las Vegas Strip, surrounded with all the nightlights and thinking "What a long day" we just couldn't believe that we were still on the same day, after all it was a 39 hour day! Strange, Strange, ha ha!

We had the weekend to relax in Vegas before heading back home, I was ready to resume training, and I was feeling rested and energized because a managed to swim almost everyday in KL, in a very cool Swimming Pool of 25 meters in the 33th floor, with an excellent view of the Petronas Towers, actually this pool becomes the "Sky Bar"at night. So it was very nice to swim there.

The problem started as soon as we walked into our house, in that moment I felt like I was about to get a cold, and in less than 3 hours I was feeling like crap, with a fever of 39 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) muscle pains like never before and a terrible headache, I went to see the Doctor and he said I had The Swine Flu or H1N1, I was like "WHAT?"

He told me that it wasn't that bad, and that I didn't need medications, so I went home with a prescription of a simple dose of Paracetamol and over the counter cold medicine.

Just as the Doctor told me, the lab results came positive for H1N1, and I felt much worse the next 2 days before I started to get better, in the 5th day I was riding my bike again, 3 days of easy training, and now it's been already 10 days of solid training.

I'm feeling great and ready to race.

Clearwater is just around the corner, so I have this weekend of hard training, and then just taper for the Big Race. Another good news is that my Website http://www.janosoto.com/ is ready, everything is going great and now I'm immune to the H1N1 virus ha ha!

Ironman Putrajaya 70.3 1st Place!!!!!!

It was simply the perfect day and the perfect race I could ever wish for.

Starting by the swim leg, after the gun shot I went to the front of the pack, at my sides i had a Korean guy and a Aussie, the lake was flat as a pancake so it was very easy to see the buoys but since I was at the front it was easier to follow the Kayak, the feeling of being at the front was excellent but in the 950mt turnaround I let the Aussie take the lead and get some rest at his feet, I knew I could get him later, and that happened at t1, so there I was in the bike 5 minutes behind the Elite Group, and at the front of the rest.

The bike course this time didn't look flat anymore it was more hilly than the previous days ha ha! But after checking some splits I knew I was going fast, after the first lap I started to pass the Elite women and I got to t2 in front of all of them and some local pros.

The run was simply beautiful as I said in the previous blog, and running in the main street of this exotic place was really incredible, and being at the front of the Age Group pack was just the best I could ask for, in front of me there was just Jan Rehula, Cameron Watt, Passuello, and .... ( I still have to see the results)

My plan was simple, try to hold my target 21kms pace (4:30 min per Km) as long as I could, and I did it til the 18km mark from that point I lost the pace, but nothing disastrous, I was passed again by 3 Elite girls, one Elite guy and by one guy from the 30-34 Age Group, so I finished 1st place for the First time in an Ironman 70.3 Event, and I just can't by more satisfied.

Later in the week I will post the great pictures that Paola Shoot, they are really great.

Malaysia 70.3 Preview

After a 25,000 kms trip, Here I'm in Putrajaya, Malaysia at the other side of the world literally..... It was a long long trip, but it also was not as terrible as I thought it would be, a Shuttle Bus from Puebla to Mexico City International Airport 2 hours, then the flights... Mexico/Las Vegas, Las Vegas/L.A. L.A/Taipei (14 hours straight) Taipei/Kuala Lumpur, and finally a cab to Putrjaya, funny but we enjoyed the whole time.

The City is simply Beautiful! This is a new Federal city created to move the Government powers from KL ( Kuala Lumpur) And looks like they didn't spare a dime. You get the feeling that things are not real, everything seems so perfect, and the streets so clean, even the sidewalks have beautiful designs and are made of different kinds of stones, just like the lobby floor of a 5 star hotel.

We are staying at The Shangri-La Hotel, in the top of a Hill right next to the Prime Minister's house, the name of the hotel says everything and from our balcony you can see the Putrajaya Mosque, one of the 3 other ones in the Main Street, where the run leg is gonna be (2 laps) I can't wait to be running here.


The Putrajaya 70.3 is gonna be held in the Pullman Hotel, also an incredible place (later I will add some pictures) and the bike leg consists in 3 Laps around Putrajaya, in a perfect conditions freeway, flat with some rolling hills in the mix, I think we will get fast times, not like in Cancun.

Well...... I will eat breakfast and then head to the Pullman hotel where we will stay for this night (5 star hotels are very cheap here) there..... after a 1 hour ride, I will go for an easy swim in the course that's also very well marked with buoys every 100 meters and then relax for the rest of the day.

Everything seems perfect here, I'm feeling good and I know I'm in Shape, so I hope to be writing about a good result tomorrow after the race.

Cancun Ironman 70.3 2nd place! Yes!

Cancun, Mexico September 20th, 2009.
6am and I'm at the transition zone in the parking lot of The Aquatic Park, Wet'n Wild.

We are just 1 hour before the start of the Cancun Ironman 70.3 2009. Today after so many races I feel nervous again, maybe because my inner type A Triathlete, knows that especially today I "have" to race well for so many reasons, first because is the only Ironman 70.3 in Mexico, and second, after an excellent start of my 2009 season I will race against the whole Mexican Triathlon Community, many of them being this race their primary target or key race of the year. So this time I "HAVE" to do well. So I check my gear, once again and we all start walking the 300 meters to the swim start at NIZUC Beach, the time flies as I put on the speedsuit, warm up, and Paola shoots some pictures, before I know it, I am at the starting line and the siren goes off, normally my heart rate is about 80 bpm but this time reaches 3 digits. And the reason is that in the last 3 races, the swim has been very violent the whole time, specially in Hawaii and the X-Terra, so the last couple of months I've been working in my swimming, and it's time for the truth. The Siren goes off and here we go! I swim as planned, fast as I can for the first 200 meters, I was expecting violence but this time after the first buoy I see that I left behind the chaos. I realize that now I have no one around to push my pace, and I will have to keep up the pace alone, so I do my best to keep up the pace and I exit the water in 29:56, not bad knowing (after the race) that the Elite group and the Overall winner, Oscar Galindez swim time was 27:23.

Already on the Bike is time to work my strenght, that is, and has been always the bike. In the first 5 kms I pass at least 20 guys and when I reach the first aid station I found myself alone, at this point the course consisted of 2 laps of 40kms to complete 85k and then back t2. For the next 20 kms I ride alone, and as I was getting closer and closer to the turnaround point, I realize that I was in an excellent position overall, I see the first pro, then the second, and then Oscar Galindez with another 4 guys, I try to count everyone, and I get to the turnaround surprised and of course very happy, seeing the there were no more than 15 in front of me. After the turnaround I pass 2 of the 3 Women that were in front of me, the remaining one, was Michellie Jones, then in the 45k mark I see that I'm getting closer to a couple of the guys but I also realize that I have at least 5 guys hanging on my wheel, very annoying by the way.

And I have no other option than keep up the pace, hoping to leave some of them behind. At least the Race Marshall saw a couple of them and penalized them with a 3 Minute stop, but the others just kept drafting behind me. The first 40k split was 1:01 and as I said I had no other option to keep up this high pace, even knowing that I would have to pay later.

So I get to t2 in 2:22 and start the run with my passengers haha! in the first mile, finally they blow up, the split is 7 minutes, second mile 7 minutes again, and then I found myself chatting with Chris Davy from Florida, he is the guy who was second place last year, he was looking strong and he confirms my idea that the first place was ahead of us, a guy from Argentina, that I think was having breakfast with Oscar Galindez, it was in this 3rd mile that Chris left me.

I was not sure if he pushed the pace or I was slowing down, so after checking the split in 7:30 I knew I will soon start to pay that 2:22 Bike split in that kind of heat. The next 2 miles were hard but I think that realizing that I was running in 10 or 12th place overall helped a lot. But after mile 5 the real crisis started, I couldn't drink water, I had some abdominal pain and the Gatorade made me feel like trowing up, so I had to walk at the aid station in mile 6, bad choice because there was Paola waiting for me, she shouted as loud as she could "keep running! keep running!" so I had to run again, then I had to walk two more times and after mile 10 is when I started to feel good again, I pushed the pace again and there I see Chris Davy, he was not running as he left me, you could see he was in bad shape and maybe in the middle of he's own crisis, so I got behind him, trying no to alert him with my presence and I matched his footsteps, I knew that no one was closing on me, so I rested there for a couple of minutes, trying to prepare for the battle for second place, so after the marker of mile 12, I attacked, running as fast as I could for what seemed like an eternity, later I knew that from the marker of mile 13 there was another 2 miles left!!!! so as my friend Erich said in his Blogspot, it was the Cancun Ironman 72.8.

At the end I feel very happy with my second place, because this might be the hardest race I've ever done. Next time that I wish for a hot race, I will think twice......

It's been a Fast and Crazy 2009

After the Hawaii Ironman 70.3 last May I knew that something had changed in my view of Life.

Now..... after reading my last blog I realize that the change of perspective of "everything" started almost 3 years ago, and maybe a couple more. I was just coming out of a dark stage in my life and at the same time I was starting to take Triathlon more seriously, it was October 2005 and I went to the ITU World Championships in Honolulu, and after that, in December I went to Australia to train & race for almost 3 months, it was in Melbourne where I found out that the 70.3 Distance was better for me, and specially I liked it much more than the Olympic Distance. I returned to Mexico to find out that things could get worse than they were before, so I was forced to quit training like in those last 10 months, then......... Again I found the way out to much brighter and new life, but in those 3 years (2006, 2007, and 2008) I almost didn't train, at least not for more than 4 months straight, so.......while I was enjoying life again as it is supposed to be, I forgot about my passion "Triathlon" and it was in November while I was in California with my wife Paola where I think that the real "change" began, and I mean the one that has to do with this Blog haha! (I see that I entered existentialism waters ) anyway, after that trip to L.A. I started training again with a new energy, and I remembered that last race in Torquay, Australia, so I signed for the Lonestar Half Ironman in Galveston TX, I shed 11 kilos that I gained of the Dolce Vita, that's 24 pounds! and went on to a PR of 4:34 in that distance.

After that race I planned my 2009 racing season with most of the races being Olympic Distance in Mexico and finishing up with Ironman Cancun 70.3 in September, it's funny how things never come out the way you planned, but it really depends on your point of view or attitude if the change in the outcome is for good or bad.

2 months later I was racing the Hawaii Ironman 70.3 and earning a Clearwater slot, another month and I was getting a 4th place overall finish in Half Ironman race in Alchichica, Mexico. (missing the 3rd by 56 seconds) Then...in August I raced The Xterra Mexico Global Tour without much expectations, I was more than happy of placing 2nd and earning a slot for Maui, so as soon as we were back in home, we started planning our trip back to Hawaii. Time went by, some 10k races, a PR of 38:30, and a Half Marathon in 1:28 at 158bpm so I decided not to go to Maui and focus in the 70.3 distance and Clearwater.

About those Olympic races, none........ Why do races that I've done over and over again since 1995? Why not go to new places? new races in the distance that I like so much, why not even change place to live? I mean...... If I am thinking different, why not really different? I am about to be 40 and I never felt so good in my life, so instead of thinking what I would like to do, I will better do stuff and write about it in my new 2009 blogspot and website.

I don't want to sound to deep or like Scott Tinley, but I really think that in life we have to do more and dream less, this way our dreams will come true.

Ironman 70.3 Hawaii and a new perspective.

I've just came back from Hawaii, and let me say that I Love Kona!

This was not my first time in the Big Island, I was there in 2005, I went to race the ITU World Champioships in Honolulu, and just the next week it was the WTC Ironman World Championship in Kona, sooooo obviously I went to the Big Island.
I saw Faris Al Sultan and Natascha Badman win that year.
I had a Great time, swimming the course and riding almost daily the Queen K just up to Waikoloa.
But this time, everything was different, Starting from the fact that riding from Waikoloa up to Hawi is where you really get to feel the mystique of this route, is where it gets interesting.
Paola and I, had the greatest trip of our life.
After the Lonestar Half Ironman Distance Triathlon in Galveston last april, where I pulled out a 4:34 pr, I was a little afraid of not having that same accomplishment feeling since I knew that this course was going to be much harder (Slower) so a 4:33 was just out of the question.
Anyway, after what may be the thoughest triathlon I ever did, surely is by far the most gratifying of all.
As the race Director told us in the Race Meeting, the race was tough, and the run course was HELL!

Everybody laughed when he said:
"Guys, tomorrow the run leg is gonna be tough, please don't look at your watches, because you just won't be able to run at the pace you are used to, you better take everything you can at the aid stations, and just worry about keep moving forward, as long as you are moving forward, that means you are doing ok"
The race started at the beautiful Hapuna Beach, the swim start was very violent, I got hit right in the face with an elbow in the first 50 meters, and I thought the like in other races after 200 meters you were able to swim at your own pace, well.... this didn't happened, the whole swim course was like a start, very fast and very violent and crowded.


After a 31minute swim I had to run uphill to T1, and then to the Queen K southbound to Mauna-Lani for about 4 miles to turnaround and then head north to Hawi, in that turnaround I was able to see how far ahead of me was John Flanagan who exited the water almost 2 Minutes ahead of Craig Alexander, Luke Mckenzie, Chris Lieto and the swim specialist Benjamin Sanson (who swim without a speedsuit)
They were almost 8 minutes ahead already, but after those monsters I saw that there were not to many better swimmers than me, so I thought I would be able to pass some in the next 56 miles, my pace was very good and I was feeling great, I tryed not to pedal to hard because even I was one of the guys that laughed at the race director comments, I was also a little worried about the run course (it was closed to public before the race) so I paced myself, and also I was able to pass a lot of guys in front of me. (much less than the ones the passed me)
Just a couple of miles from the turnaround at Hawi I saw Chris Lieto SMOKIN the bike Leg, I couldn't believe how ahead he was from Craig, Luke, and Chris, and at the turnaround I saw that I was in a great position, less than 10 minutes behind Benjamin Sanson.

I was so happy that I really had to fight against the will to speed up and then blow-up in the run. I got to T2 in 2:32 and started to run, I thought I was going easy but the first mile was 6:59, second 6:58, third 7:00 Minutes!!! And I was like "WOW!!! Maybe I can run the whole 13 miles like this" haha and then the miles started to get longer haha! 7:20, 7:40, and then the words of the race organizer came into my mind at the same time I got to the Really Tough Parts of the Golf Course, I wondered how much horsepower those little Golf cars have, to be able to Literally "climb" those pathways with 2 or 3 Usually Heavy guys with their golf equipment.
It was hard but I wasn't suffering, because that's what I LOVE to do, and the whole place was really beautiful!

But then in mile 10......... I entered the one and only HELL!!!!!

It was a lonely black little road outside the Hotel Complex in the middle of a Lava Field, It really felt like running inside a Sauna, the heat that was coming from the pavement and the lava fields, was amazing, I looked at my Polar and it said it was 41 Degrees Celsius, that's more than 105 Fahrenheit!!!!! Luckily I was able to get out in one piece and still running, the last mile was easy, coming back from hell and entering again those views of the Golf course, the Sea, the palm trees, everything, I was happier than ever, so I finished with a big smile in 1:41 for a total of 4:50, enough for a 66th Overall place (and qualification to Clearwater) in my point of view, far way better than a 4:34 pr.
The following days I was riding the Queen K with my new friend Ben Sanson, both powered by the energy of Madame Pele all the way to Hawi to later have a swim at the KCAC Kona Community Aquatic Center and then a well deserved cup of Coffee & Snack at the Great Lava Java.
So now I can say I'm addicted to Ironman, to Kona, to Kona Coffee and of course to the ALOHA WAY!!!! It's like having a whole new perspective of everything, this race and place was like an eye opener of a new stage in my life.

Jano Soto

p.s. Craig won the race SMOKIN the run in an incredible 1:17 In that course! and Belinda Granger took the lead early on the bike to the finish line.