Training Log Archive: dkonotopetz

Around Koh Tao, Thailand.

Wreck dive at the HTMS Sattakut. Very poor visibility (1 meter), so did not get to see much of the wreck. Swam from the wreck to White Rock (the location of the night dive yesterday). Saw a beaked coaral fish. Max depth 27.7 meters. Now I am Advanced Open Water Certified!

Deep dive. Saw a big eye trevally, blue spotted trout, giant grouper, golden trevally, cobia and the holy grail of the diving world a 3 meter whale shark! Wow was that amazing to see. The first time I saw the whale shark it was about 5 meters directly above me, the second time I saw it was in the distance and just an outline. The final sighting was the best, my group of 6 divers were about to ascend to the surface when the shark swam about 4 meters in front of us. It was close enough to get a rally good look at it! This dive will be hard to beat considering how rare it is to see a whale shark. One instructor on our boat said it was only his 2nd whale shark sighting in 3 years (1,800 dives) in Koh Tao. Our instructor also told the group that there was a dive instructor that worked in Koh Tao for 14 years and never saw a whale shark. Supper lucky! Max depth 31 meters.

Working on boyancy skills. Max depth 16.5 meters.

Navigation dive...saw nemo! Max depth 18.3 meters.

Night dive, very cool and different when it is dark under the water! Saw a great barracuda, spotted bluetail ray, hermit crab, feather stars, phosphorescence, banded boxer shrimp and golden trevally. What a day, diving is surprisingly tiring.

West on Phetkasem Rd. to the far Big C, east to the close Big C, then walked back.

6-3 loss to the Jog Sports Ice Jackets to eliminate us from first place contention.

Lots of ice time since we only had 5 forwards. 1 goal in a 3-2 win to push the series to game 3 at 8:30 pm. Tuesday night.

Soi Witthayalai Asia Akhane, around South-East Asia University 1 time, Phetkasem Rd. to Big C and back.

Bad 8-2 loss.

Students vs. teachers.

7-4 loss to the Sports Corner Snipers.

This year The North Face 100 Thailand moved to Khao Yai (Big Mountain). This meant that the course was much more difficult then the flat coconut groves of the Amphawa flood planes! The race started at 5:00 am. and I was running near the front of the pack. The temperature was a nice 23°C and I was feeling good. The made about a 100 meter climb to the top of a hill between kilometres 7-8. I descended the hill and I got to aid station #3 in the top 10 overall just as the sun was rising. Luckily after sunrise the sky was cloudy! I took a gel and filled up my Camelbak. I continued along the road, then a dirt trail and I made a loop in a hilly section of the course on single track trail. I took a gel around the 15 km. mark. After this the route mainly went along a paved road. I got to aid station #4 with a completely empty Camelbak, so I filled it up and took another gel. I continued along more asphalt and dirt roads. At this point I was really starting to feel it and my pace was dropping off, as I started to loop back towards aid station #3. At the 34.5 km. mark I got to aid station #3, where I took a gel and filled up my Camelbak. The gel helped and gave me some more energy, but it was short-lived and my pace started to slow down once again. I was struggling big time at this point. I got to aid station #6 at the 40.5 km. mark completely exhausted. Again I took a gel and filled up my Camelbak. I told myself "10 more km. to go...you can do it". I was not moving very fast, but I was surprised that I was maintaining my position for the most part. A few runners passed me, but I was still in the top 10 according to my counting (which could be wrong based on how I was feeling!) I took a final gel around the 47 km. mark and I continued along. I descended the hill with about 1 km. to go and then onto the asphalt road. I crossed the finish line relieved to be finally done! My GPS recorded a distance of 51.54 km., 1.54 km. more then the advertised race distance. I placed 8/174 overall and 7/174 in the Male Open category!

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=7469796
Results: http://results.championchip-thailand.com/tnf2013/s...

C • Good one!! 1