desaru for the 70.3 Ironman

Desaru Coast is a coastal resort area in Southeastern Johor, Peninsular Malaysia. The small town of Bandar Penawar serves as the area’s transport hub. Whether you are traveling alone, with your friends or family, there are more than enough activities to keep your stay fun and awesome and alternatively, if you want to keep it low-key and relaxed, the place can still give you the quiet and peace as it is still laid-back and not too crowded. For those bringing their kids in tow, there’s the Desaru Coast Adventure Water Park and the Ostrich Farms. If you love nature activities, a trip to the fishing villages in Tanjung Balau and the Desaru Fruit Farm are top options. And then there’s the food. At 40-50 RM or around 10 USD, you can already feast on affordable seafood as the town is coastal in nature. Keep it local and definitely there will be plenty of affordable but decent food options. The race started with a rolling start process in front of The Westin Desaru Coast Resort beachfront. The course is an inverted triangle swim, and in a clockwise direction. The swim was relatively smooth except for some little waves near the shore. Feedback from finishers were the presence of tiny shrimp-like creatures, or planktons. That’s open water swim for you and you will get through that. The last 700m swim back was a hurdle for some, as they were fighting to keep it rightmost on waves that were coming from right to left. From the swim out is a good 200-300 meter jog to the transition area. Another 200m jog from the transition area greets the athletes from where the bike mount area is. The long transition is worth it as this is one of the best bike courses in the triathlon racing circuit in Asia. What made the bike course pop out in this review is two things: First, the roads are silky smooth (as Zohan would say it), almost perfect and immaculate road conditions. Second, the canopy of trees and vegetation is a welcome sight, especially in the Jalan Ladang Siang section. With the sun barely out, the canopy provided shade to the athletes. It is truly a refreshing view. Despite the terrain being rolling and undulating, there is nothing too hard for most trained triathletes, except for a few steep sections. A cassette with 27 or 30 at the back is more than enough. Despite that, the course is not technical and plenty of straight sections can give triathletes time to keep their head down and steady. I thought the course would feature some coastal views, but the roadside view of plants, trees and vegetation does not disappoint. Course was well marked and plenty of marshals and police/security on hand to control the minimal traffic on the course. On my coverage, there was very minimal vehicle-cyclist interaction, and could say that the bike course was almost exclusive to the participants. Another long jog to the transition area greets the triathletes after the dismount area. As with any Siutheast Asian race, it should be hot on the