CLARK FREEPORT – A restaurateur mother of two kids topped her age group at
the grueling Ironman 70.3 held Cebu held on Sunday, Aug. 7.
Triathlete Mitch Otsuru-Park of Yu-Fu-In Yakiniku and Japanese Restaurant and
also vice president of the Hotel and Restaurants Association in Pampanga, ruled
the 35-39 Age Group category of the endurance race and qualified for a slot in
the Ironman Worlds Championship in Finland next year.
It was no easy feat for Otsuru-Park, hounded as she was by “bad luck” throughout
the race.
“Felt like I was the unluckiest person in this morning’s Ironman 70.3 Race in
Cebu,” she posted in her social media account. “First, I realized I left my cycling
shoes in our room while waiting for our turn in the swim course so I had to sprint
back to our hotel and back to the transition to set it up.”
“Next is I got a flat rear tire thrice. Changed the inner tube twice. Used a Co2
once. Biked on flat tires for almost 20-km. Good thing the marshals assisted me,”
she continued. “I trained so much for swim bike run but I didn’t train on changing
my tires coz I normally don’t get flat tires.”
She said she “almost lost hope when I got to the run course, coz I felt like all my
trainings went to waste just because of a flat tire,” and consoled herself, “I just
wanted to finish the race and still try to have a good finish time.”
Her persistence paid off; “It may be impossible and surreal, but my bad luck
changed its course when I finished 1st Place in my Age Group” with a time of
6:33:45.
This year’s Ironman 70.3 edition featured the newly-opened Cebu–Cordova Link
Expressway Bridge and Mactan Newtown in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.
A total of 1,928 athletes from 46 countries joined the race that Tourism Secretary
Christina Garcia Frasco hailed as “a clear manifestation of the international
triathlon community’s confidence in the Philippines as it reopens its borders to
the global community.”
