THE LAGUNA PHUKET TRIATHLON
IT’S HARD TO find much more of a fan of the Laguna Phuket Triathlon ( LPT) than Belinda Granger. She did her first LPT in 2000. She’s been to 16 of the races since then and now works at the event as an ambassador and pro liaison. Her enthusiasm for the race, though, hasn’t always been been appreciated. A few years after her first race in Thailand, Granger got pulled aside by Canada’s Carol Montgomery, who won in 2002 and 2003, after she’d been raving about the race to some of her fellow professionals.
“She said, ‘ I love that you’re enthusiastic about this race, but I need to ask you to stop telling everyone about it – let’s just keep this to ourselves,’” Granger recalls the Canadian telling her. “I still remember thinking, good point, Carol, let’s just keep it between the two of us.”
Even if she’d managed to totally keep the gregarious Granger quiet (a feat that no one on the planet has yet achieved), it’s hard to imagine that it would’ve taken long for more of the sport’s elite to find out about the little Thai racing gem and crash the party. There’s a reason the event is called “the race of legends” – a literal who’s who of the sport has competed at the LPT at one point or another. Which makes sense, considering how it all got started.
IN 1994 LAGUNA Phuket approached International Management Group (IMG), asking the global marketing conglomerate to come up with an event that would help promote the resort. Murphy Reinschreiber, then triathlon’s “agent of the stars,” was brought in to put on a triathlon race.
Prapa Hemmin fondly remembers that first event. She was the only Thai person on staff for the race that saw 284 athletes take on a uniquedistance course that included a 1.8-kilometre swim, a 50-kilometre bike that included a number of challenging climbs and a 12-kilometre run. Hemmin, who is now the director of destination marketing and corporate events at Laguna Phuket, hardly imagined that the tiny race she was working on way back when would become Asia’s longest-running triathlon or that, 25 years later, it would still remain an iconic event in the sport and attract 1,800 competitors.
That first race Hemmin worked on with Reinschreiber, his wife, Shannon Delaney, and a few of their San Diego friends was won by Mike Pigg and Karen Smyers, setting the stage for the triathlon royalty that would grace the top of the podium over the years to come. (At the time, Pigg was considered among the very best in the sport when it came to short course racing, while Smyers had won two ITU world titles and would take the Ironman World Championship the following year.)
Pigg would defend his title the following year, while Michellie Jones, who then dominated short course racing and would eventually become an Olympic silver medalist and a Kona champion, would take the women’s race. A year later it was eight-time Ironman world champion Paula Newby-fraser and ITU star Simon Lessing who topped the podium. In 1997 Aussie legend Jackie Gallagher took the first of her three straight LPT titles. She was joined on the top of the podium by an even bigger Aussie legend, Greg Welch, who in 1994 had become the first nonAmerican male to win in Kona.
Over the years, the race continued to attract some of the sport’s biggest names. Craig Alexander took the 2002 title, a few years before he would become the king of 70.3 racing and a three-time Kona champ. 2006 Ironman 70.3 world champ Samantha Mcglone took her first of two titles in 2005. That year Greg Bennett, the sport’s prize-money leader, took the men’s race. Jan Frodeno took the title in 2009, a year after winning gold in Beijing. Melissa Hauschildt took the title in 2013, the same year she won her second 70.3 world title, while twotime 70.3 world champ Michael Raelert won the race three times between 2015 and 2017.
What attracts all these big-name pros to the race? It’s not prize money – the event doesn’t offer any. Although some of the big names will warrant an appearance fee for their participation, for many the draw of the race is that it is, basically, a year-end vacation.
“I remember hearing about this event for the first time in the ’90s when I first got into the sport and was training at the Bondi Running and Triathlon (BRAT) Club in Bondi Beach,” Granger remembers. “There was a man there called Herbie Hardacre, who was the president at the time who’d been going for years, since the very first race. He kept telling me and a few others ‘ You really need to get over and do that race.’ Back then, I was an age-grouper, so I thought it was a little extravagant for an age group athlete to go all the way over to Thailand to race, so it took me a few years
“THIS IS KNOWN AS THE RACE OF LEGENDS, BUT THE THING ABOUT THIS RACE IS THAT IT’S FAMILY … PEOPLE COME, THEY BRING THEIR FAMILIES, THEY HAVE A NICE LITTLE VACATION BEFORE, AFTERWARDS, DURING – THEY DO THE RACE AND ARE ABLE TO RELAX.”
before I finally decided I should go. I got one of the professional packages that includes accommodation, air fare and food. They had to pull my jaw up off the ground when I got off the shuttle bus at the Banyan Tree Hotel because it’s truly the most magnificent place I have ever stayed.”
It isn’t just the great accommodations that makes the race, though, according to Whit Raymond, who has announced all but the first two LPT races.
“This is known as the race of legends, but the thing about this race is that it’s family,” Raymond says. “It’s the organization. People come, they bring their families, they have a nice little vacation before, afterwards, during – they do the race and are able to relax.”
For Raymond the Thai people are an integral part of what makes the event so special.
“The people are just so open and hospitable,” he says.
Until you’ve been there, it’s really hard to aptly describe exactly what Raymond is understating. They call Thailand the land of smiles and, certainly in Laguna Phuket, they’re not joking. Every single person you see will smile and say “sawadee ka,” ( hello). The hospitality is truly second to none. (I haven’t been anywhere else in Thailand, so I can’t say what you’ll experience in, say, Bankok, but I can’t emphasize enough how happy pretty much all the locals are.)
Raymond is also quick to point out one other factor that the LPT has been renowned pretty much since it started: “There’s a hell of an afterparty.”
“You talk about passion in the sport of triathlon – you have a lot of triathletes who really want to party,” Raymond continues. “A lot of people are winding down. They race hard and cut loose in the evening with a big celebration.”
Although the epic awards ceremony and party continue to be a mainstay at the race, many of the pros competing can’t afford a big blowout after the big day. In the 25 years since the LPT began the sport has grown dramatically. The days when the season ended on the third weekend of November are long gone – many of the competitors at the 2018 event were using it as a final tune up for Ironman Western Australia at the beginning of December. Others were off to big events in New Zealand, or other races in Asia.
Although it might not be the true season finale for all the pros, for some, and for most of the age group athletes competing at the race, LPT serves as a wonderful way to finish off the season with a race and a family vacation.
EVEN FOR THOSE who don’t stay at the Banyan Tree Hotel (Granger’s favourite spot that features separate villas around a beautiful lagoon and one- ofa-kind spa and dining opportunities), it’s hard not to enjoy time at any of Laguna Phuket’s other six hotels.
Launched in 1987 as the “first integrated resort in Asia,” Laguna Phuket is made up of 1,000 acres of landscaped tropical grounds scattered through a series of picturesque lagoons. There are three kilometres of beautiful white sandy beach front, a golf course and numerous other sporting and leisure activities. In addition to the beautiful hotels and awardwinning spas, there are lifestyle restaurants. Last year Laguna Phuket was named the “Best Sports Event Venue or Facility in Thailand” at the Asia Sports Industry Awards. In addition to the LPT, the resort hosts a marathon, too, and also serves as a training ground for various training groups, including one run by German triathlon star Jurgen Zach.
All in all, it’s a training and vacation paradise, one that has done well because of a televised event that started 25 years ago.
“I think this anniversary consolidates and gives our hotels growth opportunities, especially this year with over 50 different countries being represented,” says Ravi Chandran, Laguna Phuket’s managing director. “As a resort its great because we have people staying all all seven of our hotels and you have different nationalities mixing and learning the Thai culture. I think it’s giving us destination traction, but its all the other things we do as well. This is just the icing on the cake every year, and it’s becoming a signature item for Laguna Phuket.”
The resort isn’t the only Thai business that
seems benefit from the race, either. Thai Airlines has been involved in the race since day one, and the relationship appears to be set to continue. The race has also proved beneficial to local charities – the LPT Charity Run started in 2017 raised money for Children First Fund in support of seven orphanages in Phuket which house more than 400 children.
Not bad for a tiny triathlon that began as a marketing tool. Now, 25 years later, the Laguna Phuket Triathlon continues to find its way in a triathlon world that has become dominated more and more by Ironman. Small, independent races have been struggling over the last few years in the sport, but the LPT continues to figure out ways to attract strong fields (Banyan Tree, anyone?) and more age-group athletes. Last year, to accommodate those who might not be ready for the longer distance, the event celebrated its 25th anniversary with a “25 for 25 Sprint,” a 500metre swim, 18.5-kilometre bike and 6-kilometre run race that sold out.
Belinda Granger and Carol Montgomery hardly need to keep their little treasure under wraps. In a crowded triathlon world, there’s a reason the Laguna Phuket Triathlon should remain a bucket-list event for athletes around the world.—