Saturday, 0630, Lavender Bus Park
The sky was still dark but the bus park were already full of chatters. A group of us were gathered to load up our bikes onto the buses. There were me, Jacqueline (who pride herself over her last minute surge over me in the last 400m surge in Sundown Marathon in June), Carol (who just had her first OD triathlon one week ago in OSIT), Lynn (my fellow neighbour who stays at the condo beside mine!), Sandy (who was the newly proclaimed Nun as she shaved her head for charity! Respect!!), Yong Sheng ( a fellow Funfanatic!), Chong (a fellow Yellowfish swimmate who is also doing his first OD triathlon), Elvia (the face of Aviva 70.3 Ironman and a super fast triathlete!) and a big group of fellow triathletes. There were a lot of blink bikes that day and boy, I was treated to “bike porn” early in the morning already.
Saturday, 0715 to 1330, Singapore to Port Dickson
The buses departed at 7:15am. One bus was ferrying people and the other was half people half bikes. Haha. The journey was long but the bus was quite comfortable with a lot of leg space for long leggers like me. We stopped a few times for toilet break and once for brunch. The bus uncle even screened Fantastic 4. Well, a little Jessica Alba was good entertainment. But at the back of some of our minds, we are thinking of the big race the followday day.
Saturday, 1330 to 1530, Marina Resort Apartment
We reached the accommodation we were going to stay at. It ain’t fanciful like some 5 stars hotel but it was pretty good enough for a one night stay. 4 to an apartment and 2 to a room. I was assigned a room with legendary Sanjeev (he is an incredible guy whom you will not think that he is an triathlete because he is rather “big” in size. But this guy just serve as a motivation and reminder to all that doing triathlon is about racing against yourself and nothing else. He is indeed an inspiration to many including me), Sam (Key Power International Technical manager who is a superb runner) and RV (a muscular guy who loves gym and endurance sports. He’s pretty caught up because he loves both but they are inversely related to each other!). They are all nice folks and pretty fun to mix around with.
Saturday, 1530 to 2100, Admiralty Cove Hotel
This is the place where we come to register for the race and where all the administrative stuff are settled. We walked about 15 – 20 minutes over here and the sun was beating down on us very hard. (a preview of what’s coming the following day). Registration was straightforward and things were kept to the simplest in Malaysa. Register in the name list, fill in an indeminity form, get your tee (which happened to be oversized and probably one of the worst shirt design I’ve ever seen!!) and that’s it.
After that we were super hungry, so a couple of us went to the Hotel’s cafeteria to order some food. It was about 3:45pm and our food took almost 45 minutes to reach!! It was just some sandwiches and drinks!! Now we know how efficient things are in M’sia. How I wish their service was as fast as how fast they swept some political guy , suspected of being Heath Ledger the Second, from his house before the deadline was even up.
After that, we saw the other group consisting of Dennis, Alvin Chan, Keng (Alvin’s new found love!), Alvin Goh, John, Andy, Grace, Jules, Chuan Cheng, Richard, George… They were suppose to be with a guy from Trifam but apparently he went missing and they had to drive up on their own.
After the late lunch, we explored the race site. Swim start, finish, transition, run start, finish and bike start, finish. Then lingered around for the carbo-loading dinner. Before that we had some phototaking at the waiting area for the dinner. I sneaked into the their storeroom and got some water for the group. Haha. Not my fault. They left the door open!!
Carbo-loading was not very good. Food were pretty ok with some stuff burnt such as the soup. The rest were ok. I wasn’t picky so I just do what I was supposed to do. Just eat! Haha.
After that, went back. Pack the stuff ready for race. Went down for a v short cycle to make sure alignment of my bike and everything was ok. Had a short chit chat session with my roommates. Went to sleep. The next day is the big day.
Sunday, 0500, Apartment.
Woke up, bathed, had a Blueberry Crisp Clif Bar, a bottle of Kopi-o I bought the day before and final check of my race pack. Did some pre-race self talk. Did my business and off I go.
Sunday, 0630, Apartment Lobby
Met the group and cycled to race site which was about 2km away. Set up my transition area, went to toilet to pee, had a warm up swim and gather at swim start.
Sunday, 0800, Swim Start
1.5km swim. 40km cycle, 10km run. That’s Olympic Distance (OD). I asked myself “Am I ready?” and I replied “Yes, I got to take back what was take away from me in my OSIM swim relay”. For those who dunno, I did very badly for my OSIM swim relay. A disappointing 40 minutes, personal worst. I feel that I owe my team and myself an answer. And it was a humiliation. I want to take it all back. Everything. I am ready.
The signal goes off and it started. I burst to the front of the pack and sprint off. The start of a triathlon swim is half wresting half swimming. Especially if u choose to be near the front. That was where I am.
I struggled to keep myself swimming forward. The start is usually a sprint to break away from the main crowd. When I was reaching the left turn buoy, I felt someone pulling both my leg into the water. In my mind, I was like “WTH!?” then I did something super evil. I paused and gave him a kick (though I dunno where I kicked him). I was cleared and continue swimming. Suddenly I chanced upon someone familiar right in front of me. He was easy to recognize with goggles with white strap. It was Alvin a.k.a Cookie! I knew Alvin was about the same speed as me in swimming. So I drafted him, all the way, till the last turn to the swim finish. I broke off from his slipstream and sprint towards the finish. Therefore he was only a few seconds behind me! Haha thanks cookie!
Swim time: 28 mins 24 sec
out of water!
running to T1 with Cookie hot on my tail!
Transition 1 (T1, Swim to bike)
I did biathlons before so swim to run was ok for me. Swim to bike was something new to me. I wore my bike shoes (as I’m still not seasoned enough to wear my shoes on the go when they are attached to the pedals), wore my helmet and my shades. Then push my bike out. Cookie was in front of me and he mounted and took off. I chased him on the bike out to the main road. Then for about 5km, we were playing hide and seek. I overtook him and he took it back. After that, I was alone. That’s when the real games start.
The cycling leg was lonely but exciting with the climbs and descends. On the flats, I maintained more than 35kph and slowed to a crawl of around 22 to 24kph on climbs. My fastest descend hit 55 kph. Woohoo~! I’ve never attained that speed on Bumblebee before. Still, draft groups overtook me. These are where the strong cyclist cut their timing. Cycling is probably my weakest leg so I had to let them go, maybe drafting their pack for a while at times. Zipp wheels were my biggest enemies in the draft pack as I couldn’t keep up with their acceleration! Maybe it’s just my engine. Haha. I was on aero-position almost 80% of the time. Back was killing me at the last stretch. I managed to closed up the gap with some who overtook me earlier by pedaling hard (about 40kph) on the last straight. After the turn at the circle, I switch to the small chain ring to start warming up my legs for the final leg. 10km run.
Moving into transition 2, the emcee was irritating. He was saying “ok, slow down. Brake. Stop”. It’s as if I dunno how to stop myself on the bike. Anyway, at T2, Cookie did a one of a kind step down from the bike. He braked and the back wheel lifted off the ground. He got off the bike from the front of his base bar and still managed to hold on to the bike!! He said people even clapped for him. Haha what a way of dismounting the bike man! I was telling him that he was lucky not to have installed aerobars on his bike. If not, father’s day may just be a dream for him. Haha
Bike leg: 1 hr 12 minutes
Placed Bumblebee onto the rack, took off my bike shoes, put on my running shoes. Helmets off, visor on. Took along my gel and a bottle of water. Off I go. Once again, the annoying emcee said “don’t take extra weight along. There’s water on the route.” I was like “ya I know. But u have one right now? I need water to take my gel ah!” stupid emcee.
running out of T2
By now, the sun was beating down on us hard. Legs were feeling different after cycling. First few kilometers were to get my legs used to running after 40km of spinning. It was torture. Luckily, the water points had icy cold water. But they didn’t have any isotonic drinks like 100 plus the whole day. So water was what we had to cope with. And Malaysia doesn’t have the cleanest water around. Well, good thing, it was cold.
At every water point, I took 4 cups. One to sip and splash my face, one to pour on my head where the sun immediately vaporize all the water, one to pour on my front torso and one on the back. One helper even commented I took so many. Aiya, don’t care already la. At the turn around, the marshallers gave me a pink tape, indicating I reached the turn around and didn’t turn along the route.
Time check after turn around (at 5km of run leg): 28 minutes
This is bad. I took 28 minutes to run 5km!! Am I dropping? Am I showing weakness? I can’t let any line of weakness get into me now. Once it does, it will stay. I started to aim for “targets” to chase after. It work pretty well. Felt stronger on the way back. Saw some of the group people cycling back such as Carol, Alvin and Jacqueline (who almost knocked into a guy in front of me ,trying to say hi to me). Turn around at the roundabout again, probably less than 2km. I burst down the road. I have to finish strong. I have to give the final kick. Turn into the finishing lane. And the finish line was in sight. Leader was there to take photo and I tried to look my best but I was more focus on the line. 10m, 5m, 3m and one more step! I broke the tape and a medal landed on my chest. Along with a cold towel plus a can of 100plus.
i'm finally back!
Time check for final 5km run: 25 minutes
Total: 2 hour 38 minutes.
I did it. I’m now officially a triathlete. Did my first OD race. I’m happy with my results and also that I was there with a group of wonderful people. After I finished, it was waiting for the rest to finish. It was fun waiting for them and cheering them on at the last stretch. Unfortunately Cookie had a bad cramp so he didn’t perform as well as he rightfully should. There’ll always be another chance! Dennis did his personal best at 2:40!! The rest completed in their own personal way and were definitely proud of themselves. Especially those who did their first OD. Same as me =D
Then comes, another long journey back home. Tired, drained, sun burnt but.. a satisfied triathlete =D
With regards
Eugene Lim
Special thanks to all friends who were there for me morally and physically and also congrats to Bumblebee for his debut in a triathlon.
