April 19, 2004

• The Travel In

  
  

  After some hiccups regarding transport, as well as some offers I didn't take as I thought it would inconvenience the parties involved, I managed to find my way up with Marco's group together with Joyce.  They had plenty of room, with only 11 people occupying 2 vans, plus with two relay teams, there weren't many bikes to pack in too.  Our trip up was pretty uneventful, except we had a tour of Malacca as the driver went the wrong turn twice and we arrived at the hotel at 2:30pm.  I had earlier planned to take part in the sprint.  Got registered for the main OD (that's Olympic Distance, which is the standard triathlon distance of 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run) and went around to check about my room whom I was sharing with Jonathan Pereira.  That wasn't too difficult; they even knew he changed room (later was to find out this was because they had given him a room with one King size bed instead of two singles, which wasn't really a problem for me except I do twist n turn a bit when I sleep).

  
  

  The Mad Sprint

  
  

  Got in, and he just got in no more than 20 mins ago either.  He looked kinda rushing around and ... it turns out he was going for the Sprint distance triathlon which was starting at 4.30pm.  I wanted to do the Sprint just to find out how bad condition I was in.  For one, I have been weak the whole week and haven't been training; more importantly, I have not swum for three months (since Jan) and the only swim I did last week was a half-hearted, less than 1.5km swim in the pool.  So... was I going for it?  Was it too late to sign up?  I borrowed RM30 from Jon and rushed to the counter... long queue for payment... and managed to sign up by 3.30pm!  Got that dirty look from Sam Chan (organizer) who was mumbling something about last min signups, not to mention she had only one page of pre-registered participants but an overflowing page of last-min participants.  Talk about logistics nightmare but seems like she's resigned to this kinda stuffs.

  
  

  Quickly went back to room, fixed up bike, got everything ready and ... NO GOGGLES.  I was so sure I had packed it in.  Another mad rush as Jon managed to borrow one from Shawn, another Singapore triathlete doing the OD tomorrow.  Finally, went down to the site 2km away, following Jon, while holding a bag swinging around coz I had earlier stepped on my slingbag resulting in the bursting of a Powergel in it and ruining the bag which has since been washed and yes, it is surviving well.  Saw Wendy there; she was just going for the Sprint distance.  Tribob people were there too; Bob and his gang.  We had earlier known Marco was going to do the Sprint which was why Van#1 had skipped lunch, to get him to the hotel before 2pm for registration.  Free parking, as there was no numbering for the Sprint, but the ground was pretty bad shape; can't really run around in it barefooted.

  
  

  Got in for a quick warmup, dunno how to say.  Water is not salty like sea but urgh... could be better.  End up after the race, washing off the white clothings which had turned brown leaves much to be desired of the man-made lake that we were swimming in.  Anyway everyone was kinda lined up in a line across the starting, with some of us in the second line; not bunched up at all.  Thus when we started, I had already kinda lost the first swimmer's draft, and never quite got back into the draft again.  Felt really terrible at this point; remember that I haven't done any swim for like ages.  Went one round of the island and got out, felt like it was the longest swim I've ever had - and this was only a 400m swim.  I'm trying to imagine at this point how tomorrow's 1.5m swim will feel like.  But managed to get on the bike, except I felt really really weak, not into cycling at all.  Tried to drink water but felt nauseated instead.  The first few KM felt like forever; and the hills were killing.  I definitely have not recovered form yet, not in the "power" mood to go up the hills at will, instead turning a small gear up already feels strained.  After about 5km, felt better and managed to get a sip of water.  Aerobars were very comfortable though but there were a number of rolling hills which I had to plough through.  Got into rhythm finally, around the second lap, and made it through the 15km bike leg feeling better.

  
  

  Finally on the run... I walked.  Didn't feel like doing much anyway and I'm saving up for tomorrow's race.  So I just did a slow run, but walking quite a bit, for 2km.  Jonathan, my roommate, caught up to me in the final 300m and forced me to go after him, finishing a few seconds after he crossed the line.

  
  

  As usual, during the bike leg, I heard the loud shouting of my name, this time a bit slow reaction, presumably coz Joyce probably wasn't expecting me in the Sprint.

  
  

  Also, my goggles were found by her, having dropped these in the van when my bag was moved around by me while I was rummaging for stuffs.  She dropped it into my bag.  I still wondered how I could have missed them, when I was sure I packed them in.  Backup was to take Wendy's goggles as she wasn't going to do the OD the next day, but that wouldn't be necessary now.

  
  

  Pre-dinner, managed to grab a race belt from SynergyMultiSport for damn expensive price. 

  
  

  The Real Stuff

  
  

  Woke up for breakfast at 5.30am, dropped the poo, having a bit of stomach problems but not serious, just liquefied poo.  OK OK, enough of descriptives.  6am, start of buffet breakfast and we got through with just one round.  Not going to stuff too much stuff in for a short race, and yucky lake swim.  Turns out later this was the right amount of stuff to eat.  Got my water bottles filled up with water from the restaurant.  After breakfast, saw this guy coming rolling into the hotel lobby, on aerobars, looking really sleek.  I was totally impressed.  Then I saw, it was a girl.  Whoa, it was Stephanie Chook, winner of the Women's Elites last week at Malakoff.  She was like, totally FLAT on the aerobars.

  
  

  Going to carry a small 500ml water bottle (USPS design, of course) and another 700ml water bottle will be my spare pre-race and during transitions.  If I'm going to feel like shit after coming out of the swim, I figure I won't be getting any water in during the first transition nor the first 10km of cycling either.  Mixture consists of 1/3 G-Push, 1/4 Ultra Fuel and the rest just plain water, for the bike.  2/3 of the G-push and a touch of Ultra fuel went into the 700ml bottle.  Nothing for the run, which will turn out to be a mistake later.  I should have taken my race belt along.  Body markings done by the two same ladies who did me yesterday.  Someone suggested: BRING OWN MARKER, dun need body markings done anymore... but where's the fun then    Okay okay, enough of this chee ko pek thingie.

  
  

  Went into the pool really late, hardly did any warmup.  Figure I'd rather save the energy for the 1500m swim - will really need it.  Dunno how badly I'm regretting this now but yesterday on the bike during the Sprint, I was like thinking, shit - I'm not going to do the OD tomorrow.  It's a whole 1500m swim, four times as long.  Saw Stephanie Chook again (hmm... my eyes doth tend roam to the sweeter younger thingies), this time noticing the long scars on her legs.  She's had crashes far worse than mine.  And she's only 22.

  
  

  Finally, we got into the water, and PANG, off we went.  I got into a draft but got pushed around left right center.  Figure most people weren't too happy with a breaststroker in the midst of them but experience from cycling helps - I'm not giving way to my hard-earned position.  You want, you swim PAST me on the left or right, I'm keeping to my draft and line.  It doesn't work too well, but I did manage to go from people who went too fast for me to draft to finally finding the right guy... who turned out to be quite the wrong guy.  This was an ang mo doing front crawl but somewhere along the way, he started slowing, the bobbing up, stopping and trying to find his bearings.  Meanwhile, the guys behind me weren't too happy with my stopping but what the heck, it's not my fault.  I'm already bumping into him when he slows/stops.  The corners were the most terrible as everyone is vying for space to turn and it's like squeezing three persons in a lane meant for one.  At some point I did switch from breaststroke to frontcrawl but that really took the effort out, and after that I had to spend some time recovering.  And I felt I was already pushing my red line on the breaststroke.  I'm also not gliding enough on the strokes, but after the crowd clears, I did try to be more efficient, and that helped in my recovery.

  
  

  After that it was mostly following that guy, but at times some impatient guy will try to come up too close to me, even pushing when I kicked them a few times.  It's not really my fault, when the guy in front of me is slowing down.  If they were so impatient, they should come over on my side.  But when they did, out of the draft, they couldn't go any faster than me.  Really pissed me off.  End up, I'm pushed out of rhythm and the guy got into my draft while I'm pushed out to go on my own.  But I can go fast too when I want to; my breaststroke is quite powerful when my legs are free to kick to their max.  In the end I manage to get back into my draft behind this ang mo guy - who did have problems finding his way and kept stopping once in a while to see where he was going.  Although I was doing the breaststroke, I had absolutely no idea where I was heading, and I was just following him.  If he decided to go left, I went left with him; if he did a right course correction, I went with him too.  Finally on the last quarter back into the shore, I decided he was going too far off course (as I knew there was an orange buoy at the finishing of the swim), took my chances and went solo direct towards to the orange buoy.  By now I knew I was going slower than before already because the guy behind me kept bumping into me.  After a lot of this, I got very irritated and just looked back at him.  Turned out he was a boy, and possible had no idea where he was going either; looking apologetically at me.  He kept a bit more distance after this though.  In the meantime we headed in a straight line for the orange buoy while the rest continued their zigzagging.

  
  

  Came out of the swim and saw Pek Ya.  I will need someone to work with on the bike, and I ran after her, to talk to her.  Okay, finally got into transition.  Took a quick sip of drinks, put on race belt and shoes, then helmet and Oakleys, and I'm off.  Transition was a bit slow as I tried to recover but still good enough for me.  Pek Ya will be way ahead of me now.  I never saw her again until the end, though she mentioned later that I passed by and went too fast for her to catch.  Two guys in jerseys... want to work together.  No idea what they were doing.  At first they were drafting each other, then I went past and asked if they wanna work together, then I took the pull but they didn't follow... weird.  I turned back and waited a while, then they came along... I pull, they take turns, and along the way we picked up Ang Mo #245.  We went fast and faster, each one of us pushing the pace slightly more.  One of the guys took a long turn in the front, and we were going down in a draft at max speed 65kmh.  I took my turn but there was a long hill after that; and I got dropped pretty bad, like a stone.  I'm still suffering from the effects of the weakening the whole week, and can't push the heavy gears - possibly due to flu.  The three of them continued and near the top, Ang Mo #245 got dropped too.  Two of them went ahead while I continued chasing AM#245; caught up with him and we worked together, but I was pulling most of the time coz when he pulled, the speed was a bit too slow for my liking.  I tried to pick up several people along the way, quite unsuccessfully coz we were going quite fast, until Lady Ang Mo #607 joined us.  L#607 was pretty okay, I felt she could even pull more than AM#245.  But uphill was a problem, as AM#245 went up quite fast, dropping me and even more L#607.  At one point we were splitted up into three, so I decided that I was going to wait for L#607.  We worked together while AM#245 went ahead, but two downhills later, I called back to L#607 that we were going faster, to catch up before the next uphill.  She agreed; we were quite the fantastic pair.  At this time I didn't think of it but she rode exactly like Joyce.  In fact she radiated the same kind of aura.  I was too concentrated on keeping the bike on the line and pushing within limits to analyze it at that time but on hindsight, she rode exactly in the same manner as Joyce, with the same pros and cons.

  
  

  I work better with Joyce than with Esther, despite the fact that Esther is stronger and can pull more and harder.  Which probably explains why at the end of the ride, I felt truly satisfied with my bike leg.

  
  

  Three of us worked together, with me pulling 70% of the way especially when L#607 took the front and heh, my hero-complex took the front from her almost immediately.  We had the chance to talk and I asked if she was at Malakoff last week.  She replied with a rather surprised... "I was winner there" or something like that.  I'm like huh, and truly surprised.  As usual, my brains don't work too well while I'm riding.

  
  

  But my riding is very alright.  I keep to my drops while behind someone, although I did lean on the aerobars too, but I tried not to.  However, once in front, I will get into my aerobars and increase the speed and take a long pull.  Drafting amongst the three of us were fantastic, very close to each other and very stable.  I could wind around the potholes - mostly non-existent ones, but just dark markings on the road - turning left and right on my aerobars and they'd follow right through behind.

  
  

  Finally going into a sideroad, we saw the first group, working in threes, and then a few more small groups behind.  Saw Joyce!  In a group, drafting.  I called out to her; don't know if she heard.  Take timing.  Then we saw a whole big pack further back of them.  It was a long ride... no turning in sight.  More groups, and all the time we're passing people.  At this speed, we wouldn't be expecting any groups from behind, and in the meantime my legs felt better and better all the time.  The effects of the flu were going off, while the normal soreness was setting in.  I could live with the normal soreness.

  
  

  Six minutes was the timing from when we passed Joyce to the U-turn - thus we were behind by almost twelve mins.  There's no catching her now.  Can only hope the big group gets her.

  
  

  From here, I start getting a bit pissed with AM#245 for not working hard enough during his pull.  I mean, if he can pull away from the two of us during the climb, it does mean he has a lot more reserves than he's putting in during his pull.  But I share the load more equally with L#607; she takes more pull during the climbs, while I'm the faster descender, pushing us to speeds of 55kmh on the downturn.  We still used AM#245 for rest breaks, when he'd descend at 40kmh.  On hindsight, I realize I should have been more forgiving.  These are triathletes; they are trained to expend energy over three legs - the swim, the bike and the run.  I shouldn't be expecting him to expend much more energy on the bike and kill his run later.  Coming from relay section, this is something I will have to get used to.  Of course, pros like Marco and Razani, they will cycle even faster than us on the bike, thus I have gotten used to the fact that yes, triathletes can ride the bike really hard, but the average triathlete can't.  40kmh is probably a lot faster than the guy is used to pulling.  But L#607, yeah, I could see she gave all she could during her pulls.  We now share the load with me doing the pulls mostly on the downhills and momentuming up the slopes, then she'd take over, pulling us over the top.  She did a lot more pull now, as I am feeling more tired.  AM#245, meanwhile coasted on the downhills on his pull (one of the reasons I got irritated actually but now that I think about it, he was right to be saving his own energy for the whole tri).  But one of the reasons why I never dropped L#607 was coz we were working so well together, and we waited for each other at moments of weakness.

  
  

  One Chinese guy joined us for a while then it was down to three of us again.  Later, I was to find out it was Eugene from SynergyMultiSport.  See?  I'm really bad with faces.  He came up to me after the race and we shook hands.  L#607 was so excited when we shook hands; I think we really worked well together on the bikeleg and so did she.  I would find out how embarrasing it is now, that she is actually Jodie Nikolic, the fastest woman at Malakoff the week before, and I didn't recognize her.

  
  

  When coming into the final road, I don't know why but I kept thinking there was a U-turn... so I kept slowing down everytime I saw these guys waving flags, when they were actually water points.  I braked a lot, and this happened about three times, before I realize, there wasn't going to be any U-turns.  Heck, we were about to reach the end point already.  I sped up, this time as I dropped L#607, I decided not to wait, considering there is so little distance left.  Powering to full speed, I took the speedbumps very precariously close, but coming off my aerobars into the drops, it took the shock enough for me to get through.  These are speed traps, and still going about 50kmh into the final downhill... nothing to joke about if one fell, but my mind was crystal clear.  Throughout the whole ride.  I was constantly checking body condition, way ahead of the road for obstacles, everything.  Music was even playing in the background of my mind without me being conscious of it, which is what I need to push a higher gear constantly.

  
  

  Into the run transition!  Got off my bike in the running-triathlete style, wah so proud, I could do that.  Parked the bike, drank water and taking my own sweet time, ogling at the same girls who did my body markings (they were standing just in front of my bike) while "mom" cum "coach" kept egging me to go go go.  Saw Vilja, Marco's wife running past me, and I couldn't help laughing as I called out to her.  It was an exact deja vu of yesterday as I came into the bike area first and saw her run past me going out.

  
  

  The rest ended up pretty undramatically as I walked most of the way to the finishing line, only running in the last km together with David Hung (again I didn't know who he was then but apparently quite well known in the Singapore Triathlete circle) and we finished across together.

  • 9:03 am
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