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 Swim
Comments: When the swim starts, more than 600 men, women and vetaran who took part in the Long Distance category swam out to the sea together. The experience is definitely different from the ones I took part previously. I had to fight the waves and tried to stay on course. It is difficult when you have so many people swimming at the same time. I tried to follow the crowd but everyone was heading to the wrong direction. So we have to do a slight detour. I felt a big relieved when I finally reached the first bouy. I was able to swim comfortably after that till I reached the shore. But along the way, I was bitten by some sea bugs on my lips and other exposed body parts. It was very painful. The funny thing is that I thought I was bleeding. The 2nd lap was better than the first one. In actual fact, it was faster than the first lap. After the swim, I had to run for about 300m to the transition area. What would you do differently?: Do not follow the crowd.  Transition 1
Comments: First thing I did was to turn on the GPS when I reached the transition. Then I put on the shoes, helmet and gloves. Did a double check to make sure that I did not forget anything then push my bike off the transition to mount the bike.  Bike
Comments: On the first lap of the cycling, I realised that it is not going to be an easy course for me. My back hurts as I cycled up the slopes. As I continue with the 2nd lap, I felt that I was loosing strength. My back hurts. I had to stop to stretch along the way. It is not easy when you have to pass the transition area 3 times. My morale drop slightly as I pass the transition on my 3rd lap. I can see that some people were already running. The last lap of the cycling was more than physical. I have to keep telling myself that it is going to be over soon. I mentally did a countdown of the distance. What would you do differently?: More training mileage for cycling. Transition 2
Comments: Felt sunburnt, put on Sun block before I set off for the run. What would you do differently?: Should have applied sunblock before the start of the race or before the bike leg. Wished that I have brought an extra pair of socks to change after the cycling.  Run
Comments: As I start on my run leg, I feel that my energy level has depleted. Saw n_evets a few meters after I got out of transition. He is already on his 2nd lap. Immediately after the 1st U turn, I saw Eu Jin who already starting to walk. I decided to continue running despite taking small steps. As I run, I begin to overtake a few people. I don't really care if they were running their 1st or 2nd lap but I don't wish to be the last one to finish. To complete the first lap, it felt like forever. As I was approaching the 5km mark for the run leg, I saw Stephen running his last few km. Just as I am about to finish my first lap, I saw n_evets who has finished his race around the transition area. Ipassed over my Oakley sunnies and gel pouch to him to ease the load. He passed me a can of 100plus and that was quite a relieve as there were only one drink station with a diluted 100plus. Along the way, there were a few encouraging words from the spectators. Some ang moh girls were passing ice cubes to me and other participants who were still running. One of them even put some ice cubes at the back of my Tri Suit. That was great!!! On my 2nd lap, I managed to fasten my pace. On the last 2km, I decided to fasten my pace further hoping that I could finished the race by 7hr 30mins. The day was getting darker as the sun is setting. It was definitely easier to run at that hour. I open up my stride all the way to the finishing line with lots of cheers from other finishers. It felt damn good to see the finishing line. When I crossed the line, I was just estatic. What would you do differently?: Can't think of any other way to make it better. The 1/2 marathon run I did in the last couple of weeks definitely help me go through this run leg. Post race
Warm down: Was too tired to move my limps. What limited your ability to perform faster: Not enough mileage for cycling. Need to do more cycling especially longer distance and should include hills in training. Event comments: It was a good experience of a half iron man distance. Will try to improve in my timing for the next one. Definitely need to do more cycling. It is a good prelude to the upcoming Ironman distance in Feb 2007. Hopefully, I am more prepared by then. Although I missed my target by 4mins, I felt good for completing the race. Profile Album Last updated: 2006-08-04 12:00 AM
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Malaysia
Triathlon Malaysia
Sunny
Overall Rank = 385/433
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/
When we reached Desaru, the weather was cloudy. We stayed at the Golden Beach Hotel (where the race is held yearly) while Stephen stayed at Pulai Desaru. After settling our room, collected the race pack, we drove throught the bike route and then stop over at Pulai Desaru for a buffet dinner. The spread was great and it is only MYR30! Where to get buffet that cheap? After dinner, we went back to Golden Beach to prepare our stuff for the race before we hit the bed. I was not able to sleep well the whole night. The next morning I got up at 7am and I keep going to the toilet. Went for breakfast and I couldn't eat anything. I had only a cup of coffee, half a slice of bread and a few slices of honey dew. I should have brought some bananas from Singapore. *sigh*
We head for the transition around 9pm. The race starts at 10am. While waiting for the race to start, I laid out my stuff in the transition area, did the body marking and visit the toilet for the last time. Before the race starts, took 2 caps of CE and 1 PowerGel.
Walked down to the beach for the swim leg at around 9:30am. When I reached the beach, I was a bit worried about the waves of the South China Sea. During the race briefing, we were told how the course is going to be like. I just couldn't belief that I have to swim 2 loops of the distance in the sea. The two bouys in the sea (used as a marker) are quite a distance from each other. I wouldn't have swim that far in the sea on my own. I was a bit sceptical about finishing the swim. Thoughts of drowning or DNF (Did Not Finish) did crossed my mind.
After the briefing, I tried to do some warm up swim but the waves were just impossible. I decided to abandon the idea of warm up swim and save the energy to fight the waves later.