My waves starts at 7:35am, 5 minutes away from Steven's wave. There was no marking throughout the swim leg except for buoys which were lined up as markers. So if you can't see the buoy, you are likely to go off track. It was tough with people punching you from right and left. At times I feel people hitting my legs even. I definitely didn't enjoy this kind of groping under water. All I wanted is for the swim leg to finish as soon as it started. It was a long swim. All I care about is getting from one buoy to the next one. The water was quite wavy and full of debris. As I swim, I could see that some participants from the waves after mine past me as I struggle to complete. When I reached the shore, I was so relieved that it is over. A check on my watch shows that I finished the swim in 50mins.

Train more in swimming.

As I run to the transition (which is @ F2 carpark), I felt some strain on my left ankle. It was a long run from the beach to the transition area. At the transition I put on my gears quickly and left the transition in about 6:11mins.

A check on my HRM shows that my HR was not showing any value. I tried to ignore it and started the cycle slow but realized that I need to go faster in case I couldn't climb the Sheares Bridge later. I try to
maintain more than 25kph throughout the bike leg. At least at faster speed on the flat, it will compensate for the slowness along the slope on the bridge. As I get out of the service road, cycling down towards Fort Road, I realized that we are heading to the other side of the bridge which is against the traffic flow. I was mentally unprepared for this. All along I thought we are doing down the bridge through the normal flow. I started to worry as I got up the bridge. There were thoughts of getting off the bike to push the bike down. As the road is going down the slope from the top of the bridge, I tried to apply my brake and it seems to work! The bike did slow down. It felt great suddenly and I decided to apply the brake throughout the slope as descent. I felt that I was able to control the bike very well during the down slope. This is just a totally different experience from Langkawi. It turns out that my fears and worries are unfounded. That descent just boosted my confidence level and from then on my mood was lifted.

From that point onwards, I continued the next 4 laps of 20km each. It started from the floating platform down Esplanade bridge, Shenton Way, into Marina Bay and then out to Shenton way then hit into ECP and up the Sheares Bridge again (but from the other side, moving towards Changi Airport), down the slope, turned into Beach Road, Middle Road, Nicoll Highway, U turn before Mountbatten Road and back to the floating platform. 1st lap I was feeling very good. On my 2nd lap, I start to see people along the road either crashes or had their tyre punctured. One of the participants was asking for CO2 as his tyre was puncture but I didn't carry any so I can't offer any help. Then, as I cycle down the ECP, I saw Steven along the road. He was standing at the side of the road with his bicycle. I stopped to ask him what happened and he said his tyre punctured. I passed him my air pump but it does not work. He needs a CO2 (which we never thought of purchasing even). It was his first puncture. I can tell he was disappointed that it happened on race day. He told me to continue the race. So I continue the ride up toward the bridge again. Throughout the next lap, I was hoping that some kind soul would offer him the CO2. On my 3rd lap, I didn't see him along the road already. I presumed that he has left the spot to the transition area. For the rest of the race, I was feeling good still. The last time I cleared the slope downward, I let out a happy scream. I know that I am almost there already. My bike timing is about 3hr 15mins. I am quite happy with that. It took me about 2:09mins at transition.

Quite happy with my cycling but would try to improve the speed further in future.

As I reached the transition after the last lap, someone pick my bike. I rushed into the transition to look for my run bag and start to change into my running outfit. I tried to change as fast as I could and dash out of T2 to start my run.

The first lap of the run leg was very slow. I was taking very small steps as I was not able to adjust very fast to running after the 90km cycle. My muscles are not tuned yet. I could feel the fatigue all over. After I started running for about 500m, I heard someone called me and I saw that it is Steven. I realized that he decided to take up the skip rule which participants can use if they fail to complete one of the legs during the race. I wished I was given the chance to do that in Langkawi when I was doing the Ironman race in February. At 2km, I remember that I still have another packet of the Powergel. I decided to consume it immediately. Along the way I saw another stop where they were giving out powergel and I consumed another one. After that I stop taking anything except water and electrolytes. As I was finishing my first lap, it started to drizzle then there was a heavy downpour as I run into the floating platform. It felt damn good to be running in the rain. I was able to run faster even. But the rain didn't last that long. It stop after a while and the sun was up again.

On the 2nd lap I tried to look out for aid station with powergel but every station runs out of stock. I feel that my energy level started to diminish and I started to slow down again. I look forward to reaching the next aid station in the hope for some Powergel but every station disappoints me. I was feeling frustrated already. Luckly as I reached the aids station after the Merdeka bridge, they have loads of Powergel. That was already 18km on the run course. Despite it being so late, I felt relieve. I took one immediately. I took another just in case I need one for the last dash to finishing line. I look at the watch, I am not sure if I can reach the finishing line before 7hours. It seems possible but I was not sure. I continued running to the floating platform and it started to drizzle again.

On my way to the Esplanade, I saw Steven, Collin and Stephen. They have finished the race. I continue to run and I started to open up my stride for the last 1.5km. On my way back to the finishing line, I was confident that I could hit below 7hours. I just max out and endure the pain if there was any. As I approached the finishing line, I saw a guy posing for the finishing photo. The finisher banner was down after that but I insist the volunteers to bring it up for me to pose for my finishing shot. Luckily, I am still within sub 7hours by a couple of seconds. Hurray!!!!

Do more brick workout to improve transition between bike and run.

I went to the refreshment tent where I took a bite of some oranges on the table. It felt damn good to have completed the race. Then I saw Jimmy who have finished his race earlier. I returned my champion chip (got my $50 deposit) and went out with Jimmy to look for Steven. Steven was complaining that retrieving the bags counter was messy. He has managed to get 2 of our bags with one more still missing. Once we got our bags and bike, I went to change to a clean outfit. Along the way, I saw a couple of friends including Murphy and Jerry (who was in Langkawi and stayed in the same hotel as us) and Chris whom I always see at Triathlon races and gotten to know at OSIM in July. Once the rain stopped, we headed to the car which was parked at Armenian Street to go home. We pushed our bike till Padang and I walked to Armenian Street to pick up the car and drive over. On our way home we stopped at Chinatown to have our late lunch. When we reached home, there was a lot of cleaning up to do. We freshen up quickly and left the house again at around 6:30pm for the Award Dinner which was held at Ritz Calton.


Insufficient training.


It was well organised with a few hiccups.