D-8

i always get the flutters before an important race; the shorter/ intense the race, the worse the feeling.

anyhow, it had been quite fun getting to this stage. all the morning hill intervals, sharing of running techniques and morning breakfasts. great to know that some of us in camp do actually love running.

on the other hand, there is also the persistent silence from the select few and race attire procurement process that puts its leopard tank counterpart to shame.

oh wells, time to just forget everything and focus on that 15 minutes tomorrow.

up the hill, down the slope.
up the slope, down the hill.
any sweat?
no sweat chicken feed haha all the way!!! 

=)

race report: Nike Human Race

On 31 August at 1730hrs my 2008 race season came to a close. And I have no race scheduled in the near future.

That makes me happy. =)

But back to the topic, which is about my last race for 2008, the Nike Human Race.As the name implies, today's event was about the entire human race running the same race on the same day in different geographical locations in the world. A truly global event that only a company like Nike can pull off.

So anyway the Singapore edition was supposed to start at 1615hrs, a truly runner friendly time (if the heat doesn't get to you maybe the vehicle exhaust fumes will). Headed down to City Hall and got hit immediately by a tsunami of red. Bernard still tried to be funny and told me to look out for "the guy in red" when I called him. Very funny. Managed to locate him and dsb after some walking and we headed down to the start.

At 1615hrs, the starting gun went off. At approximately 1630hrs, I finally crossed the starting line. No I exaggerate, but you get an idea of how packed the starting pen, and consequently the entire race route, was.

We ran down Shenton Way, did a little loop around Marina South, then headed towards Clarke Quay before running down the 100m along Esplanade Drive to the finish. Funny how Nike managed to mobilise the undead, the untrained, and the PES C2L9s to turn up. Coupled with the narrow roads, it was more a wayang walk and there were times when I felt as though I was at Orchard Road on Christmas' Eve rather than an athletic event.

If there was anything which Nike excelled at today, it was gender representation. =P

And that was enough to convince me to come back for more next year, if they do organise another one in 2009.

Nike Human Jam Race 10K 2008.

Just did it.

ironman zurich 2008: race report

Gosh its already more than a month after the race and I have just finished this post! Just tells you how lazy (and busy) I am now.. =P

But anyway let's get started with a little warm-up:

Preamble
If you dig deep down inside the human psyche - if you strip away the body, the bones and all physical semblance of being - if you delve beyond the mind and intellect and throw away the loose sands of knowledge and experience – all that remains of us is desire.

We are desire.

Amidst the scraps of all the rest, there is nothing but that glowing ember of desire that drives us forward. We challenge ourselves further, we drive ourselves deeper and, in turn, the ember burns hotter. What we do with that ember is up to us; either stoke the flames or douse it, the decision is our own.

When we increase our struggles, the decisions on how to handle desire become more fragile and more tentative. As we challenge the limitations of our physical being, we find ourselves balancing precariously on that ember, teetering on the edge between accomplishment and failure.

It comes as no surprise that the challenge of Ironman racing far exceeds our physical capabilities; it is fueled by nothing more than that ember and the decisions we make to support it.

Let’s face the facts, the human body was not designed to travel that distance in that manner. There has never been any study anywhere at any time that has claimed Ironman distance racing is good for the human body. It’s not. Us Ironman racers, we subject our bodies to some of the most absurd conditions. And for what? A t-shirt? A finisher’s medal? Or is it that increasingly remote feeling of accomplishment that we try so desperately to harness. Like a strung-out junkie, we push harder and deeper to relive that moment we call “success”.

We race Ironman to feel good.

We pay to compete because we believe the pain will make us feel good; it will make us feel like we’ve done something with our lives. The pain will prove that we have grown. The pain will stoke our ember of desire. The pain will set us free.

At the 2008 Ironman Zurich, there was pain. In a couple of minutes I’m going to tell you what that race was like and hopefully I can effectively relate how horrendously nonsensical it was. More importantly, hopefully I can do that in a manner that doesn’t get you bored. Yes, it is going to be long, so enough of this warm-up..

Pre Race
The advantage of living and racing in Europe is that train travel is really bike-friendly. No airport hassles and no problems with getting your bike back into how it was before you took it apart and put it in the bike box.

Didn't even feel that I was going overseas for a race, but nevermind that. =)

So anyway there was nothing that happened out of the ordinary before the race to get me overtly nervous or stressed. Sure there were some fears of leg pain, of getting sick, of the unknown, of all the usual pre-race gobbledy-gook. But there was nothing really dramatic to get me worked up except, maybe, the weather.

Just my luck, Ironman Sunday was forecasted to be a rainy one. Looking back, I thought it was crazily audacious how the sunny weather during the week could transform overnight to become a soaking wet weekend. Boy was I wrong. The rain, and correspondingly, the temperature started to come down on Friday at the athletes' welcome dinner, and it continued all the way like that until the prize presentation brunch on Monday.

Checked in my bike on a very miserable Saturday afternoon and it was not really the best morale booster to leave your bike out overnight in a thunderstorm before a race, but I had no choice.

Race day
Morning activities were pretty uneventful: cold trek to Landiwiese, the race area, followed by dumping all my barang-barang into one huge garbage bag to keep the rain out. Nobody wanted their stuff to get wet and I was no exception. The transition area, although full of activity, was a relatively quiet affair as everybody struggled to keep warm (and sane) in the rain. One last look at the still plastic-covered bike, and I went along with the rest to the swim start like neoprened cattle being herded to slaughter.

Swim
The day's challenges:
* Cold
* Kicking, fighting, pushing, shoving, biting, punching, smacking
* A dramatic inability to move in a straight line

The Ironman Zurich swim start is a mass start, which means that it is a thinly disguised excuse to mix WWE, Sea World, and the racial riots of 1965 in one sporting event. What happens is that 2,222 people dressed like seals float around in the water for a few minutes watching the morning calm and then, at the blast of a canon – KA-BLAM!! – they all start punching and kicking, crawling and clawing, shoving and biting. In triathlon lingo, that is called a “swim”.

But wait, I digress.

Knowing what I lousy swimmer I am, I entered the water only about 5 minutes to race start. Even then, I soon found myself surrounded by lots of other competitors. 2,222 athletes is simply too much for Lake Zurich. I was still trying to acclimatize myself to my new underwater environment when:

KA-BOOOOOOOOOOM, the starting gun went off.

Even there, on my second time around, the start of an Ironman is somewhat surreal. The starting gun is not merely an indicator to go, it is a symbol of the journey ahead. It is a distinct line that separates before from after; it marks the space between training and racing. It is a split second in time in which your entire history, your months of training, your heartache, sacrifice and drive, all fuse like a sub-atomic reaction, catapulting you forward with a blast of energy right smack into your destiny.

They say that Ironman is the intersection between your greatest fears and your wildest dreams - that’s what happens at the starting gun.

With the sound of the blast still ringing in my ears, I desperately tried to let go of my wacked-out philosophies on athletic firearms, put my head in the water and began moving forward. Or backward, relative to the other swimmers who were now flying by me, pummelling and swimming over me as they went by. What a frustratingly violent and slow swim for me, as I tried to hang on to some draft and avoid getting kicked in the head at the same time. Eventually I managed to draft a breast-stroker and we made it though together for the first loop.

No such luck on the second loop as I found myself swimming all alone in no man's land. Swimming being my worst discipline, I found it quite unnerving that I was all alone in the mighty Lake Zurich. Left arm, right arm, breathe, repeat; it's going to end, I told myself. The swim has to end, right? Five minutes went by. Then ten. Then thirty. But the end was nowhere in sight. I began to tire. I didn't care about my swim time anymore, all I wanted was to get out of the water! Left arm, right arm, breathe, repeat.

Somebody. Please.. Make the bad man stop.

Then soon I looked up and saw the finish sign. The last 45 minutes didn't feel that bad after all! I tried to push to the finish but eventually I fizzled out and barely clambered out of the water in 1:37.

I jogged (or at least tried to with my tofu legs) into T1 and headed towards my two garbage bags. Peeled off the wetsuit, ate a gel, found and put on my arm warmers and two jerseys, put on my shoes, donned my helmet, and "unsheathed" my bike. I took a deep breath and a long exhale.

Time to go.

BIKE
The day’s challenges:
* Rain
* Cold
* Mechanical problems
* A never ending desire to give up

The premise for the Ironman bike loop is relatively simple: 2 loops encircling the northern part of Lake Zurich, passing two major climbs - the Beast and Heartbreak Hill - on each loop in the process. I had already done a lap of the course on Thursday so I knew what to expect.

What I did not factor in though, was the cold. Apparently it was 13°C at the start of the bike leg and the sight of many multi-layered and wrapped up triathletes was a testimony to the ridiculously low temperature. In any case, the bike was supposed to be one of my stronger points and so I just put my head down and hammered away. Luckily the first part of the course was all flat and I managed to overtake quite a fair bit of the faster-swimmers-but-slow-bikers. Sweet.

It was all going according to plan when horror struck. I was going up a gentle slope when I began to lose power. Apparently I was still pedalling but somehow my crank was just not pulling my rear cog along. Got off the bike to check and to my horror I realised that my crank came loose from the bike frame and hence I was just essentially pedalling nothing. Merde. I tried signalling for help and the first people to pass by and respond was one of the film crew teams. As it turned out, they were more interested in filming my unfortunate experience rather than helping me get technical assistance. Grah. In the meantime hundreds of athletes must have passed me by wondering wtf why was this person freaking out in the rain.

Standing in the rain was a huge reality check. While I was just cursing my bad luck before, it now dawned on me that I might not be able to even finish the race if the technical assistance people were not able to fix my bike. And a loose crankset is not something that common and easy to fix during a race.

Eventually the mechanics arrived after a good half hour (there was only one van for the entire course) and fortunately enough they had the tools to put my crank back in place. What they did not have, unfortunately, was a human defroster, for I was totally frozen by then. Restarting the bike leg was a painful experience with the windchill but at least I was happy to be on the road again.

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

There I was, a lone figure struggling in the rain trying to go fast yet keep warm, with a sore lower back from climbing the Beast and wondering all the time at the back of my mind when will my crank give way again. That fucking sucked.

I was in pain and I was suffering.

The ride after this was pretty uneventful except for another time where my chain dropped off just at the foot Heartbreak Hill and I fell down. Damn malu-ating as there were a lot of spectators at that point but at least this time help came promptly enough and a road marshal even gave me a push start! With that, I scrambled up the hill one last time and flew back down to T2.

Bike time: 6:59 (heng just short of 7 hours -_-|||)

Pushed my bike back into my allotted rack, where the whole row was obviously already full of bikes. I looked at my watch, and I realised that I would have to run a 4 hour marathon in order to hit my target of sub-13 hours. Rummaged around for my shoes, put on my cap, and headed out. My warm-up had taken long enough; it was time to unleash the beast.

RUN
The day’s challenges:
* Humidity
* Knee pain
* Viral infection on right toe
* Ouch

It doesn't take a genius to calculate that with 4 laps to run and 4 hours to spare, I would have to run each lap in a maximum of 1 hour. With that in mind, I set about pounding the pavement with a renewed sense of mission.

From the moment I stepped out of T2, I resolved to keep running. Despite the pain or any other obstacles, I promised myself that I would run the entire race. Sure, I would walk at the aid stations, but there was to be no walking in-between. I was committed to keep moving forward.

But just because you're moving forward doesn't mean that it feels good.

My right knee, the main victim of my crash while coming down Beauvoir 3 months ago, began to protest at the stress which it was being put under. Not to be outdone, the viral infection on my right toe also began hurting as well due to water seepage in my shoes. My thighs were also tired after most of the day's proceedings.

At this point in time, most people would have been about 8-9 hours into the race. If you ask me, 9 hours is a quite a long time to be on the move. And yet, I still had a marathon to run.

As I continued through the run course, my struggles increased. It felt demotivating that everyone else had at least a scrungee on their wrists, and my legs felt increasingly like lead. I tried to focus on little goals. Break down the distances; run to the next aid station. But I couldn't help but think about the long road ahead of me. I felt overwhelmed by the power of Ironman. I struggled to keep running.

The first loop was horrendous. Although I ran the entire way, I slowed down to a walk at every aid station. And my blisters were killing me. At this rate, I would not be able to hit 4 hours! I began to despair; I was uncertain of my capabilities. So many things had gone wrong during the day, could it get any worse?

When you’re already spiralling down a hole, there is a vulture of frustration that circles the mind and wears down the soul. Each negative thought gives birth to another, until you are caught in an endless spiral of decay.

The trick is to fight the vultures. No matter how deep you fall into the darkness, your only hope is to focus on the light. You must continually struggle to climb and claw your way to survive. You must focus on the goal.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.
I suffered.

As the run progressed, the distance began to dull my pain. I dug deep and found the will to keep one feet continually in front of the other. I began to be aware of my surroundings - the other athletes, the spectators, the volunteers - and that seemed to give me an invisible source of energy.

There is something mysterious about that ember of desire. Just when you think the flame has died, something ignites a spark. It may be remote, it may not even create a fire, but it gives light - and hope. And somehow it keeps you moving forward.

Halfway through the marathon at Ironman Zurich, it all started making sense to me. This pain, this suffering, this constant battle to keep moving forward… THIS is Ironman. This is exactly what I trained for. It is why I am here.

For the next 10 kilometres I started to push the pace a little. I knew I would make my sub-13 hour personal cut-off at the speed I was running, but I still had work to do. For the first time in the run I began to smile. I lifted my head, widened my eyes, straightened my back. I felt a surge jolt through my bones. By the time we got to the fourth loop, I felt renewed. I was reborn. It was as if my race had just begun. After 213.8km of suffering, I let go.

The final loop was the fastest loop for me. I stormed through the aid stations, surged through the uphills and then barrelled down the corresponding downhills. I was feeling good. I felt renewed and refreshed. This must what they call the athlete's "second wind". And all of a sudden, I was running down the final stretch.

It seemed to appear out of nowhere. One long dark straight road, then a left 180° turn and then.. Yes.

Yes, walls of people.
Yes, a thunder of applause and cheers.
Yes, a wave of emotions.
Yes.

Yes, it was surreal. There was clapping and there was cheering. I turned around to see, but there was nobody but me.
Yes they were cheering for me.

A tsunami of emotion flooded my body. I became high on joy and disbelief. Yes, I did it. Yes, I survived.

Yes!
I jumped in amazement.
Yes!
I screamed in disbelief.

YES! YES!!! YES!!!!

As I strode the last meters towards the finish, snapshots of the day came flashing across my brain. Yes the pain, yes the frustration, yes the struggles.

Somehow, someway, yes. I did it. Yes I did.

YES!!!

I cut the tape in 9:235, or 12:55, whichever you prefer.

Post Race
The conditions at Zurich on that day were absurd. It was 10°C when we started and 17°C when I ended. The race had a DNF rate of 20%, of which 2 other Singaporeans were unfortunately part of.

I am proud of myself to have finished. And although I tell myself that the race should be proof that I can withstand anything, I don’t yet believe me.

As humans, when we encounter life’s toughest obstacles, we strive to find meaning. We want to know why we’re better, how we’ve changed. We want to know in the end if it was all worth it. We want to know why. We want to believe that there is more than a t-shirt and a finisher’s medal. There has to be.

I found a piece of me during my struggles at Zurich. I don’t know what it means or where it fits, I don’t know if I’ll ever figure that out or even care. But deep down inside I believe – I have to – that I am a better man because of it all. And I suppose sometimes that’s all you can ask for.

After all, I am an Ironman. And that’s gotta count for something.

with the end in sight

As usual, photos of the race can be found here. =)
A short video of the day's proceedings on Youtube here, and a clip of my finish.

1287

Track me on ironmanlive.

duathlon de narbonne plage: race report

Actually the title to this post was going to be triathlon de narbonne plage, but more of that later.

Earlier on in the year I planned my races and I decided to go down south to Narbonne instead of heading up to Niederbronn. Both were half ironman distances, but other than just for racing, my main purpose was to use the race as an opportunity to practice my open water wetsuit swim and T1 transition, as I have not swam in open water for almost a year.

huge banner announcing the race

What a mistake then, on hindsight, on choosing Narbonne.

Arrived at Marjorie's house at Ventenac Minervois on a cloudy Friday evening. I found Marjorie through hospitalityclub.org and although her house was about 15km away from the beach (where the triathlon was going to take place), I was glad that she was willing to host me. She would end up chauffeuring me to and from the beach at least another 4 times the next few days.

Marjorie is English but she (and two of her four children) have settled down in France. In fact, Ventenac Minervois (and the surrounding villages for the matter) felt more like English hamlets rather than French villages, given the high ratio of foreigner to French (1:1). I happily watched the BBC, ate crumpets and drank tea during my stay there. =P Marjorie is incredibly well travelled, and was amazingly hospitable and open. For the three days I was at her place, she looked to my every need, and was always ready to share with me her travel knowledge and life experiences.

What a kind old dear, but I digress.

The weather turned bad on Saturday. By the time we reached Narbonne in the afternoon to collect my race pack, it was positively pouring. Those who know me will know that I absolutely detest wet and cold (who likes them anyway?); I can race Ironmans without problems, but I hate to race even a sprint triathlon in the rain! But I decided that I did not travel so far just to DNS. After some shopping for dinner in town, we headed down to the beach anyway because the weather had cleared somewhat, and I wanted to check out the race site.

they gave out wine in the race pack!

majorie and me

Race day morning. Usual bundle of nerves during the drive down. Got worse when it started to drizzle a bit and my balls literally shrunk when we got to the beach: the winds were so strong and so cold! For obvious reasons then, the swim portion was cancelled (drats!) and the triathlon became a duathlon - 15km run, 90km bike, and another 10km run. I didn't really relish the idea of so much lower body exertion, but hey, at least that sounded better than sacrificing myself to the crashing waves.

my spot (luckily I brought along my cycling jersey!)

transition

Race start was still postponed by half an hour but eventually we got off to a cold mass run start. The gun went off and everybody sprinted off as though they were running 400m sprints. Madness. I decided to start conservatively because it was impossible to warm up before due to the crazy cold and yep, I was right: 15mins into the run, I started to get pins and needles which meant that blood was finally circulating in my limbs! So anyway I finished the first run in 1hr10mins.

On to the bike, 90km made up of 3 loops of 30km - 10km ascend, 10km descend and 10km flat. By now the rain was really coming down and visibility was pretty bad. And did I mention about the wind? My spokes were literally singing in the rain as the winds and my rotating spokes combined to produce some sublime harmonics. The crosswinds too made it difficult for me to stay in aero without feeling that the bike would fly off under me, so most of the time I stayed in the drops looking like a novice rider on a TT bike. Nevertheless, I managed to complete the first loop surprisingly within an hour and I was looking to finish in 3 hours.

The P2C was an amazing ride and at times I felt as though I was just slicing through the wind. Most of the other time though, I felt as though I was riding with a parachute attached to my back (not the bike's fault, but my own incompetence!). The second loop was completed exactly in an hour, and I came in with Laurent Jalabert. But while he headed off to transition, I made a u-turn and headed off for my final loop. Feeling absolutely wet and miserable and with super aching thighs (no doubt product of the 15km run before), I was unable to push as much as the previous 2 loops and I had to resort to spinning the entire way back.

climbing on the bike

Final ride time was 3hr11mins. Damn. No time to feel sorry for myself as I picked up my Pearl Izumis for the final 10km run. Surprisingly no cramps, so it was a pretty uneventful run and I cruised home for a 5hr29min finish.

finish!

Final thoughts? Could have done better definitely; I raced a little on the safe side but still I gave it a good shot. Still kicking myself for not racing Challenge France instead! For those who want to have a look at how bad were the race day conditions, you can watch the official video here, or a Spanish tri club's version on Youtube here.

postnote: The organisers called me just now to inform me that I was third place for my age group! Whoopie! First podium finish in France. Amazing stuff. Unfortunately there was not much of a post-race presentation because of the rain which caused almost everybody to leave as soon as they completed. Not sure yet if there'll be a prize or something, I hope that its good ol' cash but I think that they will most likely be mailing me a medal or something like that. =)

marathon de lyon 2008

What other better way to kick off the season than with a marathon? I was pretty tentative about the race yesterday because of training being pretty disrupted with school and travelling and what-not, plus the weather had all of a sudden turned pretty hot over the last week and I was worried about coping with this new-found freedom from the long and oppressive winter.

Reached Lyon on Saturday and Ben was nice enough to host me at last minute's notification after the HC member who was supposed to host me texted me on Friday telling me that she suddenly could not accommodate me any more.

at the race expo

le rhone

So anyway the race was scheduled to start at 9. There were pacers marked out with flags: Green for 3hrs30mins and yellow for 4hrs. My goal this time was just to go under 4hrs, so my strategy was simply to keep as close as possible to the green flag while avoiding the yellow flag. I reached pretty early so I was able to seed myself well in the mass start pen. One unique aspect of the Lyon marathon is the chance to declare to the organisers that you are aiming for a personal best, and they will give you a special coloured number tag which allows you to start in a separate pen, behind the elites, but in front the rest. Unfortunately when I signed up I thought that I would not be fit enough to try for a PB, and so I had to stay at the back.

0900 and we were off. Along the way, we passed by the famous landmarks like Fouvière and Croix Rousse, luckily without the need to scale them. In fact, the route constituted mostly flat and wide boulevards and that made the marathon a rather manageable walk in the park (pun not intended). Talking about parks, we also ran through Parc de la tête d'or, France's largest urban park. I kept a moderate pace and kept it at 12km/h for the first 30km. At this rate, I would be able to finish the marathon in 03:30. But unfortunately for me, I started slowing down mightily from 34km onwards and it didn't help that the course from that part onwards was just a dull one along the banks of the Rhone and back to the finish line.

lyon city centre - notice fouvière in the background

Eventually, I finished 3hrs43mins (16mins slower than my PB), placing me 757 out of 2298 marathoners and 339 out of 801 runners in my category. The French are really good runners! I remember running side by side with this 60+ year old guy and at about 30km he tossed me aside like some finished powergel sachet! Madness.

Anyway this was a good race and I seriously had fun. It also got me fired up for the rest of my races here. Next up: Triathlon de Narbonne Plage on 25 May. Stay tuned! =)

running with the end in sight

parting shot

race schedule 2008

As the old adage goes, "Fail to plan, plan to fail". Furthermore in France, I do not have the luxury of just driving up or tagging along with my friends when I race; Hence the need for a sound game plan for 2008.

Taking into account my hefty school workload and other travel plans, it looks like triathlon has to take a back seat this year. Nevertheless, I still plan to do at least one Ironman and one marathon, at least for the fun if not for the challenge. =)

Alright, let's have a look at the main races for 2008:
1. Marathon de Lyon (27 April)
2. Challenge France or Triathlon de Narbonne (25 May)
3. Ironman Switzerland Zurich (13 July)
4. Desaru Pengerang International Long Distance Triathlon (TBC)
5. Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (TBC)

Assuming my race season opens with the marathon in Lyon, I only have slightly less than 5 months to come up with a 42.195km run. Which means I'll also be resuming my training log to help me track my workouts and to enable me to better plan my training programme. Of course, the countdown will be towards Ironman Switzerland and as of this week, there are 26 weeks left.

Currently, I am as close to Ground Zero as one can get: Bonking after 15km runs, a non-existent front crawl stroke and almost 2 months of zero bike mileage! Looks like I have a long way to go!!! o_O But at least I've gotten the most difficult part, planning, out of the way. All that is left now is just plain determination and focus to see the plan through.

Doesn't sound that difficult after all, right? Anything is Possible! =P

run like shit: inter-INPG cross country

Today I took part in the Inter-INPG Cross Country. Only knew about the event on Monday, so only managed to scramble in a short speedwork session on Tuesday before the race today.

Race conditions were perfect: It had rained earlier in the morning but the sun was in its blazing glory come race time. In fact, I was a little overdressed with my long sleeves and all for 8°C weather! Ran to the starting point an hour in advance to register, warm up, and check out the competition. Xavier, the head of my school's sports club, had told me to expect only a handful of runners, given that INPG people are not really that into sports. However, I think I saw at least 300 people already on the field when I reached. Talk about wrong predictions! =D

Anyway the race started punctually at 3pm. The competitors were a good mix of serious runners and leisure strollers. Other than the attire, I think I could differentiate the runners from the walkers from their body shapes. Lean, slim and shades meant runner. Baggy shorts, iPod and rotund figure probably meant that I was not going to see this person again after the start. I started with Nichol, a Belgian cyclist (who had been racing in the 2nd division in the Belgian cycling league) whom I met at the Singaporean food fest the other time. You could see the racer genes in him as he took off immediately at quite a furious pace. Being the slow snail that I am, I decided to let him go, but I also aimed to keep within his draft. Besides, I am never good at the shorter "too fast too furious" races.

The race was a 2 lapper, and the total distance was 6km. My strategy was just to follow for the first and to push (if I still could) for the second. After the initial hysteria, I was in the chase group with Nichol in front (and still pushing the pace), at what I thought was quite a comfortable pace. It was difficult to follow the front person closely as this being a cross country, the terrain was uneven and muddy no thanks to the rain on Monday and Tuesday. Anyway the first lap was pretty uneventful, with me passing quite alot of people along the way, and I finished it within 12 mins.

I knew what to expect for the second lap so I decided to negative split my run. Unfortunately many others also thought of the same thing and runners started to fly by me. Merde. I wanted desperately to go faster but somehow my legs seemed to be stuck at second gear, unable to push any much more beyond the pace I was going at. Grande merde. So much for pushing. I finished my second lap in exactly the same as my first: 12 mins.

So my time for 6km was 24 mins, which was damn far off the last cross country I ran in: Mindef x-country in 2005 where I got 3rd placing. Kudos to Nichol who really pushed it and finished with a time of 22mins. The winner came in at a fantastic timing of 19 mins, which just illustrates what a snail I am.

The cool thing was that I was wearing a shirt with the Singapore flag (Team TriZen) on it and people came up to ask about Singapore. Felt like some Singaporean mascot. Cool beans. And probably because I was all decked out in quite pro-looking gear, other pro-looking runners also came by to check me out before and after the race. Guess I disappointed them big time by telling them my timing! =D

Hung around for a while at the end waiting for the results and had some vin chaud and gateau before I did a warm down run into the sunset back to my place. C'était vachement un bon après-midi!

la randonée d'espoir 2007

This was supposed to be a race report, but due to some bad placement of arrows/signage, this has to be changed to a cyclotour report instead. =/

Heard about this event about two weeks ago when we went to Pinsello to buy CF's bike. Decided to go for this as I thought that it would be a good way to break into the local cycling/tri scene, plus get to know the cycling routes here better. So at 7am today I rolled out into the cold and headed to Domène, the town where the race was supposed to start, with CF. Although the temperature was not really very cold, the windchill caused by cycling was sufficient to cause my fingers and ears to freeze. Dunno how am I going to bike in Winter..

So anyway we still managed to make our way to the registration point in spite of the risk of hypothermia. I was surprised when the Race Organiser recognised me and asked me if I was the one who called yesterday, until I realized that it was fully due to my bad spoken French. Haha.. How funny. In any case he was quite impressed that there were two Singaporeans who came to participate in this rather small and community-level race, and he announced that on stage and the other participants who were around applauded politely. How lovely.

Left the Depart at a little after 8. Due to the technical problems I faced yesterday (loose bottom bracket), I was not able to pedal properly, and I even had to stop pretty frequently to tighten it. To make matters worse, we took a wrong exit at a roundabout and got lost. We only realized that we were lost when we saw no other people along where we were cycling, so we had no choice but to backtrack. Eventually we found our way but it seemed pretty clear to me then that the race was over. The markings (orange arrows) were not very visible and infrequently placed. Most of the time I was chasing down peletons, getting lost, chasing more pelotons, and then finding that I was lost again. Even some of the French pelotons that I followed got lost, with riders splitting up at road junctions, each preferring to go their own way. Haha.. What a weird event!

Chose the 90km event over the shorter 56km one as this one promised to be less punishing. The 56km one had 2km of vertical climb! And yes my course was pretty rolling as compared to my other personal rides for the past two weeks. It felt good to be able to get on the dropbars and just hammer away. It felt good to be in my familiar rolling terrain. =P

Eventually after about 95km of riding (5km of getting lost) I crossed the Arrivée with an aching butt due to the super rough and uneven roads. There was a buffet assortment of fruits and bread so I filled myself up. There was an event t-shirt too - Not bad for just €5 registration fee! =P Clocked a total of 120km today door-to-door. =)

Here are some photos taken today, courtesy of CF.

race site in the morning

race map

le depart

my brain getting fried again

row of bikes

me and my hard-earned tee

photowhoring as usual.. =P

Desaru LD Tri 2007: Race Report

Finally have the time to write this! Heh.. =)

Drove up to Desaru with my parents on a rainy Friday morning. In the other car was Chris, JS and Keiko. This was going to be my third Desaru race, while it was JS's second and Chris' first. 3-2-1 start and yet a 2-3-1 finish. Heh. Read on to find out more about the race!

Reached Desaru after a one-and-a half hours drive from JB, no thanks to the weather and the heavy traffic along the way. Checked in into our respective rooms at the Pulai, then headed to Golden Beach Desaru, the official race hotel to register, attend the race briefing, and go for the carbo-loading dinner.

uncle chan up to his usual antics.. =D

my parents and me at the dinner

with the rest of the whole jinn gang

Desaru is one of my favourite races because it starts at such a late time (10am) such that I can sleep in on race day unlike other races where it is almost always necessary to wake up at an unearthly hour to make the start line. And so I woke up about 0800 and went about with my usual race prep. Chris was nice enough to come over to send my parents and Keiko over to the start line, while me and Jinseng just rode our bikes over.

Met many familiar faces (as usual) at the transition area. I was feeling extremely at ease because I knew I was doing this race for fun and not really wanting to push it. Just went about the usual transition area preparations and that was about it. The weather was sunny in contrast to yesterday's rain and I was happy. Little did I know what was to come..

prepping at the transition area

me and Chris

three of us plus Calvin the super Ironman

me with my parents again at the start line

The race started very punctually at 1000hrs. Unfortunately the waves were as bad, if not worse than last year's. To make things worse, there were no line buoys to guide the swimmers and so many of us swam way out of course. The fact that it was quite an uphill swim (no kidding) meant that it was quite difficult to sight the turning buoys and thus compounded our problems. Twice I swam too far right going out to sea and thus I had to swim back to the turning buoy! Finished the swim in 1 hour but I suppose I must have swam at least 2.4km! Although I was disappointed with my swim time I was glad to make it out of the water: I was definitely more confident with my bike and run leg! Mounted my bike in no time and proceeded with the bike course. Unfortunately there seemed to be something wrong with my bike: My wheel seemed to be in contact with something as there was a constant rubbing noise and vibration which I could feel all the time! It got to me so much that I stopped by the road after 30km to check out the problem. Unfortunately I could not spot anything and so I continued along, vibrations and all. Even more unfortunate was the fact that it started to rain after my first bike loop and it made cycling alot more difficult: It was impossible to see anything and the ground was slippery. At that moment I felt that my goggles would have been more suitable than my shades! =D

In any case the rain stopped after an hour and I finished the relatively monotonous 90km bike ride in exactly 3.00hours. A little disappointing, but I thought little of it in the bike to run transition.

Because it had rained earlier it was still cloudy in the afternoon and those were perfect conditions for a PB in the run leg. Thus unsurprisingly I managed a PB of 1hr 45 mins. Hence, my total time was quite exactly 5hr 45mins, a large improvement over last year's 6hrs 45mins. But I was very sick during the race last year and that does not make for a fair comparison. I think many others also did their PB this year.. Probably due to the lesser number of racers this year and the kind weather.

Kudos to the excellent race organisation again this year by uncle Chan.. Dam boleh lah! It was truly a fun and enjoyable race for all! =D

running out of transition

dunno WTH ah pui trying to do also..

FINISH!

me and my ever surpportive parents again

with the rest of the finishers sans ah pui.. Haha..

keiko and jinseng

For videos of the race kindly provided by IMIM Clifford, click here, here and here.

And so after the race we went for the highlight of the trip: Seafood dinner! Drove down to Renggit and as expected, it had been colonised by the Singapore triathletes, at least for a day. So so that ends my race report on Deraru LD Tri 2007; I'll leave you with some parting shots of the food! =D

remmants of some leftover food and lobster

up close and personal with mr Lobster

PDIT: Race Report

Set off on a rather gloomy Saturday morning. My vehicle commander was Freddie, a SAFRA Mt Faber runner too, and one year my junior at NTU. He was previously a tank commander in NS so we would be in safe hands under his command. =)

Left SG customs rather late at about 10, but it was ok since our race was only going to be on Sunday. However Freddie wanted to support some of his friends who were participating in the sprint race so our H hour to reach PD was 2pm. I also wanted to watch the elite race at 4pm that day.

Quite an uneventful ride save for a couple of intermittent thunderstorms and a long convoy of Singaporean Harley Davidson bikers. Boy are they fast!!!

Harleys zooming down as far as the eye can see

Reached PD slightly over 2. If the weather in the morning was gloomy, the mood had changed drastically as it was seriously raging with a serious thunderstorm now! Apparently the sprint race had not been postponed but visibility was so bad that I could not see any of the competitors! Not surprisingly as I found out later, Uncle Chan cut short the bike route and the elite was was postponed to Sunday, starting just 5 mins before us age groupers.

Did our registrations, then went over to our accommodation at PD Perdana Holiday Apartments. Jerry and Reeves, our roomates, were already there. It was anything but holiday apartments man.. Everything was so run down! Looked like the last occupants were the PD Triathlon 06 competitors! Haha. But I guess its ok since we were only staying for a night.

Freddie and Tititi Reeves

Jerry

Went for race briefing and carbo-loading dinner at night and caught up with quite alot of friends, both Singaporean and Malaysian! Went back after the dinner for some much needed rest.

Uncle Chan at his best

Luckily it did not rain throughout the night and by race day morning the roads were somewhat dry. Sky was overcast but did not look threatening. Perfect weather to do a PB, I thought. =) Some photos before the start:

me and Whelan.. Too bad he crashed during the bike if not I think he would have done very well!

Alvin's Aquatic Angels

Race started with waves flagged off at 5 min intervals of each other. Being in the 16-29 age group, I started in the 2nd wave, after the elite category. Swim course was rather straightforward and water was calm. Came out in 32mins, which is good for me, as the swim is my weakest discipline.

Ran out of the water and went straight onto the bike. Did the course last year so somewhat I already knew what to expect. As my swim was relatively slow, the fast pelotons had already departed and so I began quite a lonely 40km bike. The course was quite nice.. A little rolling at times but also some nice flat portions. I was quite determined to catch up with the front pack and so I went along quite furiously. Bike split: 1hr 12mins. Not the fastest, but ok enough for me, because afterall I still had my run, which was supposed to be my trump card.

Or was it not to be? My calves felt damn tight coming off the bike. Thinking that I just needed some time to adjust to running, I took it easy and sort of just "spun" my legs. Hmm.. 1.5km later and things were still not easing up. Worse still, it started pouring real heavily. Die lah. So I stopped and stretched. But things were still not improving! @#@$#@% What happened to my secret weapon? No choice, my run became a shuffle, and at some point, a walk. But I managed to
run the last 1.5km.. Think my brain's pain receptors were fried already by that time.

So I crossed the finishing chute in 2hr 49mins, 6mins off my timing last year. @!#@!$% 1 hour to run 10km!!! So much for PB.. =(

Also, I heard that somebody drowned. Dunno much details, but if it is true its damn saddening. When I completed there was not much news about it too. But then again heard that they only found the body at 5pm on Sunday. =(

Oh well that's all from me.. Leaving you with a photo collage which I did. Thanks Fennel for the support and photos! =)

PDIT 2007, no. 143 Jeremy Kang.

langkawi redux

Ok, finally some time to write a decent race report. Not going to be too long, nor going to be too naggy; I will just write about the right bits of it.

Day 1 Wednesday 21 Feb 07

Flew to Langkawi on MI364. Checked in early at Changi Airport Terminal 2. Saw many other triathletes but other than Boon Pin, can't really remember anyone else. Ben and Alex from Bike Boutique also flew on the same plane.

Reached Langkawi, paid RM70 per person for the official transport. Turned out to be a huge mistake. Asked if bikes could be loaded on buses and we take the lorry instead but got turned down flatly. Harrowing ride over to City Bayview Hotel.

Reached hotel, damn shag. To our horror, we almost could not bring our bikes up along with us. Luckily security was not so tight for the first few days so we managed to wheel our bikes up secretly. Discovered that Grace's bike got slightly damaged on the transit from airport to hotel. Attempted to put some bits of the bike together before heading out for dinner. Day 1 finished with 2 bikes finally set up but 2 people with brains which needed to be removed, all the bits of them.

At the airport. Maxicab cost $40. Having your own personal bike mechanic? Priceless.

Being sandwiched by the crazy Bike Boutique duo of Grace and Alex.

Luckily bike arrived in one piece. Thanks to Beng for the box. =)

Day 2 Thursday 22 Feb 07

Woke up quite late, but still managed a swim in the morning at the hotel pool before heading down for breakfast. Met Andy (smallcircle sir) at the hotel restaurant who had just returned from a swim and run at the race site! Took in some race course info from him which proved to be rather useful later on.

Went for race registration at Seaview Hotel (the official hotel) after breakfast. Lots of people there and it was difficult not to get excited about the race. Grace discovered that she was going to be the she-devil while I got stuck with a rather boring number of 62. Went down to the race expo and bought a shirt and a box of powergels (2 free bottles and 1 free t-shirt!). Thereafter proceeded for lunch and our own personal body tune-up training. Went for the bike course recce with Choonwei, Chin Cheong and Si Kwan. Was lucky to have met them, as we were hopelessly lost on our first loop. Did a short run after our bike, and we went down to Dataran Lang (the famed eagle square) for carbo loading dinner.

Dinner was quite terrible; the caterers only prepared 700 plates for 700 athletes, no more no less. But actual turnout was like 900+ as friends and family of athletes turned up as well. That meant that late-comers like me had to eat out of the soup bowls. Haha. Kinda like dim sum. Ordered room service after the dinner and packed special needs bags for check in the next day. End of day 2.

Registered athlete band. The latest fashion accessory to hit Langkawi.

Apparently this devil does not wear prada. *grinz*

Me after making the above statement at the hotel room.

Who's up for guano for dinner?

Calm before the storm. This is the actual swim course.

Day 3 Friday 23 Feb 07

Eve of race! Got played out by Choonwei early in the morned and missed the bus tour of the bike course. Looking back, it might have been a blessing in disguise. Spent the whole morning moping around and packing more stuff.

Went for race brief in the afternoon at the Langkasuka. No its not the Karma Sutra! Brief was pretty straightforward and there were no surprises. Met some more SG triathletes and general atmosphere was pretty upbeat, considering how many first timers were there. Went for lunch with Jeffrey (Speedo) and Lau Peng Ka & gang at this nice western restaurant called Domino's. After that went back to hotel and did final checks before check in of bike/run bags and of course, my beloved P2K.

Check in was again at Dataran Lang. Weather was sweltering and I was wondering if it was going to be equally hot, if not hotter on race day. Racked my bike, pasted the nice bling bling Langkawi sticker on it and last but not least released some air from the tyres to prevent a blow-out on race morning. After that went back to hotel to get some rest, and I tried to be more relaxed. By this time the pressure of the race was getting to me! Dinner with a few of the guys rounded off day 3.

IML2007 lecture. Practicals were going to be conducted the next day.

More triathlete emotional baggage.

Number 61 never turned up. Presumably because of me.

Bling Bling..

Brain ache.

Race day Saturday 24 Feb 07

Woke up to the smell of instant noodles at 0400hrs. Grace was already following her race day nutrition plan and eating all sorts of food. As for me, I wanted to follow my race day back out plan and go back to sleep but I could not come up with a suitable excuse. Plus, I had a really bad stomachache (results of eating 20+ prunes the day before). So I got out of bed.

After breakfast I took the transit bus from hotel to race site. Grace had Choonwei to pick her up. So nice lor.. Sexual discrimination! Got myself body marked and went in to check on the bike. Well, so far so good. No blow-outs, nobody stole my wheels, my speedo seems to be working. Hmm. Not bad! Did my usual stretches and went to the toilet at least another 3 more times. I was feeling so nervous and jittery I would have jumped at a sneeze!

Finally, with 2 minutes more to the ironman clock, the starting gun was shot and this took many of us by surprise as it was still dark, we were still on the pontoon, and well, there were 2 minutes more! Many just plunged into the water and swam for their lives. I followed ensuite. The initial going was tough and I was dismayed to find after swimming about 20-30 metres that I had just crossed the start line. I found my pace after awhile and I felt I was swimming quite strongly. Maybe I could make it in 1hr30mins! Fat chance. Turned out that I was swimming in a zig-zag course. The fact that the buoys were so small/there were no lane ropes/it was still dark did not make things better. I reached the turn-around in 45mins and headed for home base. Eventually, my swim split was 1hr40mins, which was quite expected. Exiting the water, I headed for the changing tent, put on my gear and ran out to look for my bike.

Also as expected, there were no problems in locating my bike as it was the only one left in my row. Sharing a row with the pros makes things rather demoralising in this sense. Tried to find my rhythm but whatever I could muster was broken as I hit the first long and dreaded slope within 4km of the bike course. Saw many others struggling to get up and some were pushing their bikes even! Eventually made it up with some difficulty and I think I developed a cramp in my right thigh at this point, which made the bike course more difficult. Also, I developed a backache, maybe due to my raising my seat post ever so slightly when I was reassembling the bike. Darn. The first 120km of the bike was tortuous to say the least, but not in a "difficult course" sort of way. My backache made it difficult for me to ride uphill and get into aero-position, so I had to push my bike up the steep slope on each loop, as well as just sit up straight and clutch on tightly onto my arm pads using my palms, even for the flat portions of the ride. Due to my backache and thigh cramp, the distance and speed of my bike did not become a factor for me as I just concentrated on making it through each loop with minimal pain as I knew I had a marathon to run after the bike. The local kids and race support along the loops also helped to take my mind off the race and just to enjoy the scenic bike ride. Biking 180km in those conditions otherwise would have been unbearable.

Finally after the second turn around (120km) my cramps started to get better. I could now get into aero-position and this helped my speed alot. Finally I was back to riding 30-31kmh and I managed to overtake quite a number of athletes. I followed my race nutrition plan pretty well, chomping down on 6 powergels and 2 packets of sports beans, along with many bottles of Enervit (electrolyte drink) and water. Soon, I found myself back in Kuah, where I made a quick dash into T2, anxious to hit my personal target. What I didn't know was that the worse was yet to come.

"62! My number is 62 and not 602!" I tried to tell the volunteers, many of them who looked on belligerently. Wow this was getting to be quite frustrating. Apparently they read my number wrongly, and worse still, had misplaced my bag so I had to look for my own bag. Argh found it in a pile of messily placed run bags and I dove into the changing tent to change into my running shoes. As I ran out, I could hear the crowd cheering for the winner, Xavier Le Floch. Great , I thought to myself. That guy has finished and I'm just starting out on my marathon. Amazingly my run was quite good and my old ITB problem did not act up. My strategy of walking through the aid stations worked. At every aid station I would ask the volunteers for a "shower" which would consist of them pouring ice-cold water down my body and legs to prevent heat stroke (unofficial weather report: 43 degrees celsius!) and inflammation (read: cramps) of the muscles. My splits were pretty good and I managed to run 30km (3 loops) before nightfall. When nightfall came it became pretty hard to run as the roads were not well lit and I almost sprained my ankle twice. The run at this point also became pretty boring and I stopped to chat with an American couple. In the end, I managed to get back on my feet and finish up the run. By this time I knew I would not be able to go under 14hrs, which was my personal target, but heck, I was 100% sure that I was going to finish the race feeling strong! At the Seaview hotel turnabout as I passed it for the last time as the marshals waved me on (which meant I only had 1+km more to go). Wow.. I felt as thought I had eaten another 100 powergels or something as my feet magically felt light again. I picked up the pace and ran with more purpose this time. At I rejoined the main trunk road, I heard the pounding of music, as well as the roar of the finish area, and I knew why I was in Langkawi for. Why I was doing an Ironman. The suffering during the day, the sacrifices I had to make on a daily basis prior to the race, the amount of sleep lost due to training.. It was all worth it! Even if the finish platform had not been erected, even if the supporters were not as crazy and raucous, and even if no one else came to Langkawi, I would still have come. The liberation of running down the finishing chute. The realisation of my dreams. The fruition of my training plans. It was worth it. I ran up to the finish line, kissed the finish tape and pumped my arms into the air. 14hrs37mins. The toughest show on Earth. And I made it.

enam puloh dua, please!

No comment and no photos please!

Riding alone for thousands of miles.

I was sooo excited at the prospect of running the marathon after a 180km bike ride.

"Shower! Badang and Kaki! Sakit lahhh!"

Innocent sponges were given as offerings to my legs who were threatening to disown me at this point.

Almost there!

Orgasm.

Aftermath Sunday 25 Feb 07

Got up around 9 in the morning and suprisingly could still walk, albeit with some difficulty. Lazed around then went down for breakfast. To Seaview again after breakfast, this time to return the championchip, get back our RM50 deposit, but most importantly was to get our finisher's t-shirt. Suprisingly the design is quite nice this year and its in my size! Yaay. Went for lunch (ate a meal meant for 5 just with Grace), went back to hotel to pack up and do some revision for upcoming tests.

Of course was still feeling quite happy and silly over the previous night's achievements. I was glad that it was over. 549 started and 464 finished. Although I did not manage to go under my personal target, I'm glad nothing went wrong during the race and I finished what I had set out to do. Yeah it was difficult, but who said that it was going to be easy? Pain keeps you alive! And suffering is good for the soul! Hehe! I'm addicted! Maybe Ironman Brazil next year?

Number 62, Jeremy Kang from Singapore.. You are an Ironman!

Savouring the sweetness of success.

Choonwei the bike butler came to help out.

Leaving in the stillness of the night. Oh I am such a romantic. =D