reached race place at 530am. brought along 2 bags - transition and gear bags. deposited the gear bag at the deposit booth. But i found it weird because they provided us with a big sticker written gear bag and out number tag printed on it to be pasted onto the bag. When i reached the booth, they gave us another wrist tag and asked us to wear it for the race. I was rather surprised, even more stunned when the helper said i could not collect my bag if i had not had the tag. I asked what was the use of the sticker then. She answered she does not know. weird though.
Did not wear the wrist tag, threw it right into my transition bag, praying hard that i do not lose it if not i can't collect my gear bag after the race! i can still remember what the helper said, " if you dun have the wrist tag we give u, you cannot collect the gear bag even though your arm has the number print similar to your gear bag.." ...wondering what happened to the organisation...
at the race transition area, i started to panic. After 6 months of minimal swim and ride.
With only less than 10 times of swim in the pool (apart from coaching small adorable children)... and only 2 times of cycling, clocking about 70km in total for the 6 months... would i still be able to do it... finish the 90km of bike
JD was rather worried for me because I had never ride more than 40km at all... he strongly that i wear a pair of gloves for my ride and a vicer for my run. and yes, i did it all..
at the swim start,panicking... whether i should stand right in front or should i stay put in the middle of the crowd. In the end, i did the former choice...
the first lap of the swim was easy. i made my way out without any fighting in the water. It was easy to swim. Did not feel exhausted at all. There were a handful of girls right in front. I told myself that I just wanted to feel good and easy...tried to do a handful or long strokes and eased my way through the ladies water crowd. Soon, I was reaching the beach and I got up, ran to the other side, dived into the water again. As i dived in, had to take some time before I could catch my breathe..
out of the water .and then headed to the transition area to welcome my worst leg of the race - cycling. was really bad. we had to loop three rounds from east coast to shears bridge then to alexandra and west coast road. make a u turn and back to east coast into the cheers of our supporters.As i took my time in my transition area, my first time wearing gloves. took my time with my shoes and then took my time with my ride! I remember sunny telling me "we were all wondering what happened to u in the transition area. you looked like you were taking a lot of time!" oh yes, i normally take less than a minute to do the transition. this time round i took more than 2 mins !
as i rode out.... i was praying hard on 2 things
1) legs dun cramp
2) Bikes dun puncture
as i expected. many ladies overtook me on the bike. I was rather demoralised. But I told myself this " never mind, i will see you all in the run very soon" hahaha.... but what can a marathon runner doing a triathlon tell herself to motivate herself.. i guess this is one of the good phrase to use!
the third lap: feeling stressed on the back and on the hstrings...relaxed a little...
you could see frm my body posture that I was really tired already...and yes, i took 3 hr 17min for my bike, 8th position out of 9 girls in my age category... really bad!
and now at last my favourite part. Was wondering how well I could do the run because this is my 5th race of the month. Have been physically and mentally drained by all the racing. but as i saw JD in front, I caught up with him and smiled... a gesture of love for him:)
and then waved my way through the crowd. i ran quite slow for the first lap... relaxing the muscles and ensuring that they do not cramp ...
after the first lap, i felt rather strong... picked up the pace a little and headed off the aim for ladies in front of me... My NIKE lunar racer helped me a great deal as it was absolutely so LIGHT !
and i realised I was really quite far behind the ladies after the bike... well that did not put me down. I ran hard. though it was painful and exhausting...i continued...saw alvin, eddie, david from yellowfish, JD, alber, Jeanette, Ling Er, Grace, Esther and Elvia on the run... and many more friends too:)
the lanes were rather narrow. when i wanted to overtake, i had to make a rather rude move y turning my shoulder to the athlete in front and tried to squeeze past him or her. I did not want to spend time saying"excuse me" all the way because i was already very tired! Hence, i would squeeze thru every single space i see:)
haha in the end, i ended the race .. surprised to hear that I got third... in age category...
was a good swim, bad bike and a not too bad run...
but i decided... prob wun take the whole half ironman next year.. perhaps..
maybe do just the swim or run...
with esther and grace:)overall the race was pretty well organised except for the lack of water and sponges during the run route. however, it made it more easy as the run route was relatively flat and easy to run. the supporters at east coast also made our run easier by cheering for us!
the bike route was tough for me as it had several sloped to climb. but it was not for some riders who has been training real hard. (this goes to show how much training u put in determines how much u get out of it!)
the swim was alright but not pleasant during the second loop where we had to ensure with breaststroke kicks from the swimmers of the waves behind us as they were going for their first loop. it was not really nice as my momentum was paused several times.
I still love the atmosphere of the race because we could see fellow athletes racing with their passion and love for the sport.
a few photos of pple who have been in the scene for long:)
esther tan
tan yew chung... supposed to train under him for this race in the bike, however due to his commitments as the head coach for the commando team for AHM, we missed out trainings...
and thats about all:)race ended with a blast and we headed for buffet dinner at calton hotel .Did not stay for the awards ceremony though. it was too late. missed a chance to go onto stage to receive the award, but nevertheless, i enjoyed the race.
it was already an achievement having to finish the race with no training. love it:)
thank you some supporters:
1) Pat from NIKE singapore
2) Vivian Tang
3) SG runners
4) Fab
5) Rachel from redsxtreme
6) Peishan
7) Karen for preparing the sumptous bread for me after the race
8) People who have kindly taken photos of us all:)
everyone who has supported us in a way or another
kudos to everyone!
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