Desaru Triathlon report

Part 2

Race morning

Got up around 7.30 am.. Wasn’t feeling so fresh eventhough I did have a good sleep. The night before already had a heavy dinner.. makan 2 kali tuh..and also free flow of ORS and also some bread, and .. Woke up,  mandi2 and then prepared breakfast..(mcm kat rumah).. huhuh..bread, Herbalife, water,ORS+water and of course PowerBar. I planned to take 2.. but took only 1 coz already so my gaster bag already full.. gaster what ? my stomach lah.

Okay, all gears set, and ready to go. Biked to transition area. No need to drive leh, so near. This time had to angkut 2 bags with me.. mcm nak pindah rumah pulak..baju, kasut, towel etc..the usual things.. haha..and since this is maiden half ironman, i made sure i got all the ‘other’stuff that i need or may need with me.. lets see….

  vaseline & the ..ehem..sole protector, and anti-blister(not in pic)

i don’t normally bother to apply vaseline.. but for this distance, i must be crazy no to apply them ! where the sun dont shine also.. ahakz.. the sole protector..well, that to protect me from hard skin at the anterior aspect of my sole.. the skin there keras sikit.. plus, it adds some extra cushioning. so comfy. tak cukup with this thing, letak lagi anti blister adhesive at blister-prone areas..

 

 

GelBot, bought afer registeration. You can put in your gel plus ur endurance drink in there.. Nike bottle, present from my sayang..

Okay, done with the barangs..  nampak macam tah apa2..but IF tak bawa , susah la rite..

 

The transition wasnt as full as PD.. hahah.. i dont exactly like it when they want to rent extra space, and that extra space is for you.. and then you gotta push the other’s bike a bit so that you have at least some space for your self. but no such problem at Desaru.. michelle was next to me !! This time , since race starts at 10, ada la masa chit chat with my other friends.Bernard Chandran was next to me masa body marking.. hum..i wonder if i could beat this guy, oops, Dato’.. He took part in Kenyir and got in the top 10..wow.. I was well hyrdated, alhamdulillah.. 

 

Swim

So many people at the beach ! The navy band played some songs..How cool is that ! I was at the back but not the extreme end lah.. was together with Zabil, Jason and a few others.. aya.. Jason sure sayur me again, and i havent even buy him nasi lemak after i lost the challenge bet to him at PD Triathlon ! It was soooo hot..come on, 10 am by the beach. What do you expect..  but i dont think its that hot at Kuantan beaches at this time..but anyway, the waves were pretty big too..aya.. Jaja and i tested the water..and oh dear, it was dam ganas… but anyways, the swim start went well. mass start. and as usual, plan to stick it to an easy pace during the ‘rush hour’, and try to pace after that. The small orange ..or was it white..dah lupa lah..

Once hitting the water i instantly felt that its gonne be a longggggg swim. Did the freestyle and tersasar dari destinasi..did the breast stroke, slow la pulak..tak nak cram awal2 with the overuse of the lower limbs for breastroke..  Anyway, i did what i  had to do..alternating between freestyle and breaststroke. Still slow, but manage to catch with up with Major Kalam at the end of the 1st 1km loop. We had to run a short distance on the beach before going for the 2nd loop. A good way for the officials to ‘know’ that you’re not cheating !

Transition 1

My Ironman Zabil told me there’s no need to ‘rush’ at transition. I wanted to put the lock lace on my shoe and he said, tak letak pun tak pe.. So i took his word lah.. basically, tak rushing sangat to put on the cycling shoes.. 1st things first, dried my wet kaki !!! Tak nak early blister…  and then put on the ‘sole-protector’, and then put on my comfy La Senza socks. Pink color some more !! Who i saw masa T1.. none of the girls.. obviously their swim time is  much better than mine !! Ayyya… The table below shows how lembap I am.. but… heheheheh…

 

10	635	Tan Cheng June	Singapore	00:50:11	03:27:42	02:03:59	06:21:52
11	624	Nor Juliana binti Ali	Malaysia	01:11:56	03:15:54	01:57:57	06:25:47
12	637	Teryn Tham	Singapore	00:47:05	03:31:05	02:09:27	06:27:37

Mr Black of UTM was there at transition busy shooting video. Control and steady. Hahaha.. for LD boleh la mcm ni.. for O.D. cannot ahh..cannot longlai masa transition. Faham skuad ?! OKay…mari sambung..

Cycle

I got quite a few ‘new’ things this race..That makes it an extra special outing.. Apa lagi yg baru nie ?? I got myself a 2nd hand bike, again.. Giant. Same yellow giant, but different model lah.. its the same bike I used for my very 1st triathlon at A Famosa last year.  As i headed out of the transition, I prayed to God not to let the tayar pancit.. Takut la !! I think i saw Rashid on my way out.

Approaching the transition I saw Siok Bee fast on the other side. Major Kalam also. Tapi kejap je dapt catch up with him and then potong dia.

We had to do 3 loops for the bike, each loop 30k. And each loop tuh ada dalam 6-7 or more hills.. so do the maths of how many climbs we had to to for this LD Tri. But the hills were’nt soo evil. I dont think it is as evil as the ‘big one’ in Kenyir. They say. I tak pernah pergi Kenyir..Anyway, planned pace my bike at 30km/h most of the time, and kalau rasa confident nak laju, I will.

At the hills : to stand or to seat ? Dulu masa training , slalu duduk. And then practise to stand. No prob there. BUT i read somewhere, its better to seat.. And from a few other pro-friends , they say, its better to stand..so which 1?. If stand, kira guna gravity to push urself up during the climb.. If seat, ur simply depending on your quads to carry the burden. I decided to stand this time. And alhamdulillah found no problem with it.

Everytime before a u-turn at either end of the loop, I’ll see Siok Bee, followed by Michelle and Jason, and boy were they fast ! And everytime lalu Abu, he’s usually on the other side, meaning these friends of mine are much ahead of me during the bike. But takpe, I didn’t want myself to be under pressure. Pressure la sangat. Hey, I was enjoying my Desaru outing with the rain, and sunshine, and then rain lagik, and the strong headwind.. begitu ‘enjoyable’. Hakz !! After 2nd loop i realized i’m already sayur menyayur the people ahead of me. 1 at a time. Tapi tak banyak yang disayur. But 3rd loop I already caught up with Jason and sayur him !!! Yeee haaa !!!! So we’re equal now Jason !!! Hahahah..

Okay, okay, so much fot the excitement, I had to continue pacing myself, and not be so excited, as there’s another 21k run after the bike..

Transition 2

I feel more ‘protected’ on the feet this time. So, hopefully no prob during the run.. T2 went well. I dont remember who I saw at T2.. Just wondering who I’m gonna meet later.

Run

The weather was unpredictable eventho Tarzan dah mention before of the wet weather and strong wind. Kejap panas, then rain, then it stopped.. You never know what effects it’ll have on your muscle and ur physiology. But anyways, I didn’t want my muscle to cramp… drank at every other station.. and used to wet sponge to put water on my calf muscle.

Siok Bee was no where to be seen. At 1 point I saw Bernard Chandran.

 

28

410

Dato Bernard Chandran

Malaysia

01:01:48

03:21:58

02:15:42

06:39:28

.. i was like, Hi ! cewah..mcm jumpa kawan lama la pulak.. Ya la, my friends were telling me how he did in Kenyir, got 8th position , and the family turn up to support him. I’m so inspired !

Okay, pastu nampak Abu pacing with Shazly. Two cool Ironman striring together. Memang nampak cool pon. No pressure on their faces. Smiled to them. Shazly : Oi, laju nye ko nak gi mana ? Hehehhe… sayured them somewhere along the course. From there on its just about finishing the race. Tak larat den oii…

Towards end of the 2nd loop.. casualty strucked. No, it wasnt my foot. No, not my calf.. its the where the sun dont shine !!! Tiba2 rasa cam pedih .Alamak ! tadi dah letak Vaseline .. humm.. I was struggling to keep the run, but every other stride made the pain stronger and even stronger.. at 1 point i walked.. #$%&^%$#!! what to do ..what to do..?? i actually cried ..aya… i cant leave it as it is..and i dont wanna walk . then.. TING !!! I.D.E.A…. you know that thing called ‘sponge’? aaa… at the last water station i quickly asked for sponge. Water station guy : dah habis l dek. And i was like..what ?? dlm banyak kali aku ambek sponge, kali nie, and at this station pulak yg kehabisan sponge. Instantly i took a used sponge (thrown on the road), took it, kasi rendam , bilas, rendam, bilas in the big tong tuh, smiled at the water station guy and said.. : sakit p*p*t  lah..ahahha.. chill la yong ! passed the water station, tgk kiri kanan depan blakang takde orang, then put the life saving sponge in my running shorts.. ahhah.. you know where.

Okay, semua dah set, i continued the run.. aaaa…felt so much lighter la pulak skrg.. and some more the new NB pair seems to be very cooperative with me. . . Manage to sayur a few ladies, which i believe is from my category 16-34..or maybe not. Then saw the gal who is aalllllllwwwaaayzzz ahead of me in the previous ODs and sprints.. so this time must beat her la..tak ci la, always dia je sayur aku. She’s a lil bigger than me, plump a bit you may say, but in triathlon, plump, thin or muscular , you can’t tell a person’s performance just by their physique. If you’re reading this Teryn , (yeah, we spoke after the race), hope you dont mind me mentioning your name here.

 

But finally, missjewelz of Ampang was able to sayur Teryn Tam of S’pore the last 2k. Afraid she might catch up with me, i opened a bigger stride, and kept that pace all the way..weii..bila nak sampai nie..so near but felt mcm jauh sangat.. come on Julie !!!!! Sprint finish again,… !  What a satisfying run. And finish !

No finisher pic this time. Tak apa. Most impotantly I raced smart and finished it without any injury, cramps AND Blister on the foot ! Thank God !!

Here’s my official time together with the other  ladies !

 

8	633	Stephanie Wang Tingxi	Singapore	00:53:15	03:15:01	02:01:30	06:09:46
9	636	Tan Suet Fong	Malaysia	00:55:45	03:10:10	02:05:02	06:10:57
10	635	Tan Cheng June	Singapore	00:50:11	03:27:42	02:03:59	06:21:52
11	624	Nor Juliana binti Ali	Malaysia	01:11:56	03:15:54	01:57:57	06:25:47
12	637	Teryn Tham	Singapore	00:47:05	03:31:05	02:09:27	06:27:37
13	618	Lesley Tan Li Lian	Malaysia	01:04:13	03:31:32	01:53:45	06:29:30
14	617	Leong Wai Ching, Serene	Singapore	00:56:21	03:34:39	02:05:55	06:36:55
15	638	Wong Kar Yan Elaine	Hong Kong	01:07:28	03:28:34	02:09:38	06:45:40
16	603	Aileen Tan	Singapore	00:49:33	03:30:57	02:25:49	06:46:19
17	623	Michelle Looi Mei Yan	Malaysia	00:54:42	03:34:45	02:21:25	06:50:52

 They messed up with my position. Initially i was in 10th placing. but after this lady from the other category change to the category i was in (16-34), all the other triathletes were pushed 1 position down including steph and fong.

All in all, i had an enjoyable the race even tho the weather was crazy.. Triathletes are even crazier.. tending to do anything to finish the battle alive, injured or not injured, flat tyre or no flat tyres, blister or without blistes.. a few friends unfortunately had flat tyres, a few struggled with blister, Stupe, you’re officially the blister king now, and a few had problem with the gear.. but walla, they finished the race ! That’s the spirit ! There’s no giving up, as there would be a major question mark of why we struggle and do whatever it takes to prepare and train for this event, and in the end DNF.. it is so worth it to take the key note here,

NEVER GIVE UP !

To all finishers, CONGATULATIONS !!

Yip : next time check and check d bike before race start. and dont let me sayur you !

Siok Bee : my Ironman friend and endurance athlete, congratulations ! I’ll be catching up.. 🙂 heheh..

Michelle : congratulations ! lari laju lagi !

Nurina : join full next year okay !

Shazly : aya…serious sangat ke muka aku masa lari….? i was smiling la… hahaha…

Abu : best dgr ko jerit kuat2 nama aku masa bike, tapi tak cukup kuat jeritan kau.kalu tak sure i can zoommm and catch up with u masa bike, thus taking off a few minutes from my bike time.

Jason : we’re equal now.. Next challenge : Powerman ? lemme know when I and the subang gang can blanja u makan.

Steph : kasihan ko cramp.. btw, Emma dah tau aku suruh chop chop dia.. takpa, tahun depan a…