Picking up my race pack with my Amanda Sophia
Where do I start? So many things to say and I need to start somewhere. Well here I go. We arrived at Lotus Desaru, Friday morning around 11am. After checking in to the hotel I fixed my bike and me and my family went out again to see what the hotel had to offer. The hotel is a sea side hotel they have 2 restaurant and a bar. Anyway, i took lots of photos of my family never even bothered to test an open water swim or ride the bike to check the bike course, oh the reason why is because weather was dismal no sun around 12 noon and it was always drizzling from 12noon to 4pm. So around 4pm we went back to the sea side so that my kids can play. That is when I saw my friend Roi trying out the water, anyway I was feeling confident that tomorrow I can still do some warning up and it will be a fun swim.
Woke up around 5 am, really can’t sleep at all, ready all my stuff last night and pick them up and ask my daughter to come with me to the event area so she can take photos of me and my friends. Ready all my stuff in the transitions area and since there are only around 400 athletes competing today the organizers had setup the transition area in a big covered garage of the hotel.
My Argon 18 E112 and gears all set-up
After setting up still have sometime to talk to friends who came late last night around 11 pm. After that we all went to shore to warm up before our 2 kilometer swim. The swim was a mass start, not what they say which was a age group wave start, well maybe there was not to many athletes that why the organizers has decided to go with the mass start. I told all my friends that I was only going to finish one of the two loops, because I am afraid that I can’t make the 2 kilometer swim but during the first 500 meters of the swim i felt very happy and i enjoyed the swim so much and when i was going to the first loop i saw no one exiting the sea, if i exit now i might get embarrassed and people might think I am faster than the actual pros or i cheated hehehe. So i took the second loop and finished strong. I finished 4th among my friends (there were 7 of us).
After the swim I looked around for my family and saw my 2 daughters on the shore and my wife taking pictures of me. Run towards the transition area where my friend Roi just left and my other friend Melvin about to leave the area. Quickly put on my shoes, helmet, gloves and walk towards the bike mounting area where my family was waiting for me. Picture time again.
During the first loop of the 3 loop bike course, i saw my friend Roi about a kilometer ahead of me that is when I knew I have a good place in the swim. I was always a good kilometer from him on the U turns of the bike course until the last loop where the last 3 friends I left in the swim actually pass me on the bike, I have no more power in the legs due to the lack of training during the past few weeks. Finished 3 hrs 22 mins for the 90km bike.
Into the bike to run transition, were I felt my legs have no more to give, I was thinking of giving up after the first 3 kilometer of walking, my legs really would not start up, whenever I start to run it would hurt badly or may be it was just in my mind, though I having bad stomach cramps whenever I tried running. Its my fault as well I never give enough time to train. I did not have any bike to run training so this is what happened to me, until the last guy in my group catch up to me in the run (or should I say “walk”). He encouraged me to to walk faster and never give up, we targeted to finish before the cut of time of 8 hours 30 minutes. So we did a run walk session for the next 15km of the half marathon course, we would walk 100meters and run 200 to 300 meters until my stomach cramps hit me again. This is what we did for the next 3 hours. And when we were on the last 500 meters I saw my eldest daughter now waiting for me and encouraged me to run the last 500 meters to the finish line, I said thank you and good bye to my friend and run with my daughter towards the finish line. Around 50 meters i took my youngest daughter carried her and run towards the finish line.
I finished my first Desaru 113k triathlon with a time of 8 hrs 24 mins (wow that's my birthday August 24 hehehe) not bad for a guy actually got no training time at all :)
Wanted to thank my family for the support, but i think next time i will need to tell them where to look for me on the run because i need more support there hahaha.
I like to thank all my friends who competed together with me, I assure you guys next time you will not take over me on the bike course hahaha.
Thanks to the organizers for such an awesome event, though next time maybe you can ask the trucks on the street to stop their work first because its really scary when you saw them pass by you or when they're on the opposite side.
Thanks to our driver Mr Alan Teng such a nice guy, if you need to travel from Singapore to Malaysia you can contact him here, +60 16-770 4745
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