Picture Story of our mini vacation in Bintan Island, Indonesia

Here is a photo story of our mini vacation to the Island of Bintan, Indonesia.

For my Ironman 70.3 Bintan race report, click here

Never leave home without Scout the dog

While waiting for the ferry

As always Anakin Luke studies the map

Chrissie enjoying the free WIFI at the ferry terminal

Me and Amanda Sophia

Roi's Family just behind us

Amanda Sophia wearing her sunglasses

Anakin Luke looking at the big ships around Singapore

Anakin Luke getting ready to alight the ferry

Chrissie still sitting pretty

Obviously our bikes has a better view than we have travelling to Bintan

Anakin says "Welcome to Bintan"

We're the only passengers in the bus

And we're following the truck where our bikes riding

Reaching the hotel and eating

Me signing on my name on the athletes list after picking up our race kit

Roi too

Preparing my bike before I leave it in the Bike check-in

Bike checked-in

Anakin Luke impersonation of a hungry vulture

Our princess looks irritated because the camera man if blocking her view of the TV

After the race, still have some energy to play in the sand

Before we go home Amanda Sophia has a close encounter with an elephant.

My Ironman 70.3 Bintan Race Report

Here is my Ironman 70.3 Bintan race report.

Ironman 70.3 Bintan is my first triathlon race this year 2015. My last half-iron distance was at Desaru 113K Triathlon in Desaru, Malaysia, and is my 3rd Half-Iron distance race since I started racing triathlon.

I have been training for this race for the last 4 months and I know I have been lacking the schedule to swim, the longest I have swam was 1,500 meters and i think was swimming like twice a week for the last 2 months before the race, sometimes I would swim for 1,000 meters sometime lesser than that. So my swim time was around 47 minutes which is still better than my first triathlon which was 55 minutes. I know I can still do better next time.

I have been enjoying riding my bicycle and a bit of running, cycling for almost 4 times a week,a long 3 hr ride on the weekend, Sunday or Saturday and one hour of GCN Cycling Training on YouTube every other day. Its a 1 hr video of hill and sprint intervals that I have trained in my bike trainer. I think this is what help me together with riding with Team Harabas to get a better timing on the bike leg even though the bike course was a very hilly. I still manage to get a good time of 3 hours and 3 minutes. So even though the hills are a bit stiff and long I am still able to climb with the speed I have trained for.

After the bike is the run (obviously) where all 30 persons that I passed on the bike have all run past me (sigh). This is because I wasn't running, I know I came into this race with a sore ankle and I don't really want to do more damage to the ankle that is why I didn't run as hard as I can, people who passed me will always encourage me to don't stop running. I did started running on the second lap of the 3 laps 21 km run course because I was feeling a bit well.

So when a group of friends was passing by me I tried and run together with them for at least 3 km but again after the 3 km their pace was a bit fast and so I started walking again. On the last 6 km of the race I saw a friend that I have overtaken on the bike course, just 1 km behind me. I started panicking because I don't want him to pass me hehehe, so I started running again until I reach the finished line where surprisingly my wife and my youngest daughter was waiting for me. I was so happy to see them there.

Miles and Amanda Sophia waiting at the finish line

Finishing the race with a new bike Personal Best of 3 hours and 3 minutes and a blistering 3 hours 34 minutes walk of the 21 km run course (hahaha) I have beaten my old 70.3 timings. But overall I have enjoyed the race which always brings out the best in every athletes racing triathlon.

When you hear voices speaks to inside your head saying "give up" and "just cross the finish line on your 2nd lap, no one will notice that you did not finish and everyone will still clap and cheer for you". But inside you heart you will push through all those because you know that you have given time to train, sacrifice time with you family so you can go out on those long hours on the bike and run just to finish was you have started.

And after all the all the hardship in training and giving up time to be with your family just to train outside, to cycle and to run and swim. You will have the satisfaction of saying the you had finished this Ironman 70.3 triathlon.

Thank you Miles for all the sacrifices, for letting me train and race.

Desaru 113K Triathlon and Family Vacation

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