Port Dickson International Triathlon 2008, July 20.Swim leg : As I was being the first wave of the swimmers to start of swim, I thought I'll have a clear lane during my 1.5km ocean swim. Right after the start off, I was already blocked by couples of swimmers around me. After 250m swim out to the sea, there are still 3 swimmers kept swimming alongside with me with most of the time I have to stop and swim to their left or right, making my swimming time affected. I remember there was a swimmer kept pacing with me till the last buoy, he either kept touching my foot thorough out the first 750m swim or I'm the one that touching his foot. Making me a bit frustrating as the whole swim lane was so big but the 2 of us kept banging each other.
After the last buoy turn, I changed my strategy and swam away from anyone near me and finally came out from water @ 25min13sec, not a good time but I still felt comfortable after swim. I was thinking if I'd swam away from the annoying swimmer at the first hundred meters, I would probably hitting even better swim time. One thing that make my swim comfortable was mainly because I saw bubbles coming from the bottom of the sea during the 1.5km swim. I realized there were rescue scuba divers down there and felt secure with that :)
Thanks for Mr.Chan's well race management.
Right after coming out from water :)Bike Leg : Leaving T1 alone as the front pack dashing out too fast!! When I was pushing my bike out from the T1, to my surprise someone stole 1 of my powergels which on my bike :( Luckily I still had 1 more there. Stick to my plan to refill during the first few minutes while waiting for chase group. Right before the 3km mark, there was a lone cyclist whole cycled very hard passed through me and I quickly drafted him behind. He was pushing so hard, kept pushing the speed and didn't slow down at all during hilly slopes, dr0pped by him as my plan was to keep my pace and reserve the energy for the run.
After 6km mark on the cycling leg, Sharom (the best Duathlete of Malaysia) passing me with cruising speed. With the confident that I have in me, I drafted him for about 5km. Around 3-4km of drafting behind him, I felt short of breaths and can feel that my HR was very high. At a glance at my cycling computer, wow!!! I was trailing behind him @ ~50km/h. 2things were in my minds at that moment 1)I was amaze how had I improved in my cycling that I can drafted Sharom for such a distance, 2) I knew I'm gonna suffer later on as I was almost all out during the first half of the cycling leg, it was a wrong person who I drafted :( My heart was almost popped out from my chest even I just sitting behind him!! Siao....I decided not to killing myself as no point pushing myself too hard and jeopadise my whole race after all.
Shrom Abdullah, the top duathlete of Malaysia.Only after I stopped drafting behind him then I realised I was using too much of my energy to tail him. I kept telling myself to breath harder as to reduce the "lactic asid" effect on my legs. Whithin minutes, there was another chase pack approaching, I buckled up myself as to make sure that I will drafted this bigger group towards T2. There were roughly 8 cyclist in the pack and the front cyclist looked really crazy, kept pushing and jumped from his saddle many times, his breathing sounds like a crazy man!! I just focusing at behind and not to drop from them.
After the 20km mark U turn, everyone was again jumped up to push harder, I was so excited as this was the fun of the game :)
During the cycling leg, I saw 2 accidents all just near to me. One man flew up in the sky when I turned behind to see him as he shouted, he might get a terrible injury afterall. Another one was right in front of me with 1km towards T2, thanks to god as I was just less than 5m from him while another cyclist who tailing behind him crashed with him and both down by the road side!!
Run Leg : My right thigh felt abit hard before I got down from my bike and luckily there was no cramp when coming out from T2. I felt fresh but not dare to push any further as I want to enjoy my race :) Compare to other races, not so many slow runners passing me during the run leg and I really enjoy this. Probably this is because we started with different start waves. Anyway, I managed to finish the 10km run with more than 1hour and far out from my PD personal best time of 2hours58min :)
Summary : I have improved in swimming and cycling for the past one year but my running still my weakest leg. Next focus will be my running leg :) I know what to do now.
Desaru Half-Ironman 2008, here I come!!
"phew phit", looked like shampoo ads for bulu kertiak, hahaha:)
View @ transition area with all the bikes on the road!!!
First pack of damn fast cyclist coming back to T1, I think they did it in less than an hour for 40km ride -_-
Me going out from T1 after 25min of 1.5km swim.
After a grueling 40km ride with average 32km/h, I was abit cautions going out from T2 with my thighs start giving me some pulling sensation :( Compare to last time, I was more prepared to face my cramps on legs now, I know how to make it works as I want :)
Finally the race is over under hot sun with a time of 2h58min. This timing was far out from my PB did here in PD last year with 2h41m!! Yet, I still felt the satisfaction during the race as I've improved tremendously in my cycling leg over the year.
Don Khor, the best chinese veteran triathletes of Malaysia. Not so many people including the youngesters who can overtake him during the run :)
Chee, Ironman who we train together :)
Ashoka(Cyclist in red with gold helmet), his new 2nd bike cost RM20k, his helmet cost RM1k. U can go for high end of a bike or focus on the preformance instead :)
Er Win, ex-swimmer and ex-lifeguard, going for hardcore diving now !!
Kar Seng, upcoming triathlete :)
