Century Ride Ipoh 2012

After the wedding, I drove down to Ipoh from Penang at about 12am. After checking in and setting up my bike, it was already close to 2am. The race starts at 7am and I’m supposed to be at the check point to meet Daniel (a triathlete from Penang) who collected my race pack for me at around 6am. But I was still asleep at 6am till he called me. I was damn exhausted from the 3 week business trip to Jakarta and all.

Met him around 6.30am, collected the timing sticker and he asked me, “So sub 5 huh?”. I just smiled and say, “Cannot lah – 3 weeks didn’t train already”. Then after a small chat, off I went to the starting point. The crowd was pretty huge, I think they estimate around 1,000+ cyclist. Ate my powerbar and waited for the race to start. It was my first time doing 160k, and I really don’t know what to expect. I’ve done 100k before, and found it do-able.

At the start

Countdown begun and we were all release, a little messy at the beginning due to the bottleneck starting point but it cleared off as soon as we hit the major roads. I didn’t wanna push so hard because I know I wouldn’t be able to last at 30km/h for the entire ride. My goal was to be as close as 5 hours. Just at the start, one by one cyclist started zooming by me. In my mind I was like, “Seriously? Aneh keng?”. I stayed discipline and I continue at my pace until I was at the wheels of a peloton, I lost my discipline and started cruising at their speed which is about 40km/h.

Less than 30 minutes into our ride, riders from the front shouted, “Slow! Slow!” and everyone in the peloton also shouted, “Slow!Slow” because there was an accident in front. Saw a few cyclists sitting at the road side with the bike pretty badly damage. With the  rise of carbon frame and wheelset, getting involve in a crash is never a good thing. Few Ks later, same thing happen and I thought to myself, this will never happen to me.

I was sitting comfortably in the peloton and was enjoying my ride BUT suddenly a cyclist in our group fell in the front, 2-3 bikes away from me and I was like sh*t, gai liao. I saw them lying on the road when I quickly press the breaks as hard as I could but I still skidded due to our high speed. I hit one of the bike that is lying on the ground and toppled on top of another guy.  I quickly get up, pick up my bike and water bottle, checked my wound to see if there is any serious cuts, fortunately just minor scratches. Checked my bike, and it don’t look good, my chain came off but thankfully it can be fixed. When I continue cycling, I saw the front wheel was crooked, that is not a good thing. I didn’t know how bad it was but I know I wanna finish this race no matter what. I prayed to God to keep me safe and help me finish the race in one piece.

After this incident, I got a little scared drafting and riding in a peloton because you may get involved in an accident even though you are careful and all. So I rode alone most of the remaining 110k. It wasn’t easy but it was the safest. Every time we go down a small slope, I would picture my front wheel giving way and me crashing again. But that didn’t happen; it was just my imagination going wild.

Pic courtesy of cycling Malaysia

I stopped for all the water station, to rest a little, clean my wound, freshen up, refill and to get some bananas. All these are essential in a long ride like this. The weather was pretty good, it was cooling most part of the ride. When I got to one of the water station, there was a man holding those sponge soaked in ice water and he asked me whether I wanted one. I said yes, and I was expecting him to pass the sponge to me so I could cool off myself but he came to me a ‘showered’ me from my head to my body and all over me. I was like ‘uhhhhhhh…wah wah wah…shiok lo!’. It was unexpected but it was a good move, makes you more alert and awake.

I then continued my journey. At about 130k mark, I could feel my legs giving in. Muscle cramp, an athlete’s worst enemy. Why I say so. I can still go on if I have cuts and bruises but muscles cramp, no way, you can move your legs at all. I stopped at the side of the road and stood there for a while because I can’t get down from my bike and stretch. In that moment, I feared I won’t be able to finish it because it’s one of the worst cramps I’ve ever had, worst when it involves both legs. I continue sipping 100plus and prayed in my heart. Once the stiffness went off, I came down and stretch. Cyclist by cyclist zoomed pass me and I felt ‘humiliated’.  I always wanna give my best or to try to be competitive but this is not one of those days. I was already defeated mentally. After 5 minutes or so, I got back up to the saddle and continued pedaling.

Even by saying that, I tried to dig deep to motivate myself or to get myself going for the 30km. A light bulb popped out, since I can’t exert that much energy to minimize the risk of muscle cramp again, I was reminded about a training method from the book that I’ve been reading for the past weeks, ‘The Big Book Of Endurance Training and Racing’. It is mentioned we should all train within our Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate and improve aerobic speed over time; mine was around 150 BPM so I tried to stay within my range. To stay within 150BPM, my speed was about 20kmh to 25kmh but it felt so much easier and I feel I was more in control of my body and muscles. I was very focus on my target heart rate and soon, I was in the zone.

Me and the medal at the finishing point

After our last water station, I looked at my meter 155km, 5 more km to go. Yay~! But after reaching 160km, I don’t see any sign for the finishing line and we were still on the main road of Ipoh. It was a dangerous road as we were sharing road with other motor vehicles. Even tho there is a traffic controller but car still drive according to the traffic light and it almost hit me. Tsk tsk tsk. I cross the finishing line at about 168km on my meter and slightly under 6 hours. Definitely my second hardest day of my life and I have to thank God for sustaining me and keeping me safe again.

Very nice pewter medal

Next up, Merdeka Cup and 100K (10k run + 90k ride)