Lake Kenyir Triathlon 2013 Race Report

Three of us namely Sam Teoh (Driver), Jason Chew (Bell boy) and I left Penang at 7am heading towards East. The journey there was gruesome as expected. Including breakfast and a few toilet breaks, we arrived at our hotel around 3pm. Sam felt that my car was underpowered compared to last year. The culprit for this is none other than our new passenger this year. Ha!ha! He can really sleep! Whenever we stop for toilet breaks, he will still be sleeping in the car.

Jason sleeping

After checking into our hotel, it was food hunting time. Don’t really have much variety as it was way pass lunch time. Just stopped at a kopitiam for pan mee and headed back to our hotel after lunch. The sun was just generous with its heat that day! Took a long nap till 7.30pm until I received a text from Soongs announcing his arrival. Met him and his gang at a chinese restaurant for dinner and headed back to our hotel room again. We were staying in Kuala Terrenganu which was about an hour drive from Lake Kenyir Resort, so the plan was to depart from out hotel at 4.30am the next day.

Still sleeping

Trying to sleep

Sam watching some TV

Fun fact: That Trek was the bike I used for my first tri back in 2008. Was Soong's Boss'. Now it's Soong's

Sam relaxing after a long drive

Jason and his PSP

Finally a photo of me and Soongs! Bananas for supper

We were there early, like really really early. 5.30am, it was pitch dark and you could see a few souls wondering around with their bikes. As the sun continue rising, more and more athletes checked in their bikes at T1. The place where made Jason Chew drool all over, you could see excitement in his face. Wondering up and down the lanes filled with expensive TT bikes. He was like, I’m gonna save up and buy this bike and buy that bike. 

Having breakfast after setting my bike up

 The lake was opened for warm up around 7am onwards. I was talking to a friend telling him we gotta swim 2 loops around the buoys then suddenly a man interrupted, “I overheard you guys talking about swimming 2 loops. Did you attend the race briefing last night?” I replied, “Uhmm…no.” He smiled and said, “It’s only 1 lap because last year a lot of people cheated in the swim leg. So the organizer decided to change it to 1 loop.” No wonder it looks bigger than last year. Moral of the story, don’t miss race briefings! I only got to know the distance is slightly longer than last year on the race day. The race format was 1.5k swim 45k ride and 11k run.

Walking to the Swim start

The Swim - 45.17 (SIPEK SLOW!)

I don’t think I have any improvement from last year. (before I saw my result) I swam slower than last year! Damn it. Still slow and the reason was because I didn’t train much on my swim throughout the year. The significant increase of participants this year changed a lot of things from last year. Instead of 1 wave in the swim, they had 3 waves this year. I was in wave 1. I think my improvement this year was I did not swim out of course that much. I stayed close to the buoys and followed the rope line at the floor of the lake.

Exiting the lake

T1

Coming out from the water is the best feeling ever, for me that is the start of the race. Which is bad! Problem with the exit was, T1 was located around 300 meters away and you need to run up the slope. I almost got cramp while I was heading towards my bike. I was surprise, knowing my body well, having cramps at the early stage of the race was not a common thing. I stopped running and started walking. I was surprised to see so many bikes still hanging at the steel metal bar. Where else, last year when I reached T1, there were only a handful of bikes which was really de motivating.  I quickly put on my bike shoes, clipped on my helmet, grabbed my power gel and left T1 happily.

The Bike - 1:36:39

I am pretty comfortable with the bike course as this is my strongest area. The route is 99% similar to last year, didn’t really feel much difference with the additional 5k to it. This year was definitely better than last year; at least I was able to draft a few bikes along the way. But I could not follow them till the end, they were much stronger than I am. I was sitting comfortably at the wheels of a Penang athlete in the last 10K until we hit the last climb, then I was on my own again. That killer slope was the same as last year, and I was prepared to face it. That’s why this year, I rode without my aerobars, I know it’s not gonna help much since the course is pretty hilly. The decision to drop the aerobar helped and I was able to climb up without stopping. There were many who were walking with their bikes at that point. Last 5k was pretty flat. But the last 200 meters was uphill again. I knew I am gonna suffer in the run because I've gave all I got.

Getting into T2

T2

I saw Jason waiting at the transition area and he broke the news to me that one of Soong’s colleague had a bad fall and her front wheel were badly dented. It was terrible.  I was surprised to see her at the end of the race, no major fractured or broken bones, just scratches all over her hands and legs. As I was putting on my running shoes, I told Jason I was really tired. My legs are sore from the climbs, etc etc etc. He didn’t say much, just ask me to run.

Me complaining but Jason not giving a sh*t

The Run - 1:15:34

The sun was already up and rocking. It was hot and humid. Last but not least, the 11k run, which was really different and longer from last year. It was more hilly too! The first 2-3km is the hardest because of the switch of muscles and also because of the hilly course. I tried to stay with this girl which I managed to until the last 6km. That was when I gave up pacing her. She was not that fast and not that slow but I have used up too much energy at the bike leg. Now I had to pay the price for it. At every water station, I drench myself in the ice cool water to get me going. It works for a few minutes, then I would stop and walk again. My muscles were protesting. In the last 3km, we had to cross the dam as per last year. The surface of the dam was bad and rough. It kinda made me use more energy running on a surface like that. I checked my watch when I hit the dam, it was an hour of running already. I tried to run all the way but failed again. Fatigue started to kick in. I overtook an ‘Ang Moh’ but I had to stop and stretch my legs, he overtook me and tells me, you can smell the finishing line, come on, finish it. That gave me the last boost to overtake him and cross the finish line with an official time of 3hr 37minutes 32seconds.

Yay. I can smell it.

Finisher

It is always emotional crossing the finish line where the commentator reads your name loudly, seeing crowd of spectators waiting at the finish line and receiving your medal. It makes those gruesome driving, body torturing and sleepless nights worth it.

Back at the hotel with my "maid" and sole supporter. Sam had to rest in the hotel because he needs the energy to drive back to Penang.

I have to thank God for His protection, for keeping my bike free from any mechanical failure, for bringing us back in one piece and for being able to enjoy life. Special thanks to Sam for his willingness to sacrifice his precious time to travel more than 1,000km just being a driver and Jason Chew for being super helpful throughout the entire race. 

As I packed my stuff and collected my bike, I walked pass a couple, both did tri also. The gf was really manja asking her bf to help carry her stuff for her, she claimed she was tired and the poor bf had to carry her stuff and bike for her. Sweet stuff in sweaty outfits. Perfect blend to end my post. I hope I won’t fall into temptation and register again next year.