Kerian Incredible Triathlon 2018 Race Report

My last triathlon race was the 2016 Penang International Triathlon and to be honest, I don't usually train prior to my races except for this one because it's the race leading up to Ironman 70.3 Langkawi.

This is also the first race where I race with a floating buoys (since it's compulsory) and I did not try the floating buoy except on race day which was a big mistake. The swim was a good one, two loops but exiting was difficult as you need a helping hand to pull you out from the floating pontoon. I finished my 1.5k swim in 35:10 (ranking: 37/105) with a significant improve. (Lake Kenyir 2013 - 45:17 and Pg Tri 2016 - 41:37). The extra effort at the pool really paid off!

 

 

The part where I dread the most - the bike leg. I have seen pictures of athletes pushing up their bikes during the Duathlon race a few months ago. On race eve, I drove pass an athlete that was training and it look really difficult. You have to really step on the gas pedal when driving up - that was how steep it is. I think it is an 18% gradient climb.

 

 
I have only been training on flats with some rolling hills (very minimal) and that affected my bike a lot. I didn't really feel the power in my legs after the 1st loop finishing 40k in 1:38:52 (ranking: 50/105).

We had an almost perfect weather, the sun was pretty shy that morning. The 10k run was flat all the way and most of it are covered by shades from trees. As I exited T2, I was excited about the run because I have been training at Botanic Gardens with my fiance every Sunday. Botanic Gardens is a bit hilly and we usually complete 10k under an hour - our PB, 54 minutes. But as soon as I hit the main road, I could feel my lower back tightening and it was almost impossible to run my normal speed.

 

 

 

It was quite a disappointing run finishing in 1:07:37 (ranking: 60/105). My overall time for the OD triathlon was 3:26:32 (ranking: 51/105) falling way behind my target time of 2:50:00 (not knowing the terrain of this course) which is almost impossible as that would put me in top 10 for my category. On top of that - I personally think the quality of athletes here are really high. I don't think they are the average triathletes in other triathlons races - however, this is not an excuse. I should continue to train hard and smart.
 
Lessons from this race:-

1) During my swim leg - I should look up every 15 - 20 strokes to prevent going off course. I was out from the swim course a few times.

2) I need to learn how to make the right decision quick. i.e I was on the saddle all the way and it affected my run. 4 times of 18% gradient climb was too much for me since climbing is not my forte. Maybe things would be different if I push the bike up.

3) If I don't plan to wear socks as least apply some Vaseline to prevent blisters and other necessary parts as well. i.e armpits, shoulder, groin area, etc

With all that has been said, it was still a fun and memorable race and it is the first time my parents and fiance watch me race. They were really supportive and I'm glad they turned up.

Penang International Triathlon 2013 Race Report

The last triathlon that was held in Penang was probably 10 years ago. Based on the experience of some of veteran athletes, the sea was infested with so many jelly fish that many could not finish the swim leg. However, last year, a group of dedicated athletes and pioneers pitched the proposal to our CM and fast forward all the crazy time consuming hectic meetings. 800 plus athletes are now being able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Knowing partially of all the challenges they have to go through to make this event a memorable and a successful one, I really salute and thank them for the bottom of my heart. Congratulations and a hell of a great job done! Of course there are still rooms for improvement. =)

I couldn’t make it for the race briefing and carbo loading dinner at Bayview Beach Hotel because I had to attend Jason’s birthday cum farewell party. So I might have missed a few key information regarding the race. I arrived at the transition area only to find out that no basket was provided to put our personal belongings in. However, I was damn fortunate to have a damn good spot. I have the ‘corner lot’ of the bike check in area as this gives me more space to put on my shoes at T1 and T2. 

Blowing the candles

Jason and I

Spacious area for me =)

Body marking was a bit meaningless, as my number faded even before I started my race. As I make my way to the swim start, I didn’t know how the direction of swim was gonna be. From the race information booklet, it was suppose to be a triangle but I think I saw a curve line which was different from the illustration showed. I asked one of the triathletes there and he was kind enough to give me a short briefing.  After greeting one or two familiar faces, it was go time. 

We were released at 7.30am sharp, my main concern was the jelly fish. But when we started the usual chaos of kicking and getting kick in the water, jelly fish did not cross my mind at all. I was way easier swimming in the sea due to the buoyancy and the little waves. I was right behind this ‘ang mo’ girl the whole time of the swim, just trying to stay with her for as long as I could but I lost her in the last 150 meters. She had a temporary tattoo on the back of her left shoulder stating, ‘He has risen’.  I really hope I cut at least a few minutes of my swim this time. I quickly check my watch to see how I did but the screen on the watch tells me, ‘Low battery’. >< As the swim is completed in two loops, you need to collect a ribbon on the beach before you get into the sea for the second loop. 

Corner lot

As I finished my swim, I quickly make my way to T1 and prepare myself for the cycling leg. I had to prepare mentally to overcome the first climb, which was before the Teluk Bahang dam and the climb up till 800. When I got out into the main road, I saw the ‘He is risen’ ang moh just in front of me, I overtook her before Escape and continued on with the others. My weakest is going downhill and I got overtaken by many when we are going downhill. Not more than 5k into the race, we were alerted by Marshalls that an accident has occurred. I saw a man sitting by the road side with lots of blood on his face, I was told that a car from the other side of the road hit him and he broke his head. That gave me chills as I rode pass him, I became more stingy with my speed during downhill. Even though drafting wasn’t allowed in this race, I could still see riders forming a speed train cruising away. I was fortunate to stay with a cyclist 80% of the way (of course at an allowable distance). My goal was to be discipline with my ride, be conservative and don’t fall into temptation of following a faster rider. I’ve read that if you fail to perform a good run due to excessive energy consume at the bike leg; then you’ve not mastered the art of triathlon. I kept that in mind throughout the bike leg and I was glad I did that. I think the cycling route is easier as compared to PD or LK, probably it’s because I’m familiar with the route.

Finished

As I got into T2, cars were starting to pile up along the road due to ‘Cheng Beng’. However, the traffic was under control by the authorities. Coming into T2 was a little confusing due to the way it was structured. I don’t know how to explain it but I lost a few precious seconds due to the wrong direction I went to. As I prepared my run, I had a little chat with Aethel who was there to motivate me in my run. I got to know that Jason was involved in an accident. I was shocked and speechless. But Aethel told me that is he ok, that was a great relief.

Said bye bye and I my first time to the grueling 10k run. Sun was up so was the temperature. The road heading towards the dam was un-shaded. You could see the ‘kek sai’ faces of many participants as the run along ‘energy lab’ (only triathletes would understand this). I too started to struggle as we climb that crazy slope up to the dam. I walked and jogged along the way. After the water station, I met Karen, she doesn’t know me but I know who she is. She is the owner of my Triathlon shop and she is a darn good runner. That was the best opportunity to pace her and finish the race with her. Reason being, she gets a lot of motivation from people around her because she is ‘famous’. So I assumed those words of encouragement was for me too. Haha! I might have more photos this round and most importantly, a good running time. We didn’t say a word to one another throughout the whole 8k or so together. But she was really strong! I really didn’t feel tired like I did in Lake Kenyir 3 weeks ago. The inspiring thing about following a great athlete like Karen was not only she gives thumbs up, high fives, etc to other slower athletes, but as she overtook a competitor of hers, she asked Karen to keep going, and encouraged her. That really struck me, how often one would tell his/her ‘enemy’ to keep going and get the prize from her. (Karen got 2^nd place and the other lady got 3^rd) Only till the last 1k, I felt my legs requesting for cramps but I told them NO. She picked up speed as we approach the finish line, I gave all I’ve got in my reserved tank and sprinted to the finish line. I could have overtaken her but she deserved to cross the finish line first, as a sign of respect and sportsmanship; I slowed down and gave her the victory celebration she deserved. 

Can you see me behind?

My turn

The pain. wohoo!

Packing

Hot hot hot

With Darien, future elite triathlete =)

 I’m glad I did a sub three race and I’m just a proud Penangite being able to enjoy the things I love to  do in a place call home. All glory to Him, for His protection and strength in times of need.

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Now I make it a ritual for me to go for a full body massage after my race. Just to pamper my body and it does make me recover better. I choose Leia because it is affordable and no hanky panky business there. Why I'm so sure? Because this is pasted all over the wall:-

No sex here =P

Malakoff Penang 17k 2013 Race Report

In every race that I participate in, surely there are some kind of hiccups along the way. Without that, I think I wouldn’t have much to write about. So I guess it’s a good thing in a way. =P On the 17^th Sunday morning, my plan was to get Jason picked me up with his bike from my house as parking would be a scarce at Esplanade. My race starts at 7am so I told him to pick me up at 6.30am. At 6.33am he called me and told me he was outside my house, I went out and I was wondering where he was hiding. Mana budak tu? Bayang pun tak nampak. I called him ask him where he was, he said he was at my apartment. Holy cow, I was at my grandma’s house that morning. I told him sorry sorry sorry for not informing him that I was staying at my grandma’s house. So I asked him to meet me at Esplanade. He was supposed to run in the 7k as a ‘ghost runner’ but I think he was too lazy to do so!

I quickly drove my car to the race venue. Reach around 6.47am and met up with Chiat Fong aka Captain. As we made our way to the starting point, Jason called and we met up and chat a lil before the flag off. We were released at 7am sharp. 2,500 strong participants took part in the 6^th Malakoff edition and this was my first. The route: Esplanade - Gurney – Straits Quay – Gurney – Esplanade = 17km. Since these are major roads, I really kesian those road users on that Sunday. So sorry for the wait.

Captain, Neoh and myself were together for the first 8k, captain was the pace setter and sometimes he was going so fast that I had to accelerate and catch up with him. Being the pace setter is never an easy thing; for me especially. My run strategy is always to mark a person, stick to the person right next to him/her and follow till I feel comfortable enough to overtake him/her and repeat step 1 again. It always works for me, and by doing this I actually feel less tired. 

Captain, I and Neoh

Once we got at the checkpoint, I felt I could go at a faster pace, so I signaled to Captain and Neoh that I was ready to “tekan minyak” but I know I have to be careful because we were only at Straits Quay and the sun is starting to rise. I left them and tried sticking to another faster runner but there was a gap, there were no one in between with a pace which I could follow comfortably. Either they are too slow or they are too fast. So I had to run on my own till somewhere around Sunrise Tower. I was starting to regret my ‘breakaway’.  Anyhow, I manage to find a target with a really good pace, a man probably in his 40s looking good in his 2xu tights and tri top. I tried following him along Gurney drive but I lost him not long after. For me, this part of the race is the hardest. There were no trees or shades, you could feel the sun burning your skin (and I was wearing ALL BLACK!). Saw a Malay chap took off his shirt and I was tempted as well but I did not. I persevered. I wanted to stop running and just walk a little but I told my body, no. Keep running. Motivating me with quotes like, “When your body is too tired to run, run with your heart, etc” those kinda stuff and it helped. 

Photo by Radin =)

 Getting into Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah was the most pleasurable moment in that race, the big old familiar trees providing massive coverage of shades and knowing that I’m about 5k to the finishing line. Here I paced a Chinese man, skinny but he is quite fast. Ran ran ran till we passed KPMG, I over took him and tagged an ‘Ang Moh’. Running besides him makes me feel really tiny. He was running at a good pace too. At this point, my body is pretty numb to any tiredness I have in my legs. I ran with him till the finish line and we did a sprint together as we approach 100meters mark. Of course he beat me and overtook me. He deserves it because he was doing the work for me. For me, the race is about finding your ‘Inner Circle’, the people who will push you, motivate you and inspire you to do better. I believe I’ve achieve all that in 1 hour and 29 minutes. =)

Captain and I after the race

I have to applaud the organizers for doing an excellent job in this race. Water station were well placed, we had 100 plus and Gatorade. =) Now I’m hooked to Gatorade. (I’m drinking one as I’m writing this post) They were being partnered with great sponsors as well, such as PowerBar, Nestle and a few others. Their inner circle paid off. There were some volunteers who set up water station for runners at strategic locations. Some were cheering and motivating runners. These are the things that make sports beautiful. I will definitely be there again next year.

Jason and I

Finisher

As I collect my medal and goodie bag at the end of the race. I saw Jason waiting for me outside the barricade. He was telling me how fast the first runner finishes. By the way his name is Ruburn Kummar, finished first with a blistering time of 57 minutes and 37 seconds. They also gave all finishers ice-cream, nasi lemak and a bottle of Gatorade. I gave Jason the ice-cream and nasi lemak because I was just too tired to eat. As I made my way back to my car, I met Neoh on the way, Paris (his gf) was looking for some isotonic drink, I offered them my Gatorade and went back home empty handed.  I’m blessed to be a blessing. =) Thank God for the beautiful race. 

Brought Shadow for his morning walk after I got back. He made a new friend. =)

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.