|
new/
old/ |
2007-09-06 - 3:40 p.m.
I was gonna wait for photos from the event to go along with this post but the official photogs are taking forever to upload 'em so I'm just going to write it first before I forget stuff. Ok so I decided I would give the half-Ironman a go two weeks before the race started. That was when I was kindly informed that the fencing trials had been pushed back two weeks. Not to complain but mebbe we could have been informed earlier/website updated/schedule in Clementi updated SOONER. Who, me? Bitter? Never. So anyhow, I decided to race, but then had to go to China for Asian Champs. Promptly got food-poisoning. Didn't manage to get in those four runs that I was going to...in fact I didn't do anything other then fence a bit. Ah well. So it was back to Singapore for one week of stressing and sweating leading up to the race. Drank and inhaled too much for my own good on top of everything else. The only vaguely healthy thing I did was to get a fair amount of sleep. My mom breaking her wrist earlier did not help the stress levels. Checking in my bike on Saturday was pretty uneventful and I spent just a bit of time sorting out my gels and drinks and stuff. The rest of the day was spent stressing about what outfit to wear. Don't laugh. I mean, with my burgeoning beer-gut, a two-piece just ain't kosher anymore. But I didn't think my NB one-piece's padding was going to protect the boys on 90ks of peddling. In the end I still went for the one-piece and just greased up the 'nads for good measure. I got to bed at 12am after having a nice meal and doing some last minute shopping. The alarm went at 3am and amazingly I managed to pop out of bed without too much drama. Sucked down some electrolytes, peanut butter sandwich, piece of chicken pie and apple pie, and watched US Open tennis for a bit. Oh and some of the What It Takes tri dvd for inspiration. Then it was off to Ritz-Carlton, where I parked my car for the absorbitant fee of $16!!! Ok so it was for nine hours. Guess I shouldn't bitch. Caught the bus to East Coast for the swim and managed to sleep a bit on the way over as the driver uncle got confused by the road closures and took us one big round back to the pontoon transition. Warmed up a bit with Gerald Koh and Stan Tan after setting up transition and then it was off on the 1.9k swim. It was a bit rough, thanks to a bit of chop and idiots doing breast-stroke next to me. If you're reading this, you can believe I was DEFINITELY trying to elbow you in the face...it wasn't an accident or nuthin. Punk. Got out in just under 44 minutes, which was pretty dodgy. I did swim off course a buncha times. But given my lack of time in the water, I was moderately happy. Zipped through transition like it was an OD race and got on the bike for 90ks in 3.21hrs. Not exactly blazing, and the only people I passed were those standing by the side of the road with flats. Ok I did better in the last 20ks when some of the crazy guys who started at 45kph died. Got in to T2 and Davy Koh, the original Singapore Ironman, was there to supervise my transition. I managed to get in and out in under 5 minutes, including chatting time with him and Alec Kuok, and then I was off for the two laps. I popped two Ibuprofen and half a can of Red Bull at the start and I was flying. That and the 16 powergels with varying amounts of caffeine I put down throughout the day held me in good stead as I actually had to back it off at times when I felt I was hammering too hard. It started to drizzle a bit here and there on the run which cooled things down nicely. I pushed harder in the last 15mins of the run as I thought I wasn't going to get in under 7 hours, but I did, in 6.46hrs so that was pretty cool. Run was 2.41hrs. All in all, I didn't die and did an average time, which, considering my training comprised one swim (1.2k), one bike (33km) and one run (25mins) in the past two months, was not too bad. I even felt ok post-race, got my kit together and went home to do all the washing up. I only started to feel whacked before bedtime when my heartrate wouldn't go down for quite some time. But all in all, a top experience. Big thanks to Adrian Mok and his team of organisers for putting together a great, fun experience, at least for me. Too bad Craig Alexander stuck too much glue on to his rim. So what if the bike lane was a bit narrow. This is Singapore for crying out loud....close road for you should be happy already. Alritey...off for training now. Pictures to come, as when I find 'em. |