A'Famosa Triathlon 2008: First Tri

myself, upiq, kam, kc...and azmar


Before our full OD distance Tri (siok bee, michelle, emma, Yit thing, John)

With tomatoman, 2 men relay instead of 3.


I've always wondered how's the feeling when hundreds of triathletes bob around in the water, waiting for the swim. It was a scene I had viewed constantly from youtube on ironman. A'Famosa, though not ironman equivalent, still provided ample experience on how to do a tri.

I got no bike. I didn't actually want to join until I got one. When Raymond Ng asked me to be his relay partner, I was in the "no" mood. Partly because of comments of the murky and smelly water during swim. Anyway, since it could be fun, I jumped in.

What's so fun about tri? Maybe because it's more complicated. You can be a good swimmer, but it does not really matter if you bike and run slowly. You can be a good cyclist but if you can't run well, you won't go too fast on the running leg. You can be a good runner, but maybe sink like a rock during swimming. Basically, you just gotta be good at all three discipline.

For swimming, it's more like dancing.

For cycling, having the best bike won't bring you far, if your legs ain't strong. And that's not inclusive of the bike technicalities you got to master.

But running, it's the easiest.

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The plan was that I do both the swimming and running leg, while Raymond Ng do the bike course. It's a 1.5km swim, followed by 40km cycling, and 10km run.

Now, while the rest of our friends were excited, I was kind of half excited. Maybe not doing the full individual distance, calms the nerves a bit. Those who stayed in the same accomodation were Ngae, Raymond Hee, Yik Ting, Barry, Joshua, Narin, Emma, Michelle and Siok Bee. Raymond Hee, Yik Ting, and John will be in the mixed relay. Joshua, Narin (from Uniten) with another swimmer will be in our same men's relay open.

7:30am, and we were off to the venue.

By 8am, we were all huddled near to the lake, just like the view of hundreds of yellow swimming caps bobbing in the water, that I had seen. I set my my Timex watch to time the leg, with a target of 30 minutes. The gun went off, without a warning, and soon, all of us start wading in the murky water. As the swim route was not straight, I found I had careened off course a few times. Swimming in pools is easy. You get to see a blue line beneath.

As I waded into the last turning into the landing area, I pushed as hard as possible. I had told my partner that I would finish around 30 minutes. After coming up from the water, I ran a fast sprint up to the transition area, and quickly handed a blue band to him. I clocked 33:58 minutes, which is pretty decent, but nevertheless happy with the outcome for a first time.

With nothing to do for the next 1 hour, I was able to witness how the rest of the triathletes continue on their biking leg. What was interesting, is that some are able to take off their feet from the bike when they came back from the cycling course, and into the transition, while letting the cycling shoes hanging at the pedals. With not a moment to waste, they'll quickly wear their running shoes in a second, and zoom off for the running part.

Raymond Ng did a fast cycling leg of 1:15. As soon as he handed me back the band, I quickly sprint for the next 10km. Since I was only doing the swim and the run, I was able to cut down many athletes. Although it's supposed to be a fun event, I had wanted to test my 10km time. But the best feeling was probably cutting a chinese guy doing the mens' relay as well. The rest were all doing the individuals, so it wasn't such a "fair" claim of beating them.

As I reach the finishing area, I looked back and noticed some of them was at the back, trailing close. I quickly made a dash, to ensure I was not cut off at the end. I had made it in 40 minutes and 7 secs. While finishing, I could hear someone shouted "3rd placing", but I doubted that we've won anything.

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I had been toying with Raymond's merida bike, and it had been fun. I used to have a mountain bike, so riding is not a problem. The problem was the seat is causing butt pain. How could one mount this thing for 6 hours? The fitting was alright, so I had decided to get a similar size bike, since he's just the same height as mine.

After the tri, I did a 10km bike ride just to test it out. On the way back, met with Upiq, led by Shazly's gang was edging him on the run. This guy was doing the full tri, to solve his weight problem, which I had much respect for him. He proves that we all have the will to change for the better. You can read more about him at stupe's blog.

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We all gathered for the prize ceremony because we got news that we won. Surprisingly, our team (tomato-ultraman) got third placing with the time of 2:25. Even more pleasant for Raymond Hee's, Yik Ting, and John mixed relay team, who also got third placing as well.

It had been great fun, so I've decided to go for Ironman 2009...couldn't be that hard since a bunch load of peeps I known have done it.

But first, I got to get a bike....or steal one.