Kenyir Triathlon 2008 race

Kenyir lake, in my opinion, was quite a distance from KL. We took almost 8 hours to reach the resort, but the view of the lake makes everything worth it. With pockets of islands jutting out from the vast expanse of water, it sort of look like those magical painting of canvas oil with faraway blue hills, streams and lush forest.

We got a chalet facing the lake directly, and the view was superb. But probably the only thing hard to find here is a decent meal. It's either hotel food, or 15km drive to kuala berang.

Before the race, I slapped on a bottle of water and a power gel on the bike. That'll be enough for nutrition.

Race day. Atheletes start streaming towards the bike transition area. I was placed beside Ollie, a UK guy whom I had met at Chan's group. He'd done 2 ironmans before. Had some chat with the Tune Money sponsored guys (Shazly, Stupe, and Azmar). I would say their jersey were pretty cool.

Before race started, Mr Chan gave some final briefing. Then we were all hunched up near the edge, and the horn blowed. Bodies meets water, and I started swimming, although it was a bit rough with so many swimmers all around. After the first buoy, I got my bearings right, and was soon comfortably stroking. My greatest disadvantage was probably not able to breath on the right. If I had been able to do that, looking at the traffic would be easier, because we had to swim clockwise.

As I came off from the swim, I think I managed to do a 31 minute, which was right on my target.

Then I slowly ran up to the bike transition, put on the socks (which is a pretty lousy idea eventually, because it would be wet), helmet, and started the bike route. And just after the bike transition, we had to cycle up a 10-20 gradient slope for like 200 meters. No wonder it's billed as the hardest triathlon in malaysia. Then with some turning, the bike route heads up some scenic but hilly path.

My target on the bike was 1.5 hours, so I didn't push hard on the bike. Soon, many bikes were passing me by. If I can recall, Sam Pritchard, Azmar, Azwar, and Emma. In fact I didn't cut anyone on the bike.

Suddenly I heard a swooshing sound coming behind. I thought it was motor bike, but turned up to be a tri bike.

The route back after the u-turn was a bit easier and faster. At one point, I found myself pacing with Carmen.

As I neared the end of the bike route, I reserved all the energy to make the last steep climb back to bike transition. It was nowhere easy after 30+km on the bike.

At the bike transition, I quickly place the bike on the bar, and switched to running shoes. I had bought the fastest Saucony shoes in the market: Saucony type A2. It's very light, and it's certainly a change from the heavy basic Adidas I had been wearing.

Running was my strongest part, and soon I was passing the rest. I passed Sue, and I knew Andy must be in front. Then I passed Raymond Hee, who did a superb timing as well.

And surprisingly I passed Ollie, on the 2nd loop back. I did see Andy as well, ahead.
However, the runnning course is certainly hard as well. Not much flats but coming back running a steep hill is enough to sap anyone's energy at this point.

I managed to clock 2:43:07 on my watch. I had targeted 2:40, so I was pretty happy with the timing. My main aim was just to take it easy, and not push so hard. My bike timing certainly needs more improvement.

Another thing was, although the shoes were super light, I had some chaffing because I was wearing soaked socks. It was not the fault of the shoes, rather mine. Perhaps running sockless is a good idea.

And for a nicer suprise, Ong Siok Bee, Michelle Looi won some prize money...well done guys.

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Kenyir is a great place, so we stayed until Monday. Did some kayaking, which was pretty fun.



The view from the kenyir resort...


As usual, the carbo loading dinner comes with live performance...



Grinding up the last steep slope before run...

Finally at the finish line...

More pictures at Michelle Looi's blog.