Sofian and Richard Tang should turn pro now...
This year's kenyir tri was probably the wettest in history. I am used to monsoons at the eastern coastal areas during the season, so it wasn't something I haven't experienced. However it's odd that it came at this time of the year. Usually monsoons period hovers end of the year.
With such bad weather, the organiser had almost called off the bike leg.
Now this wasn't something I had wished, neither does the rest of us. The last time I was in kenyir was 3 years back for my maiden tri, so to have that, would have been a bummer.
Fortunately, the race went on.
Now for the swim, I hadn't been doing much swimming. So I wasn't really going fast. The start was ridiculously chaotic, as if suddenly everyone wants to sprint distance swimming. It took awhile to coast down the heart rate, but my strokes were pretty bad. When I came up, I saw Sofian along side. And seems like many athletes had made their way up.
Went up to the bike transition, and took awhile before I managed to get in the socks. I think that could have been 30 secs, as I tried to get my bearings right. I didn't brought the shades, and that proved to be an error later.
Quickly I took the bike and ran to the starting bike line, mount on it, and quickly dashed up the hill. Passed Sofian as I went up. Bike is not my forte, but I've been doing tons of hills at hulu langat, so the hills were pretty ok. But I was afraid I couldn't hammer on flats.
This year's bike route took a change. Rather than turning left towards the dam, now we have to turn right, go down a steep downhill, then turn left for a 12km rolling route, and back.
Since I hadn't got the shades on, riding behind someone has water splashing all over your face. Doesn't help that mother nature dumps torrents of blinding rain when you're going fast.
There wasn't much drafting to be done. I tried to work with someone for a few k, but that guy pace was a tad slow, so I thought I would just do it all alone. I did pulled him for sometime though. Before the 5km u-turn, I saw the first guy on the bike, then a peloton passing by. Opps seems like I am way far behind.
After the u-turn, it was pretty much a lonely affair, save for another athlete who managed to zoom passed. We cycled together, but not much team work, till we reached the dreaded hills back. I reckoned it's steeper than Bukit Hantu. Some cyclist were zig zagging on the way up. I thought, no way I am going do that, so I stood up and went straight up.
As I went down the slopes towards the transition area, I saw Dush, Andy with a bunch of guys already running in a train. Opps, looks like I got some catching to do. I think I could punch this one. The previous day I did a test run 4.84 km flat in 17:37 (pace 3.63m/km), so I know I could muster the speed needed.
Soon enough, passed Andy, then some thai? guys, and finally Dush after the left turn. Then caught up with the first girl winner, and then passed another 2 guys along side her. Afterwards, it was running on the dam itself.
It could have been scenic had it been not raining. I peered at the horizon and could see 4-5 lads around 500m in front. I have been running at high intensity, and this time it was the time to kick it. However it was futile effort, as I couldn't reach any of them.
Surprisingly I saw Shahrom coming down after the final u-turn towards the finishing. So I thought I couldn't be doing that bad.
After crossing the line, I went to checked the clock timing and was pretty surprised to do 2:13:08. I hadn't wore a watch, thus I was racing blind. I guess racing without one feels more carefree and you just go on chasing the next guy.
Got 5th as well in my age group (30-39). Something I thought wasn't possible.
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Summary: I was able race at a higher holding heart rate. So, in terms of cardio fitness, I was ready. However the swim was terrible. Yeap... I was actually lazy and skipped some sessions.
So, it's back to the drawing board. Lots of work to be done.
3 comments:
Congrats, very fast time! You're in contention for podium finish now.
Great race report, great race by you, especially the run by the sounds of it and a great result. Awesome, well done.
Kev,
Need to improve on swim.
Simon,
You could have easily won sth there :)
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