Powerman 2011: Hot Race

 











After a week from TMBT, I don't have much confidence in pulling off this one. Finishing yes, but racing at peak ffitness is another matter. I just managed to do 2 short runs, and one cycling course for preparation. Running an ultra drains you for a few days.

Weather was predicted to be hot. Odd thing was, in rained buckets the day before. After looking at the winners list last year, I found out a surprise. Not only Danny Feng was a strong cyclist in P2k, he also won 2nd last year. That shows he's a pretty fast runner as well.

Race day. I stood at the front while waiting for the flag off. When the gun started, I quickly went up. I wasn't that fast. I didn't think my legs were there. So I tried the faster cadence method instead with lower cardio holding. What was surprising, Chan Jun Sen from UPNM was running alongside me. With the pace we were running, it's pretty fast. Another guy wearing black from singapore was fast too. At times I was chasing him, and at times I passed him. Somehow when I passed him, he would try to attack. I tried to keep my ego down. This wasn't the time to push all out. There's still the cycling leg and another running leg. Eventually I would learned that he was the winner for aged 20-29. The first run was completed in 0:40:28.

Time for the bike. The first few km was trying to set the speed up to 40kmh. Then somehow, more and more guys bunched up in what I could say was the first non pro leading group. Chan Jun Sen was with us as well, and we're both wondering why some guys in front were obviously drafting. I did my best not to draft by staying on the sideways or some lengths behind the cyclist in front.

When we reached a small bridge, there was a slight slope that caused my bike to dipped and shoke. My water bottle fell off. I just had one. In that moment I slowed down. I was wondering if I should pick it up, or continue. That aero bottle cost 120 per piece, but I decided that I could probably win back some cash to cover it up. If I had stopped, I would have lost the leading edge.

Problem was that was my electrolyte drink as well. I didn't brought any gels, so I thought that would suffice. I resorted to slowing down at water checkpoints to get water, but I ended up with gatorade. Something that doesn't sit easily with my stomach.

On the 2nd loop, we caught up with Shahrom. He stayed until the end. I could see that he was too trying to avoid drafting. There was a marshall beside us that warned some of us who were drafting. But on the 2nd loop, things were harder. We were passing slower guys, and some parts of the lane became smaller.

I do remember on the way back, a marshall standing beside the road, yelling at us asking us to break up.

2nd run. Things were tougher. I had twice of gatorade on the bike and it wasn't sitting well. Besides, the sun was up. Luckily I got my shades and cap. Without both I would have slowed down considerably. At water stations I was walking and pouring water on my head just to cool off. The heat always slows you down. And doing a fast pace is pretty hard.

I finished with a time of 3:12:37. Given the circumstances after 100k TMBT, I was pretty ok with the timing. Then I saw Richard Tang stumbled into the tent. He was drenched in sweat and looked like he had a bloody tough race. Then to my surprise I saw Danny Feng came in later.

After some hours the race, I was glad to make it 3rd. But such was the toll of the race on my body, that I wasn't pretty coherent during prize giving. I think the heat and gatarode might be the problem. But finishing with a better time margin than last year 3:34:24 proves that all the hard work in speed has paid off. I had a better cardio engine now. It's a matter of tweaking it to any races, given the adequate time to train, to perform at peak.