Kenyir Lake Triathlon 27 May 2007

The Prelude


After missing A Famosa Tri in April, I planned for Olympic distance triathlon debut in PD later in July. Somehow, I noticed a post in pipot for a simulation training at UNITEN late in April and I found myself doing not so bad. A week later, photos posted on Bukit Merah triathlon inspired my to sign up for this race. One Friday night, I decided to go for a futsal game to catch up with old frens which I picked up serious knock on my knee. I treated it just like previous knocks, leave it, it'll heal by itself. A week later, I can't put on weight on my left knee, I can't climb stairs to my office and I can't stand sitting on a chair that left my leg hanging but again my bad habit of procrastinating finally can't stand until the day I'm going to board the bus to Kenyir. I went to PADE to seek for consultation with the physio there only to find the Friday lunch break from 11.45 to 2.45 (amazingly long Friday's lecture) only to return later to be told the physio was on leave.



The trip

Thanks to Garmin Que map on my new O2 Stealth, I managed to find Pasar Rakyat. By the time I arrived there after skipping dinner to pack, I was surprised to find, finding a halal food stall was tough. somehow I still managed to find a Mamak's restaurant for a simple meal. The bus departed at about 12.30am where I sit next to Sam Pritchard, a British retiree with 9 Ironmans including Langkawi (5), Nice and Arizona. The conversation wasn't long as each of us had a long day before.


The room



I mistakenly took Peter Lau as Mr. Chan and that's the beginning of how I ended up staying in the chalet with P2K relay racers. They just accepted and welcomed me with open arms. Most of them were runners, Richard ( an African student based here, I saw his cert in prev race, a 35' 10km run!!), Krishna, Guna, Super, ex Ikan Bilis swimmer Jacky, cyclist Khidir and several more. The view from the chalet facing the lake was magnificient. The room was big and we managed to get 5 racers slept comfortably.



The dinner


Last year's race here was famous for the food poisining meals that left expensive bikes left on the road harhahr. I joined a table with a relay team from Fire & Rescue Perak, later joined by Awea, Kichok & family, Ah Wong and Ayu. Most of Uniten's frens, Bacin, Abu, Dicky, Azmar n Jaja (cameragirl this time) were there minus noticably Azwar. Jeffrey n gangz, Daniel, Dr. Raymond with Vincent (not competing due to broken arm) I met when I bumped in their apartment post Sprint race in PD were there also. I joined them for breakfast and lunch previously.

The morning

I woke up 6.22am and jumping. None of the relay racers followed by the next half an hour. My breakfast this time is Powerbar Peanut butter, Pwerbar Triple Treat and Power Root Tongkat Ali. Luckily I checked my gears over and over the day before, so I grabbed the gear bag and checked out of the room at 7.15am. Since I travelled to transition area by bike, I took a longer way for warm up and later jog slowly to simulate the T2 condition. Next to my T spot was Sangup Richard, from Sg. Udang camp. We met at Powerman dinner last year. After arranging my stuffs, I put on swim cap,grabbed my goggles and walked with heavy heart to the jetty. There's no turning back now!! I swam a bit nearby only to find the water is okay for a freshwater race, definitely no smell.



The race


I stood on the jetty very much to the back, by the time the whistle signals the beach start of the race I hopped slowly into the water. The start was not as packed as float start at PD but no less intense, surrounded I tried to keep up with swimmer around but can't ease my breathing resulted to switching to breaststroke. I never trained to swim BS damn it! The swim section was a 2 laps around 250m isotriangle thus making it 1.5km. My legs were too low and not closed together but somehow I did the first lap in 20'. I switched to frontcrawl in 2nd lap and tried not to lift my head too often but somehow the BS swimmer next to me became less and less visible although my navigation seems to be OK each time I checked. New lesson, just because the other swimmer swim BS, it doesn't necessarily means his nav is OK!! Then I decided to go on my own nav and stroke and dropped the group. I gained pace and my legs started to feel more relaxed and ready for bike section. After the last buoy, I kicked and throwed my arms frantically towards the jetty. I was surprised to come out of the water in 38'44". My T1 time was smooth. My bike shoes already on pedal, I just have to put on my top, sunglass and finally the helmet before removing the bike off the rack.







I pushed my bike out of transition area, hopped on to it and pedal slowly to put on my feets into the cycling shoes. I tried to build momentum and pace the steep climb just out of T1. My thigh felt jelly like from the unplanned breaststroke swim and this slope is asking too much from me too early. I saw a lady pushed her bike up while another guy slowly pedalling up, so I decided to follow suit the lady hahar. I calmed down once reaching the slope peak, rehop onto my bike and off I flew again. It was a tough cycling route with big, slow climb with fast and long climbs. I have to admit I struggled badly in this section. My speed was much slower than I expected and slowly I was dropped one by one where my good works in swim section eroded. I passed the half way U-turn but conditioned still not improving. It was until the last 6 or 7km, one racer offered me to draft him, thanks bro #122, together we pushed towards T2. Suddenly I got the drive to move on and reach the last climb back to transition area. By the time for my T2, Ah Wong and Sangup already finished the race. I returned my bike to the rack, changed to my running shoe iand grabbed my last powergel. Sangup even helped me to remove my helmet, thanks bro, and I set for the last discipline, 10km run.





The run consists of 2 laps of 5km loop marked by ribbon awards at the top point of the loop. For the first lap, the triathlete will be given a blue ribbon and yellow on the next lap. Running around the Pengkalan Gawi is after 10.30am is challenging. The sun was shining at it's max intensity and the terrain was less merciful. My energy level has dropped to a lower level than I expected. My run was reduced to slightly faster than walking until I was awarded the 1st ribbon. The ribbon gave me a slight motivation as I increased my pace and refrain from drinking at each 1km water station to every 2km. Finally I was awarded the yellow ribbon and I told myself, this will definitely over soon. I checked my watch and I was already 3 and a half hours in the race. Going downhill I saw Patsy Yap, a granny in her 60s was struggling to climb the next hill. I was full of admiration but I'm not in the mood to finish after her. Soon, I was in competitive mood back although my time was already not so. I dropped her going downhill in the next slope and as I'm closing to the finish line I could hear the "We Will Rock You" song blaring. I paced my steps to the song, took the final corner and hold my emotion until the finish line and I DID IT!!!!!