OSIM Singapore International Triathlon 2008

Today was another race for me! I know that anybody that reads this will begin to think this is just a blog listing all my (and Chunnie’s) races. Well, I guess that’s what happens when Chunnie and I are separated… We don’t do that much and the only stuff that’s really worth writing about are the events we do!

First off, I want to say a big THANK YOU to Marisa for being both my support crew (holding my bag) and also my photographer (with her brand-spanking-new digital camera)!!

The event was the OSIM Singapore International Triathlon. This was my first attempt at the Olympic distance (1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run) and most notably, my first attempt at a 1.5km swim in the ocean – double of what I have done before! I’ve got to say I was quite apprehensive about the swim, especially given that I didn’t do a very good job in the recent Tribob event. In that race, I got very excited when I hit the water and all my training went out the window.

The Swim

Before the start of the swim, I was trying to concentrate and relax myself, just thinking about how I wanted to use long smooth controlled strokes once I got in the water.

Once it started I actually managed to do it! I felt relaxed and smooth heading to the first buoy, which I would later realize was because we were swimming kind of with the current. I didn’t let the fact that somebody kicked me in the face irritate me. I even kept my cool after having to stop and adjust my leaking goggles (after the kick). Once we turned left at the first buoy, I realized that we were heading against the current. Because of that, even though this was the shortest section of the triangle shaped course it seemed to take a looong time. Nevertheless, I was moving along, there weren’t too many people around and I still felt pretty good. My thoughts were even wandering to the fact this was easy!! But after the next turn it became a real challenge. we were swimming slightly into the current with it pushing us against the rope markings of the course. This means that everybody was being bunched up and also hitting the rope. I started to swim much more zig-zagged than I had earlier and it became a real struggle. It was both tiring and frustrating because I kept hitting the rope.

At the end of the first lap, I was quite relieved because I had a chance to slowly jog and recuperate from the tough last section of the lap. Just as I rounded the beach and was about to get back in the water, another group of participants started in front of me. This means that I didn’t even get the benefit of empty water on my second lap. I had lots of people around me again which mean the whole second lap i was having to fight through the slower swimmers. At one point I even went into an all-out sprint (if you can call it that) to get round a big pack of breaststrokers (they have nasty kicks).

Once again the last leg of the swim was tough but i managed to get through it and head off across the bridge to transition…

Swim Time: 41:39
Place (age-group): 38/135

The Bike

On my trusty Scott Speedster S30 (Speedie) I headed off on the bike. The bike leg was better than I thought in the sense that the route was not nearly as crowded as I had expected it to be. I had thought that with 1,200 participants and an only 10km route it would be VERY crowded. In fact I was able to get into a rhythm and past most people. Although I did spend a lot of time playing hopscotch with somebody by the name of “CYONG” according to their name tag.

Just as I made the turnaround at the far end of the bike route, the winds started to pick up and the sky turned dark. The headwinds contributed to drop my speed from about 30km/h to something like 27km/h. Luckily for me I was almost done with the bike leg and just trudged on. But worse was to follow when I was 1km from the end of the bike… a torrential downpour! It almost caused me to get into a crash since as I approached the dismount line and pressed my breaks, the wet wheels and breaks meant that the breaking distance was much greater and I stopped just 3cm from the person in front of me!

Bike Time: 1:16:50
Place (age-group): 20/135

The Run
When I got into transition the person who had the slot right next to mine was actually in there at the same time. It gave me a bit of motivation to hurry more and beat him out on to the run. I think we were both rushing and actually bumped each other while putting on shoes. Something that I had intended to do was to switch from cycling helmet to a visor (to block sunlight) but since it was raining so hard i wasn’t sure I would need it. Nevertheless, I grabbed it and headed off and boy was I glad I did! I had left my sunglasses on as well and they were functioning like goggles. It definitely helped me to reduce the prevent the irritating feeling of rain getting in my eyes.

The cool rain must have contributed but I really felt awesome on the run. It seemed to me like I was zooming by everybody with only like 3 people overtaking me the whole run. For some reason, my legs kept turning and I kept moving. The only thing that was bothering me in the early part was some cramps that were building up in my quads. Because of that, i decided to take my last packet of PowerBar Gel (double latte flavor with DOUBLE the caffeine). Not long after taking that the cramps seemed to go away which made me feel like i had made the right decision to take it!

I kept going and then the sun and the heat came back… what an array of weather! It was now that I took a sponge from one of the volunteers at an aid station and boy was it surprising to me how great that ice cold water felt! I knew it would be nice but really… it really felt absolutely fantastic!!

Run Time: 47:20
Place (age-group): 10/135

I finished in the better than expected time of 2:45:48… which was 13th (out of 135) in my age group!! AMAZING!

Tags: multisport, OSIM Singapore International Triathlon, OSIM Triathlon, singapore, Singapore Triathlon, triathlon