as of today, 23rd July 2006, i hereby declare the PD International Triathlon 2006, the official race of my comeback! you can probably guess that i did pretty well and am currently still basking in my own pride and glory. no i didn't win, but victory, to me, is not only an envelope full of cash and a hamper.
Saturday, 22nd July - Sprint [400m swim/12k bike/3k run]I started my race day with less than 4 hours of sleep during the night. i was feeling kinda uppity the night before. I was feeling very excited and worried at the same time. every single race i participated in this year was a total disaster. i had doubts i would complete the sprint event. with no more than a total mileage of 1000m of breaststroke, 10 km of cycling and
a lot of running, i was not confident that ust
completing the sprint would be an easy task. so sleep was impossible, and what did i do? at 1.30 am i caught an episode of That's So Raven on Disney and then i watched Superman Returns on DVD.
[more write up on this later]. I finally went to bed at about 3 + am. The next morning i was up at 7.30 am
(i overslept, it was supposed to be 7 am). Duty calls, and so i sped down the federal highway to Sri Petaling with just a banana in my tummy.
After class, i rushed over to college where there was a student forum going on. It was pretty cool, the idea they came up with. I wanted to vote for them to have the Metropolitan Student Council, but alas, i had to leave before the balloting. Anyway, came home, had lunch, threw everything into the boot and off we went, Isaiah in the car with us. Somewhere along the way, at the Seremban R&R, Yi Xi joined us and we were good to go.
It was about 3.15 when we reached PD Marina so we had exactly 45 minutes to get ready, register and RACE! I, obviously not a swimmer, forgot my goggles. I borrowed Yi Xi's. Already feeling all jittery and nervous, we went to register and on to the race site. Got my body marked, my cap on and was ready to go. One more thing i forgot. My squirt bottle. I left it in the hotel room. I'm obviously not a cyclist either. So i had the normal mineral water bottle, half filled, coz it was the one from the car. Owells, anything goes at this point!
Jumped into the water for warm up. Met the likes of Sam,....and many others. You know, i really have to start remembering names and faces. There was this guy who was like "HEY Karen! how are you? how are you?" and i looked at him, puzzled, "hie!....erm...erm..." and then, he'd mention some name which really doesn't ring a bell at all
[i pray he doesnt read my blog] and i'll just go "oh yea! hie hie!" when i really didn't catch the name he told me. Then he'd introduce me to his friend who also went "Yea karen, i know her, i've met her before" and i'm all smiles-smiles-shake-hands while i search deep deep to the pitts of my thinking cap. ???????!!
Anyway, even before the race started i was able to injure myself. I scraped my knuckles on the barnacles at the side of the deck. so i was actually going around shaking hands with with a bleeding hand. [insert-name-of-formentioned-person] pointed it out to me. and an echo if winced expressions followed. heh.
Keith joined in the swim for laughs. Literally. Coz he's so darn good at it. Funny thing was tho, Mr Chan Chee Seng started blaring into the loudspeaker "Who's the 2 fellas with no swimming cap over there? please come out!" hahah...i dont know who the other fella was. but i told keith, dont care la, just join. hahah...
Flag off. I was brutally ambushed in the water with several kicks to my face and stomach and even a claw on my calves. wth! Bully the breaststroke girl why don't you! The swim was good. Rejuvenating even. I had a steady pace. Trying my best to avoid any form of human being that i can see. My goggles were all fogged up. I came up in about 15 minutes, which really was very impressive to me. I hear my mum, my dad and Keith cheering for me at the top of their voices.
I ran as fast as i could to my bike. Ive had very bad transition periods in the past. so as i ran, i did a bit of visualising how i was gonna carry out the transition. I had my vest on, first thing. Then socks, shoes, helmet, sunnies. I even imagined how i was gonna lift my bike off the rack (i hate those hanging bike racks). And to my surprise, everything went smoothly. Isaiah was just a tad in front of me. But we all know he's conserving energy for tomorrow's race. The bike leg was, once again, surprisingly easygoing. I even took on the hills with little effort. I didn't stop and do my hand-pushing-legs stunt which Uncle Alex is so fond of reminding me. my bike monitor wasn't working (yes yes, pretty messed up noob triathlete here) but who cares? I was freaking on a roll! Came in just over 27 minutes. Once again, i amazed myself. Siah cheers can be heard and seen, alongside some cheers from Pacesetters.
On to the run. Sure i had the inevitable jelly legs, post cycling syndrome. But as cheesy as this my sound, adrenaline was seriously pumping through my veins. For real! I felt really good! Mr KC was poised with his huge camera somewhere in front of me. I hope he had a good shot. *grin*
The run was a little harder to catch on. But it was all good. I overtook one or two kids. Kept myself at a constant pace. Increased my speed a little after the u-turn. And made it back home in over 15 minutes. ha! my target of completing in 1 hour 15 minutes was overthrown by an astounding
57 minutes and 27 seconds!
I was put in
such a good mood that i was singing in the shower. A delicious carbo-loading dinner of spaghetti and meatballs and cream soup followed. MmmmMMMM!
By 10pm, the 4 hour sleep took a toll on me. So, for the first time, i was asleep by 10.30pm. :)
Sunday, 23rd July - Olympic distance [1500m swim/40k bike/10k run]My dad and i were doing the running leg. Keith and YiXi were doing the swimming leg. Isaiah, the champion, was doing the full. We woke up byat 6.15 am. Breakfast was cheesecake, bread and water. We went to the race site at about 7.10 am. Already the place was buzzing with energy. The swimmers got their bodies numbered while i started snapping pictures. I forgot to take my camera out the day before so photos only start from today.
clockwise:Yixi, fuhan & keith with their bodies numbered; Keith sprinting in; jacob chillin; the yellow caps of the relay swimmersThere was a bit of a drama with this Singaporean dude who missed a buoy in the water and got disqualified. he was actually the second person out of the water. But Mr Chan seemed adamant about DQ-ing him. He was so silly if u ask me. He could've just swam out to the buoy, go around it and come back. The buoy was only about 100m from the finish and with his good time, he could've gone around and back in a minute tops! But no! darn fella just quit altogether. I say BOO sama budak Singapura! Served him right for not listening to the briefing properly. SEA games gold medalist, apparently. I say, so what?! Nobody likes a sore loser.
Keith, who was on my team, came up in about 22 minutes! I was so excited! The pressure was building up inside of me too! Yi Xi came up a bit after and then my dad's swimmer. Woohoo! We even had time to go for a short breakfast, assuming the cyclists would take about an hour. When we returned, my team's cclist came in not long after. He did about 67 minutes. As i sped off, i heard someone saying that i was in 2nd position! wahlau! pressure!!
Running 10 km was a feat. It didn't used to be, but with such a bad year, i was afraid. what more, the egocentric in me had to tell my cyclist i'll do it in an hour. as i ran, i thought to myself, an hour Karen? are you nuts? Then again, it was the same ego that made me push myself the entire way, willing myself not to stop. I had 2 sips at 1 water station. That was all. I ran past Jeffrey who told me that he'll be taking his time. ??after the U-turn i saw my cyclist on the other side! ahaha he was doing even better time than me. I saw Isaiah who was also coming fast. I saw Mr Cheng, John boy, and many others. I saw my dad too, up ahead. In about a km away from the finish, my cyclist was ahead of me. He told me to keep a steady pace. My watch showed 53 minutes then. I was so afraid i might just run out of steam in a few seconds and dash my own hopes as well as that of my cyclist and Keith. 1 hour, me ass, Karen. But then i saw this guy struggling up ahead. I tried to catch up, then i told the guy to keep going. I urged him to not walk. They say do unto others what you want others to do unto you. Well, in this case, my cheering this guy on was therapeutic in a way. It made me WANT to not stop as well. It made me want to be a role model to him. And eventho he managed to go on ahead..way ahead of me, i felt good, renergised even.
clockwise: me coming in from the run; keith and i posing; daddy coming in from the run; isaiah-post raceI came in in
56 minutes and 23 seconds. As i carried my finisher medal around, i prayed nobody comes up to me and tells me that the darn route was less than 10 km. I swear i would give him/her a black eye. Keith seemed ok. I hope i didn't disappoint him.
Tean 825! Mr Chu Poh Onn - Keith - KarenSo yes i had a ball of a time! Nope i didn't finish second place. Turned out that person miscounted. I wasn't even top 5. But owell. I have made a comeback. I am currently the closest possible to my former fitness level, if not at par. I'm SO happy! Pardon the long winded entry. I'm babling out of ecstasy.
Watch out! I'm back in the game!
.jpg)
so anyway, my results were satisfactory. i'm not gonna go "it could've been better" or "i can actually work harder". No doubt i can. I believe that i actually can be a good student. The thing here is not the ability, but rather the desire. If i were given a chance to sit for the papers again i would still come out with the same results. I'm not very studious nor diligent. I never liked reading let alone reading something i dont like. I am lucky for the common sense in me that enabled me to answer most of the questions rationally.
