A'Famosa Olympic Triathlon 2007 - Race Report

Well I did it, not without suffering a bit though!

Having thought about it constantly for the last 6 months part of my brain thought this was my 77th Olympic Tri but actually it was my first.

Up at 5.40am, 2 x Triple Threats for brekkie, showered etc...and did final bike & kit checks.

Arif, May Senn, Bernard & I cycled about 3km from our villa to the start where we collected our bags from fellow Olympic 1st-timer Ah Fook and his girlfriend-photographer Helen.

We were fairly early at the transition so I had time to get ready, chat a bit and soak up the atmosphere. I met Faie and Eugene for the first time. Azwar was there and it was good to see Patsy Yap again - she never fails to cheer me up with her laughter!

I laid out my gear in my own particular way and went through transitions in my mind - "must remember to sit in T2 for socks & shoes" I thought.

A swim warm-up and stretching followed body-numbering. I bumped into Aini Bola2Api.

The VIP starter was early (for a VIP) and we were underway at 8.03am.

SWIM

The first 10mins of the swim was quite chaotic - I took one fairly good kick in the face, and dished out a few myself. I had to slow 2-3 times for people crossing my path, and my attempts to avoid kicking people in face very hard disrupted my stroke. After a while we spread out a bit and I got into a better rhythm. I did breaststroke 90% front crawl 10%. To do more crawl I need to sort out a good sighting technique. Occasionally my right knee felt a bit strained so I switched to crawl.

My time was 34mins+ with about 150m left so I thought "OK, 1 down 2 to go, just about on target".

T1

I jogged the transition slowly, using the 2 mins or so to relax and focus ahead.

BIKE

My legs felt OK from the start unlike Pulai last year when I could barely handle 3rd gear. I began overtaking several riders and my speed seemed ok (my HRM was on my wrist so I couldnt check speed, average etc...). The course was rolling - tough but short climbs with nice downhills to match. I felt good and was pleased to see some pretty fit/pro-looking riders around me - normally a good sign! I drafted one guy for a couple of minutes but he lost me on a climb. I was conscious that I should leave some energy in my legs for the run. I endured technical problem #1 - a powergel fell out of my suit pocket. I left it - I had a spare in transition and energy drink in my bottle. Someone had a worse problem than me - I saw an aero-bar elbow rest lying in the road!

I saw Don Khor pass in the opposite direction and then Azwar and thinking that it was an out and back course, guessed they were already >10km ahead of me. I got to the u-turn and realised they were only maybe 10minutes ahead which was quite gratifying. I had no idea where my team buddies were until after the u-turn when I saw Bernard and then Arif. I was sure that Bernard would catch me on the bike, and he did after about 25km. On the return leg I was enjoying the ride but eased off my 1st 20km pace to conserve energy. I made a point of enjoying it too - high-5'ing some kids at the roadside.

One bit I enjoyed was successfully grabbing a bottle of water out of a stationary volunteer's hand at 35kph. In the seconds beforehand I thought of the high-probability of the bottle transfer being a complete disaster. My tip - grab the bottles strongly!

Towards the end I could see the leaders about halfway into their run...Ah Thiam, Kimbeley Yap, Steph Chok, Cort Prois.

T2

Nice and easy again. 1-2 mins to relax and focus on my least favourite bit! Sat down - socks on quickly then onto knees for shoes - no cramps! Forgot to record split times as always.

RUN

The first 200m were slow, but everything was feeling ok - no horrible "don't do this to me!" messages from brain to body.

Then after 200m the wobbly alomost-cramping quads started. This was unexpected - I thought
if I got cramps it would be my calfs - but today it was my vastus medialis!

Luckily by running slowly they didn't cramp fully and after 5-10minutes the cramps went - i guessed that's the time it took for my legs to get into running mode (I need to do some Bike-Run "Brick" training in future).

I really struggled to run and ended up walking-running the whole way. Basically walk uphill, walk run flats and run downhill. About 3k into the run I saw Aini, and I saw Arif & Ah Fook towards the end of their bike.

Many people overtook me on the run. I stopped at all the water stations. I started doing "Baby Steps" (refer to What About Bob? movie) - giving myself short goals such as run-to-the-3rd-warning-arrow-ahead.

Eventually I got towards the end of the run and was relieved but also disappointed to be directed to miss the loop back to the hotel, which would mean the run is <10km. After a <37km ride (according to my meter) this meant that perhaps only the swim was the full distance. In the last 2km my quads were tiring and back to nearly cramping. Walking made it worse so I kept jogging. Last 500m - overtaken by one final mat-salleh. I looked behind - nobody for 2-300m so no final place loss - I jogged up the hill to the finish line and gave the usual salute under the arch! Hooray! It is over!!

I finished in 3:02:04, 33rd out of 71 in the M30-39 category. If the bike/run had been the full 40/10km I would have beaten my 3:26:00 target by a few seconds. If I'd known how long the transitions were I'd have allowed 2 mins each making a 3:28 target - so job done!

After the tri I waited for the rest of the gang to finish then headed-off to shower, pack and drive to Sepang for the F1...see the next post!

Next triathlon for me - Tasik Kenyir on 26 May - see you there folks!

One slightly scary thing is that now (Monday lunchtime) my legs only feel tired and not actually stiff as usual for me a day after a big event. This means that either (a) my legs are used to the punishment and I stretched well yesterday or (b) the "tired" period is lasting longer than usual and I'll be unable to walk tomorrow!! We'll see! A recovery swim in the condo pool will do nicely tonight though.

Details for this Tri...
2 x Triple Threat @ 5.50am
1 x Banana @ 6.30am (to get system-down-below moving!)
Race start 8am
Big bottle of PowerBar Endurance drink and normal bottle water with ORS on bike
PowerGel #1 @ 15km on bike
200ml water collected @ 20km on bike
Quick drink of water @ T2
PowerGel #2 @ 3km of run - seemed to have little or no effect. Legs very fatigued!
Water >every 2km on run
Race finish 11.05am.
Post race - 2 x cups Milo, 1 x bottle water, 2 x water-melon.
1.5h post race - 1bottle 100 PLus and 1l water. 1/2 pack of Pringles!! Mmmmmmmm!!!
Lunch - none!
Evening - Pizza + Coke + water
Weight (after evening food/drink) 77kg