Bukit Merah Biathlon

I met Ah Fook in Ipoh and we drove up to Bukit Merah for the biathlon. We were running behind time as I'd arrived in Ipoh late having gone to the Doc in the morning to try to solve my aching stomach problem. Having been closely monitoring the 25mins fast clock in Ah Fook's car I was worried we'd be too late to report, but we got there just in time to change, set up at transition (first 2 photos) and have a bit of a swim warm-up.



When the swim started the pontoon was pushed backwards so much by the force of those in front of me diving in that my plan of doing a nice dive too was ruined - instead i ended up doing a half jump half dive. If anybody caught it on video they could put it on youtube so everyone can have a good laugh! Here's a photo - click for a big one - I am the tall lean muscly one with 101 on my arm...

I tried front crawl for about 200m then gave up. I reverted to a relaxed breaststroke and only did a bit more crawl when I felt like it or if my knees began to ache. The swim seemed to drag on for a while but i eventually finished in about 25 mins. Here I am just out of the water...

I jogged to transition - shoes on sunnies on hat on - off we go - oh no i forgot to put on my t-shirt - run back - t-shirt on - off we go again!!!

As usual the first 10mins of the run was pretty horrible - uncooperative legs+heat+long flat straight road. I saw fellow swimming students Ah Wei (leading the way) and Shahrom (close behind). Shortly Ah Fook caught me up to provide some well needed peer pressure. Here we are near the end - with me doing my best to look like I'm running quickly...ha ha!...

I finished the run in about 35mins.

Swim (1000m) - 24:59
Transition - 2:37
Run (5km) - 35:11
TOTAL - 1:02:47

After the race I met Karen Miss Met. College PowerBar Athlete and she took this photo of me with Eugene and Ah Fook...

Once again, PowerBar well represented in this photo...

Carbo-loading dinner...I ate lots!!

Another medal, an hour of fun and activity, and an enjoyable dinner afterwards - but a bit annoyed at myself for not trying harder at doing front crawl!

We headed back to Ipoh in the evening to get set for the big ride the following day!

Thanks to Karen, Fook's brother Lee and Arif for the photos!