Kenyir Lake Tri Race Report

The Long Road to Kenyir

I couldn't face hours behind the wheel so I decided to get the overnight bus. I met Gunter at the bus station and at 11pm+ on Friday night we headed off East. After a reasonably uncomfortable 7 hours we arrived at a cool early morning Kenyir and had a quick Milo and nasi lemak brekkie. I met Raymond, another person I was aquainted with through blogs, but had never actually met.

1 Day To Go

We checked-in and after struggling to sleep for a while I managed to get a few hours rest before lunchtime.

The view from the Resort lobby.

Gunter and I registered and had lunch with Patsy. Soon Bernard arrived. The three of us went for a 10min swim, cycled a few km around the resort roads and went for a 15min jog too. I practised sighting and looked for navigation landmarks for the next mornings swim. I couldn't seem to swim in a straight line very well! The course seemed quite hilly so I decided against using aero-bars.

Gunter and I bought ourselves a new 'toy' - elastic laces to save a few more precious seconds!

My new toy - elastic "Lock Laces" (RM29 to reduce T2 time by 10 secs!)

After thrashing Gunter at pool (revenge for AC Milan beating Liverpool recently) and enjoying one quick glass of beer we headed off to the carbo-loading dinner...

Bernard, Me and Patsy at the carbo-dinner.

...and again (photo by Jaja)...

The Big Day

The bad nights sleep goes without saying although this time it was mainly due to the apartment toilet cistern sounding like someone with a drum kit (and playing it!).

The usual ceremony followed - brekkie - suncream - toilet - recheck transition bag - cycle to start. Here's the start. We had to swim 2 clockwise loops of a triangle.

After setting up I went for a dip and started fretting about my goggles fogging up after a few secs and being blinded by the low sun on the return leg of the triangle. I met Shazly, the proud owner a lovely new Orbea Ordu TT bike.

This is me after my warm-up.

Swim:

We started on time and as planned I made a real effort to relax and go at whatever pace my front crawl allowed me to. This worked well and I soon got into a steady rhythm. I swam front-crawl all the way except for a few seconds when colliding with others or at the turns. Amazingly my goggles didn't fog. My navigation recce the day before worked wonders as I knew where to go even with waves and bobbing heads in front of me. My time was 16mins+ at the end of the first loop. So far so good. At the final turn with 300m to go I glanced behind and didn't see too many swimmers but didn't mind - I was going according to plan. I went a bit wide on the last leg of the second loop and finished in just under 37mins.

T1:

Jaja snapped me on the way up to transition...

Out of the swim, heading off up the hill to T1.

It was this 150m run that first showed me the benefits of front crawl. I could actually run in a straight line and my legs felt fresh!

Bike:

Plan - save legs for the run. The hills started immediately but at least one of the bad ones was right at the start when legs are still fresh. After 2km and just out of the resort I caught my buddy Arif and I thought that he and another 1 or 2 guys picked up my tail.

The road thereon was like a rollercoaster but with no big hills until 3km short of the turn. I watched the leaders pass in the opposite direction - one guy on a red Cannondale on his own 1 or 2 mins ahead of the pack of usual top finishers. Later I managed to pick out Gunter and Bernard - both ahead of me but not by too far. In this outward leg I was passed by a handful of riders but caught a few too so maintained my position whilst still not really pushing hard.

After a long 2.5km climb there was one final downhill blast to the u-turn. I was on my own for the entire return leg but the time was nicely broken by passing another 1 or 2 riders before I thought I could see Shazly ahead in the distance.

Back into the resort for one final climb which I just about managed without falling off. On the way up I passed a couple of guys walking their bikes up! Down into transition I broke the rule of never trying something new in a race by taking my feet out of my cycling shoes before dismounting (so I could run faster in transition and save shoe removal time!). It worked ok but it took me longer to get off my bike! 2 seconds saved though! A slow-ish 1h27m on the bike this time.

T2:

My socks did not co-operate much but my new elastic laces were wonderful as I slipped my runners on in no time at all.

Run:

Now the benefits of a front-crawl swim and an easy bike ride kicked-in. Right from the start I had "running" legs. No sign of cramp at all and no uncomfortable bike-run feeling. Although running pretty slowly my legs felt good and I didn't feel the need to stop...until the first hill back up to the resort entrance after about 1-1.5km. At this point I decided my strategy for the rest of the run - walk up the steep bits!

I kept plugging away and there were plenty of flat or downhill sections to recover on. After putting it off for a few km I answered the call of nature after 5km or so and felt better after that. I felt good all the rest of the run and only walked on the steepest hills. This was my first run where I actually overtook a few people! I saw Bernard, still not too far ahead, which spurred me on a bit. With 2km to go I got a bit worried about dehydration as I didn't seem to sweating that much anymore, so I had a bit extra water and 100+ at the penultimate aid station.

One more killer hill to go and I targetted overtaking Canadian Steve as my final piece of personal glory. It was not to be though as he started running earlier than I did as the final rise levelled out near the top. Over the top I let gravity take control all the way to the finish line and I crossed in a very pleasing 3:10:43.

Just finished!

With Jeffrey in transition after the race.

Another medal and number for my growing collection.

The route profile (solid red). The bits before and after the blue line (bike speed) are the swim and run respectively. Note the big hill halfway into the bike! Ignore the swim altitude - the water plays havoc with the barometer.

Swim - 36:46
T1 - 1:48
Bike - 1:27:43
T2 - 1:27
Run - 1:02:59
TOTAL - 3:10:43

Stats: (I love my stats I do!)

Max speed: 75kph
Transition Hill (out): 26m over 300m @ 1:12
Transition Hill (in): 45m over 800m @ 1:18
Bike U-turn Hill: 110m over 2600m @ 1:24
Bike Ascent: 511m (same as HOA to Genting Sempah!)
Run Ascent: 220m!

Nutrition:

Brekkie: Banana + Triple Threat + Coffee @ 6.30am
Bike: The usual 300ml water + 500ml ORS on the bike. PowerGel @ 1:00:00 and 2:00:00
Run: Water at 2km and every 1-2km thereafter. 100+ & water @ 8km.

Thanks to Jaja for the action photos. I am so tempted to call her Jaja Binks but that would be cruel!