S'pore 70.3 Race Report

First of all, here's a video of the course. My official result is here.

Lots of photos of me (BIG THANKS to superstar photographer Tey Eng Tiong), and photos taken by me, are here.

Tey's photos, including some of Shahrom and lots of others, are here.

Pre-race:

Preparing all the kit is one of the joys of triathlon!! -

Up at 5am, drinking lots, munching bananas, Powerbar & energy drinks...off to ECP in a taxi at 5.30am. Arrived at T1 with an hour until transition closes. Did body numbering, set up transition. Managed to get hold of a great pump and put 140psi into both tyres. Paid a visit to the mens room (an important pre-race job) and plastered sun cream all over. I tightened up everything on the bike, including the hydrotail that had come loose the day before, and was all set at 7am - perfect timing!

Gunter was buzzing, jumping up and down - excited about the start!

With Shahrom (L) and Gunter (R) at the start.

My wave was one of the last so I got a chance to see the pro's and a few others dive off into the water.

Swim:

The waves were smaller than Desaru and the current was weaker, so I managed a much faster swim. The whole swim was fine except the main outward leg which was directly towards the rising sun which made navigating difficult. I went a bit left then a bit right so perhaps lost a wee bit of time. I reach the furthest point in about 25 mins against the current so looked good for the planned sub-50min swim.

The return leg was fine and I pushed it a bit towards the end and emerged from the water in 47:47.

Teh snapped me during the 250m run from the beach to T1...

Heading to T1.

T1:

All OK except I started running towards where BIKE OUT was shown on the T1 plan, not where it actually was. So I lost a few secs - but only a few.

Bike:

Cranking it up at the start of the ride.

Away smoothly, everything working. Managed a good pace along the East Coast Service Road heading towards the 4-lap city course. Started overtaking a few of the stronger swimmers. Saw a crash victim after only 5km or so on the uphill approach to the ECP bridge.

Onto the city loop I was loudly cheered by an unknown female (Melody or Adele I thought) but on lap 2 I noticed it was Cort Prois' wife Sandy - she's a great and very vocal supporter! Into Marina area for the first lap another crash victim with bandaged arm spotted, then lots of puncture victims - I was praying for no punctures for me!!

The ride was great. The bike was super-smooth and I was cruising at 33-34kph on the flattest course you could wish for, with some nice sharp adrenalin-stimulating 90 degree corners. The pros were pushing the drafting laws to the limit - at one point a pack of them passed me with them all in single file, 3-4 bike lengths behind each other. Was impressed to see eventual Womens winner Belinda Granger cycling together with the leading men.

I went a bit too fast on the bike in the first 2 laps and my lap splits slowed, something like 33-35-36-37mins for a 2:40 total. I tired on the last 2 laps but my time was still good, averaging almost 32kph for 85km. Are these races ever the correct distance? I'm sure my bike computer is correct.

Left quad feeling a bit sore towards the end - it the same muscle that goes first every time!

T2:

Jumped off my bike in my new style, saving 2 seconds in the process, handed the bike to a catcher, got my run bag and changed for the run, just about finding a space to sit on one of the changing benches. Out of T2 in a reasonable 2 minutes despite struggling with socks onto damp feet as usual.

Run:

First 5 mins ok but for the next 10 mins my quad was seriously threatening to cramp. I stayed relaxed and thank goodness it went away. After nature called, I was off again on the riverside paths at a fairly slow place but was happy that I had 2h45m to beat my target time.

Then disaster struck. I had to walk and felt like I had no energy. I just couldn't run for more than 1-2mins at a time. Even PowerGel didn't seem to help. I kept running-walking-running and I was only halfway into 1 of 2 laps. There were people cruising past me all the time and I was NOT looking forward to walking for another one-and-a-half-hours to cross the finish line way outside my target. My first 11.5km took 1h25mins. From my HR readings it looks like I stopped to walk about 12 times and my HR dropped to around 140bpm from hovering around 160bpm on the bike.

Then my saviour appeared. I was inspired to drink Coke (flat Coke) and it tasted soooooooooo good! That lifted my spirits and my energy and somehow I managed to run the rest of the way with very little walking. I was drinking like a trooper though (electrolyte-Coke-water every 1km in that order) - goodness knows where it all went as it didn't come out the usual channel!

This helped me do a negative split (a faster 2nd half). I managed the final 10km in a more reasonable 1h10mins, with little walking. In the final few km I began to pass a number of runners which raised my spirits a bit more...

Plugging away on the run.

My finish - through a damp lens!

Swim - 0:47:47
T1 - 0:03:18
Bike - 2:40:25 (85.43km @ 31.95kph)
T2 - 0:02:04
Run - 2:35:21
TOTAL - 6:08:55

Another medal and number for the collection!

The all-important data!