New Hope Starts When The Sun Rises: September 2011

116 Desaru International Triathlon 2011 Race Report

Desaru Triathlon 2011

Woke up at 5am and started preparing for the race which starts at 8am.

Did some stretching and went for breakfast at 530am. (sounds like BMTC waking up programme). Brought our bikes down as well to the tranisition area ~ Our bikes were the first 2 bikes to be parked in as we were lazy to go up and down to transport our stuff (Well, like Shah would say "Bikers Trust")

Still in "Sleeping" mode

Had a quick breakfast and started an early streatch and warm up to get ourself ready by 8am

By 715am, we went down with all our gear and started to place our stuff in the basket provided. =)

Arranging my Stuff in order of movement

By 745, the Race Director, Uncle Chan gave a last minute race briefing to re-cap what will be going on. It was so nice of him to do a quick re-cap as many people did not attend the race briefing...
(*** It is very important to attend Race Briefing ***)

Last minute race briefing

8am and off we went into the sea. Well, i would say that the swim was pretty tough. The waves were high and was difficult to swim out. I had many gulps of sea water while trying to breath. Ocassionally, I would miss a breath, due to the high waves, but luckily, I managed to catch a quick breath on the next stroke.

Running real fast to get into transition, look no cramps :P

By the time i reach the beach, i was worried that i would get a cramp on my calf. But, thank goodness, I decided to put on the calf guard and i got no cramps at all. Phew!!

Ran all the way into the tranisiton area and picked up my bike. GUESS WHAT!!! I found my bike!!! hahaha...
Took my bike and off i went. The first 10km was pretty easy with straight and a little hilly course. By the 12km, HORROR stuck! Like the race director say, "you all go and enjoy this potion of the race... i believe you all will enjoy it" and HELL he was right.... We "enjoyed" it... the slope was so steep that many people had problem climbing it. From afar, i saw many people having problem going up and in my heart i was like "ok, good luck to me!"

When it was my turn to climb the hill, i was struggling. I wanted to get down and push the bike up. BUT, due to the ego problem, i just forced my way up. I switched my gear for climbing and push and forced myself up. (Prior reaching the climb, I switched my gear) Then finally when i reached the top, it was a flat road to an exit....!!! I was like damn no down slope for me to catch up... anyway, i turned out and contined to cycle. We were directed to another hilly road and up i went made a U turn and caught up with the rest of the participants with the down hill. Managed to over take many people with that down hill.

The run portion was pretty ok. It was almost the same route as the bike, where i have to climb the same slope that i had problem biking up... but luckily i was running so not a problem. The only issue i had was, we were made to run on the sand which i find it tough as the sand was soft. But nevertheless, i was a good run.