Osim Singapore International Triathlon 2010

Months after signing up for this race, the day finally came. Back then it seemed like forever before 10th April would come, but eventually it did.

The day started relatively late for me, 7.15. Ate a simple breakfast of cereal, took a bath, and went off to ECP with my parents. Upon reaching at about 8.45, I saw that the area was pretty crowded and bustling with activity, as the Kids and Mini Triathlon were ongoing. Quite cool to see little children running along with their bikes out of transition area.

Went to get my body markings, put my stuff in transition, and visualised the race (where to come in from the swim, where to exit bike etc etc). Then went for a short warm up swim, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. After just a short time in the water, it was already 9.40 and I realised I was going to be late, so rushed to the transition, put my specs there, and hurriedly walked all the way (barefoot), past the carpark to the starting area.

When I reached the starting area, all the green caps were already ready to go. I was thankful I didn't miss the start. Went in, waited for a while, and the race officials told us to wait till 10 as there were lightning warnings, a thunderstorm about 100km off Singapore. At 10, they told us wait another 30 mins as it still wasn't good to go. So I waited with my parents under some tentage for quite a long time. At 10.30, same thing. This lasted all the way till 11. Then they told us the bad news; the swim segment will be cancelled as it is too late already and if we had the swim, the road closure would run out by the time the elites had their races, and they would have to cycle with the cars. Hence, they "sacrificed" majority of the people's races for the elites. Oh well.

With the swim cancelled and with 15 minutes before the next update at 11.15, I went back to the transition area to wear my specs and race belt. We would start at the same place, but now we would run across the beach to the transition and start our bike leg directly. So now the race was a duathlon instead of a triathlon. At about 11.20, all those in my age group started lining up at the start line, and could feel the adrenaline from everyone. We were all anxious to go after waiting for close to 2hrs. Finally at 11.35, they got confirmation that it was all clear, and we were flagged off!

Right from the start, some crazy ang mohs sprinted all the way to the transition area and equally crazy Singaporeans followed closely behind. I ran at a relatively slow pace for about 150m to the transition area. I was in and out of the transition pretty quickly, only screw up was that I couldn't really find my spot when first coming in. And I got to practice running with my cycling shoes, and also running with my bike.

I didn't feel very strong at the start of the bike, and was doing about 33-34 for most of the start. I reckon I was about 15th out of the transition, and tried my best to go as fast as I could on the bike. Overtook some people, and some people overtook me too. At the first U-turn, was pretty shocked as the turning was super sharp and narrow. Legs were spinning throughout the ride, felt like I wasn't pushing enough yet at the same time couldn't push more. After the first lap, the people from the other waves have also started and the bike course was slightly more crowded on the second lap. Pretty uneventful, although my speed went up slightly to about 35km/h. My bike was pretty slow compared to the other youths from my age group, so room for improvement there!

After the bike leg, I ran into transition, took off my shoes and helmet, put on my shoes, and I zoomed out of the transition pretty quickly. Surprisingly, my legs felt pretty good and I guess it was the result of the brick trainings that I did. For the first part of the run I was following this dude and we were going at about 4.15min per km I think. We passed some other runners, and I felt pretty strong. Then after the U turn, he sped up and I couldn't really keep up, so I ran alone at about the same pace. I passed about another 3 more people, but 1 guy (might be 2) passed me. Nearing the finishing line, I remembered to pose for the cameras (yay!) and sprinted past the line.

My watch timing was 1:02:53, which was better than I expected. According to my dad my position was 15th, which was very disappointing for me. Didn't feel super tired after the race, which probably meant I could have pushed more during the run.

I've lots more to work on, especially the bike. However, I'm quite glad with my run as I think this is my personal best for 5k (about 22min), even though it was after 20km of bike. Just got to cycle more with Joel. Was a good race, although I'm sad that we didn't get to do a proper triathlon. All in all, a good first multi-disciplinary race!