Cycling Outdoors Adventures: PD Triathlon 21Aug 2016

Chapter 1: Lungs PANT, Legs POUND and Hearts PUMP !

It's lucky we were able to do this on the cloudy Sunday morning of the 21st August 2016.

Pic 1 : participants at the event

On the Monday of that same week, the first haze of 2016 swooped in un-invited to my dismay onto the KL skyline. Last year's PD Tri was held on the 10^th and 11^th of October and the haze was so bad, the organisers had to issue a refund notice to participants if they had decided to opt out. This year's event was planned for a much earlier date i.e. 20th & 21st August. I guessed the organisers were trying to avoid the haze and prevent it from causing a damper to this 2016 annual PD event. The haze in Malaysia has become an annual event so much so that there is a cartoon depicting the 4 seasons of Malaysia.

Luckily by Friday the haze had cleared somewhat and by Saturday the air quality looked normal. Event day Sunday morning itself was a rather gloomy/cloudy day that greeted the triathletes. I was thinking great ! Not so hot for the hours ahead.

Flashback to May of this year, registration for PDIT 2016 was just opened. After last year's OD swim relay and the attempted "ghost" cycling stint, I was contented to just do the sprint and perhaps a change In the relay. Perhaps run 10 km this year and not cycle nor swim (see PD Tri 2014 and 2015). Somehow after finding out that a friend, PL had entered the full OD this year and with a bit of persuasion from Edward, I decided to go for it this year and try the full OD. What the heck! Edward was saying: "At least we can finally say to ourselves that we have crossed out this item from our bucket list!"

Pic 2: Malaysia's 4 seasons: Monsoon(rain), Dengue, Haze, Durian

So began the journey to my very first attempt at the full Olympic distance triathlon at PD.
The distances to be covered are now double that of the sprint i.e. Swim:1.5 km, Cycle: 40km & Run: 10 km.

Pic3 :Swim training
session

This time my training was more "planned" than the other previous years. I started preparation in early June. First thing was to test my swimming. Went to Bandar Tun Razak pool one Saturday morning on my own and attempted to have a go at swimming 750 metres non-stop. Lo and behold I was able to do it without cramps nor resting in between. Great! I still had the capability after being "dry “since the last tri in October 2015.

The next step was to try to increase my running endurance from 5 km Sprint to 10 km OD distance. As the event drew nearer it was evident that my stamina/endurance was acceptable but my running speed was still slow but time had ran out and I had to live with that speed. The last two weeks before event date was not good for me as I was down with flu and could not train to increase my running speed.

Chapter 2: SATURDAY 20th AUGUST

2.1 Journey South to PD

Car pooled with Edward to Port Dickson. While in the car we received a whatsapp notice saying that an incident happened that morning on the sprint event. We were not given further details. Excitement turned to anxiety and sorrow. The past PD Tri events since we joined in 2013 had no incidents. (see note 1).

Arrived at hotel and checked ourselves in. There was an initial anxious moment as Edward’s Agoda’s booking was not registered and the hotel was fully booked. But that is another story…

To cut the long story short, we managed to get a room finally as there was a double booking by Edward’s wife who had earlier also registered and paid a deposit to the hotel. Phew! Else we would have to sleep in the car.

Note1: incident at sprint event http://www.sinarharian.com.my/mobile/semasa/peserta-pdit-2016-mati-lemas-1.554350

2.2 Registration and Pre-race Carbo-loading time @ Avillion Admiral Cove, Port Dickson

Registration and goody bag collection was as usual. I went down to the lobby foyer to get two energy bars, two energy gels and a bar of effervescence hydration pills for the event. Because of the morning incident the booth selling the swimming buddy was exceptionally busy. When we had done our shopping, we were hungry and were thinking of driving out for tea but luckily we found out that the carbo-dinner was scheduled to start at 5:30 pm. So we were one of the earliest in for the carbo-loading dinner. We could see that this year’s crowd was more than last year as both floors of the hotel were being utilised for the carbo-loading dinner.

Pic 4: carbo-loading dinner with PL, Jafri and MH

Met up with the rest of the uGo-iGo members who were also taking part in the Tri event. Michael was taking part in the relay as a cyclist while MH and Jafri were taking part in the full OD as well. Met up with PL and his wife and had dinner together.

2.3 Olympics Gold Medal?

Its Rio 2016 Olympics. After our fill we went back to the hotel to watch the Olympics badminton singles final where Malaysia was hoping to break their egg and finally collect their first gold medal just like Singapore (in the individual 100m butterfly swim event). Alas! That was not to be. :-(

Chapter 3: SUNDAY 21st AUGUST

3.1 Swim (1.5 km)

The dilemma of using the faster front crawl versus the breast stroke pops up again. I tried both the strokes at the pool and was surprised that my breast stroke time per lap was compatible with my front crawl. Moreover I was not able to swim in a straight line with my front crawl (could not swim with head out of water to adjust heading) whereas my breast stroke was not blinded as my head was constantly bobbing up and down.

Pic 5 : start of the swim

That morning I noticed a lot of guys with their bright orange swimming “buddies”. I guessed, a lot of “first time” participants were spooked by yesterday’s incident. Another pre-start briefing was given by Uncle Chan. The emphasis being, “Safety Comes First”. If during the swim, we were to see anyone in need we should stop and try to assist and not swim away. (Honestly if I am not trained as a life guard I think I will not be of much help to swimmer in distress)

We were the second last wave to start the swim. While I was swimming there were two swimmers who ran into trouble. The first swimmer was very close to shore. He just stopped swimming and was treading on the water. When I asked if he was ok, he replied no. The best I could do was to ask him to swim back to shore.

The second swimmer in trouble was not long after (about half way from shore to the first buoy). This time there were several swimmers with him and they were all looking towards shore and shouting for the kayak to come over. They did not notice a kayak outwards to sea behind them as they were all facing shore. The best I could do was to shout out to the other kayaker offshore and pointed my finger in the direction of the swimmer in trouble.

This year I noticed the sea was more choppy at the last buoy for the final and only right turn heading to shore. The incoming current was strong and pushing us away from that buoy. Initially I struggled to get to the last buoy and then I realised that I had to change my heading to take advantage of the current.

3.2 Bike (40 km)

Pic 6: Jafri on his bike

Out of the sea and onwards to have my hair wash & shampoo and onto the transition area for cycling. I had also forgotten to take my spare tubes and bike pump (which I carefully packed into my mini backpack) and only realised it when I was about 2 km into the ride. During my training rides, I suffered two consecutive punctures and I was therefore very worried that with my run of “good” fortune being as it has been; another puncture would be imminent.

Pic 7 ; my HRM reading

Almost towards the 15-17 km mark, I noted that my HRM was registering 237 bpm!! This was when I was trying to climb an incline on the route. What a shocker!. I immediately did a mental scan to feel if I had blood rushing to my head or if I was breathing heavily. Released the “gas pedal” and slowed down and rechecked my HR again. My watched registered a new reading of 165 bpm. Phew!!

For the rest of the ride, I tried to put the anxieties behind me and concentrated just only on cycling.

Luckily I found a “sparring” partner midway through the ride. He and I kept challenging each other. He would overtake me while climbing up the incline while I would then overtake him on the downhill. This healthy competition kept my anxiety away and possible increased my average cycling speed.

I noted one cyclist with a puncture and noted an ambulance zipping by. Towards the return leg it began to drizzle and I realised that the bike's tyres were not meant for wet conditions. So I had to be careful with my speed especially round turns. Luckily the rain ceased as I was coming downhill towards the Avillion.

Note 2: It was only later that I found out that there was an accident between a rider and a vehicle. The rider suffered a dislocated shoulder and his bike was a complete wreck.

Note 3:It apparently rained quite heavily at Avillion as I noted large puddles on the stretch of road leading to Avillion. My clothes in the basket at the transition area were all drenched too.

3.3 Run (10 km)

Pic 8 : PL on the run

Sigh!.. the weakest link of the three...my running speed is a snail's pace. This is now made worst as my lower back was giving me problem. On the return leg of the cycling activity my back was giving me problem. Must be the cycling posture which forces one to bend low to reduce wind resistance. I must have bent too low to cut drag and overdone it. By this time the rained had stopped. Judging by the amount of large puddles and the muddy running sections, it must have rained heavily down at the beach area.

Anyway it was a slow run and all I could see were runners overtaking me. I was telling myself hopefully there will still be runners behind me. The longer running route is totally new to me and I especially liked one section where u ran around a small island (Pulau Burung) on a man-made boardwalk type of structure. Some of the participants even stopped to take selfies!

The off road sections were all muddy and water logged due to the heavy rain and the numerous feet that has trodden on it. It was good to see the finish line looming ahead and to finally step over it.

3.4 Post-race Carbo Loading

The customaty after event lunch in PD Town. Went to the same place we went as per 2016. The open air restaurant was filled with triathletes that afternoon. It is now well known among the participants.