The Showroom: Kenyir Triathlon

On my quest to embrace more suffer and pain to myself, I am happy that now I am able to add another strikethrough for my list of suffer-thlon that I have plan ahead in first half of year 2012.

~~Yam Tuan Antah Challenge Trail - Done as of February 2012~~
~~Brooks Half-Marathon - Done as of March 2012~~
~~Kenyir Triathlon - Done as of March 2012~~
Kapas Marang Swimathon in April 2012
Tioman Eco Challenge in May 2012
KL Tower Towerthlon in May 2012
Malakoff Duathlon Series in May 2012
KL-Marathon in June 2012
PD-Triathlon in July 2012
River Jungle Marathon in September 2012 (Last Marathon of 2012 I believe)

For a start, let's look at what to bring. Basically there are 4 bags which I am bringing. Let's check the list on

1. The swim - tri-pants (speedo will do fine too) + swimming goggle (bring spare just in case)+ antifog (I use diluted shampoo for this purpose) + swim cap (provided by the organiser)

2. The bike + helm + water bottles + stand pump (which I make a mistake of leaving it at home, will elaborate on this later) + apparel you gonna wear + repair tools (another mistake which I made) bike computer or whatever stuff you will need to cycle

3. The run - shoe obviously and your attire + sunblock + Vaseline

Since I am doing this for the first time, I am happy that Henry has offered me a ride with him to Kenyir. We drove all the way from K.L to Kenyir, stopping over Kemaman for a yummy lunch. Upon reaching our resort, we quickly unload our stuff and went around appreciate the good environment ambiences around. It is such a lovely place

We went on for a quick survey on the next day’s race course and this is rather important that we know our strategy next day in such where to conserve our energy, the difficult part and also what’s ahead.

The next morning mark the beginning of race, we woke up really early. Prepared our self for the race and everything seems to be in proper order. By then I realise I want to have some extra pressure in my bicycle tire, I have to borrow the pump from my friend because I decide not to bring mind having it in mind it’s bulky and heavy. The problem arise that everything when I try to pull off the pump mounting from my bicycle pump valves, the whole thing would follow out together. It gets so frustrating and helpless that there’s nothing I can do to get my tire’s pump pressure up. My hand pump which I bought without event used it appears that I don’t know how to operate this thing.

In the end I manage to pump just enough pressure on my rear tire and I am already sweating like hell in an air conditioned room. We ride to the body marking area and get ready for the race.

About the race, there’s nothing much to be worthy mention. The swim is good; in fact one of the best times I could expect myself to do, around 36mins for 1.5km swim. For the bike I pushed my bike up the slope knowing that it will gives too much burden on my legs muscle on further run leg. I believe I made the right choice seeing some others which ride all the way in bike suffers tremendously in their run. The time around 1:32 isn’t great but happy for me. The run still proves a big challenge to me as I am unable to overcome myself mentally, it’s so hot and my mind felt so exhausted I just walk more than I run for the entire course. Needless to say 1:15 for a 8.6km run, personal worst! I finished the entire thing in less than 3hours 30minutes, target set achieved and I went back as a happy man.

After the race, I learned that in a race, transition part can get really messy; especially you can’t find the item you are looking for. For the run; you need to do a lot of bike-run brick to overcome the bricking obstacle. I also made friends with many new meet people which is the most important outcome that I could possibly had. Special thanks for my roommate and carpool mate that have been advising me for the entire journey.

This post has been drafted for a long time but it took so much time to be put all together. Another thlon done and more awaiting ahead.