A' Famosa Triathlon 2007 Report

Firstly, congrats to all the first timer that attempted the Olyimpic distance yesterday. Well done.

Secondly, Sorry OP Ong HS, for not staying longer to chit chat!

Now to the report.



Me, Shazly, Wifey and Ryan went to A'Famosa, which is about 1 hour 20 minutes drive from KL on Saturday. With 2 bikes loaded up the car we made our way down without much problem. Shazly, which will be doing his first ever triathlon race, was brainwashed by me from doing the shorter sprint distance by virtue people of his fitness level would not be satisfied completing a lesser distance.

And so, no thanks to me, he signed up for the full distance and has more questions that i have answers for his uncertainties and worries.

"Don't worry la, back then, we do not have anyone to ask and we came out pretty fine", i told him as i made reference to the first tri the group did back years ago.

His worries was made worse when he recieved a call before midnight that one of his hockey player was admitted to ICU after being struck by the hockey ball during the finals of National Junior League.

But after some talking and chatting and *bluffing*, he went to bed, ready for the next day's race.

I on the other hand, was secretly more excited about having a tri suit to wear and a road bike to ride. Yes, wifey bought me a tri suit. It was cheaper than usual as the brand's name was coming out from the suit. Got the suit for 1/3 of the price, at least.

At 6am sharp, Shazly and me woken up by our own alarm. prepping ourselves by eating whatever we could find in the condo (which wasn't much), he took his protein bar and i had one Powergel Powerbar which was going to expire this May. I then took out the bread and spread some Nutella over it as it was more pleasant to eat.

At 6.45am, we made our way down and we parked out bike. Making sure that we had all we needed, Mr. Chan, called out for all to go for their body marking.

I was a bit self concious when i was wearing the tri suit. It was body hugging, no bulges could be hidden (and i'm talking about love handles ok). I got my 242 marked by Sam and Shazly has his marked by Mr. Chan. What a way for him to be initiated as a triathlete!!!


Shazly getting marked by Mr. Chan

Then along came Ish, which was almost a nervous wreck as he tells me that he can't swim a month ago but now he could. Well done bro!


Tri Newbie...

I then saw Kim, Faie, Mary, Bacin, Soon, Azwar, Azmar, Vicky, Ben, Stephanie, Aini, Jaja, Azhar, Eugene, Doc, Kam, Mejar Kalam and host of others which were familiar in every races.







I saw Hin Toong and we both agree that we will play mahjong in the water aka breast stroke.

Bacin made the joke of the day as he asked if Shazly was from Terengganu...


Louis Garneau...from T'ganu???

After we had our numbers on our arms and shin, we made our way to the lake.

Kim warned me that the white suit i'm wearing will come out brown in the water of A'Famosa. I just thought how bad it would and could be. Shazly can't help it but to jump into the water for a quick warm up session. The rest of us stayed behind to cam whore further.


suck it in! - image take from Bacin

Sharp at 8am, the horn went off and in went all the triathletes. The swim course will take us around 2 man made island in the lake. We are supposed to swim around these two island twice.

Not having enough swim training is no excuse at all and so, i went on breast stroking all the way. As i reach the island, i was shock to see how huge it was. The swim around the island was looonnnggg.

I initially told Mary and Faie that the swim won't be long as the distance between the two island is less than 300 meters. So, Mr. Chan might just pull a fast one on us to with the swimming.

I was dead wrong.

As i head back for my second loop. The old Arena google (which i misplaced) fogged up. Added with the morning sun shining directly onto your face, it's sure disaster. I felt slow on the swim, as i passed the starting point, a quick look at my watch says i've taken almost 18minutes to do one loop. That is bad.

Continuing to swim, i went passed the first island and then the second island and back to shore.

As the goggle was badly fogged up, i just aimed for the white carpet on the shore. Little did i know that i swam the wrong direction. All swimmers are supposed to do a L and come in from the swim. I did a direct short cut.

As i came out of the water, i had Boos on me as the MC says i took the short cut. I honestly did no know i did. I did offer to go back into the water, but since i wasn't in the top 10, i was forgiven. :)

So, i'm so sorry for this. I came out of the water in 38 minutes. A very very slow swim despite the shortcut.


T1 : My Colnago waiting to be riden

I ran to transition, and saw Shazly gearing up for his biking. Not too bad la this chap!

Then i saw Hin Toong behind me. I took my time with the bike gears as i do not want to forget anything. I brought along my phone to take pictures!

The route out of A'Famosa was a bit hilly. With fresh legs for cycling, it doesn't seems to bother me much as i crank my way up two hills before reaching the trunk road where we turn right.


Can camwhore for a while what...

I was pacing with 279 and 211 in the uphill ride later. The route was pretty hilly for my liking. I ran out of gears pretty fast and the front 42 crank was simply too big for me to hack the climb. I stood up a couple of time just to pedal the bike.


Make friends if you can't win the race. ;-)

The U-Turn was at KM 14 and my average was a bad 25km/h. I was cursing myself that i would had done better on my mountain bike. Not wanting to discourage myself, i start cranking it up after the U-Turn. Thank goodness after KM18, the road was pretty flat. I find myself going at 40km/h on the heaviest gear and my average started improving to 30km/h by the time i covered KM 28. A quick cross reference check with my usual 22km ride says that i'm as slow as my training ride. I covered 22km in 45minutes. Not very good as it would mean that i will finish the 40km in 1:30.

Then, the ATMA's boys came sprinting behind. I drafted with them for a while before losing them on the climb. Feeling dejected, i just told myself to race my own race. I do not want to be as slow as my ride on the mountain bike as it would meant i'm better off not riding a road bike!

At KM30, as i was drafting 3 other riders on more expensive bikes, i saw Shazly.


Fu yoh....first timer somemore...

Tapping him and asking him to draft with me, he pushed along.

As we enter the gate to A'Famosa, i reckon we could finish biking in 1:15. Which was good. Well, that was when i realised i dropped my phone which i straped to my stem!!!

Desperate to find it, i turned back and back track pass the first hill from the gate and found the phone lying in it's casing near the entrance. By then, i covered almost anohter extra 5km to and fro. Frust also la. But happy i recovered the phone.

As i made my way to Transition, i passed Peter again and decided to take a pic of him.


Looking good Sir!

Going into transition, Lizzie wanted to take my picture and i stopped to pose. Hahahahahah! I completed the biking in a good 1:25. Which is 4 minutes faster than i did in PD last year on a mountain bike. This is despite having to cycle back to look for my phone.

I saw Wifey and Ryan waiting for me just before the bike transition. One smile from both of them was more than enough to fire me up further. I never felt happier. I parked my bike and was happy to know i wasn't last at my row. Then, Azman showed up.

I changed to my running gears and ran out of Transition, but not before i stopped to pose with Jaja and Mary.


Narcisists

Then with Wifey and Ryan.


Love ya both!

My quads felt tight and my right calf was on the verge of cramping. I took smaller steps with my run to try to offset the pain. Then, Soon caught up.


Lucky la, got running partner now

The sun was really hot. I could feel the burn on my arms and back. The route was not sheltered and the wind was blowing left and right.

We stopped at every water station to douse the heat by pouring it over our head.

Making good pace of maybe 9km/h we ended up running only at about 7km/h at the top of this hill....


Bugger...

From there on, we slowly progressed and kept running. As we approached the gate of A'Famosa, Alex which was marshalling decided to run a 10km run as well.

We turned back into A'Famosa and that was when Karen caught up with us.


Future ass-kicker...

She told us she was DQ because she had a punture on her bike and can't replace the tube. But in good spirit, she keep the tempo up and ran the last 10km.


The sun does funny things to the picture...

The finishing line was about 500meters away when Karen pulled away from us two slow runner.

She finished the race despite being DQ. That is the spirit.

I know by then, Shazly would had finished the race as well.

I crossed the line in a slow 3Hours 9 Minutes. Obviously can't dip below 3 hours, yet.

Wifey and Ryan was there to greet me. That alone was the biggest prize i've won!

It was a good race nontheless.



Later, i found out that Ish crashed and fell on the bike. Doc was running with Ish to make sure he finish the race(so sweet).

Azmar did well too. And Kam, atttempting his first Olyimpic distance, came out well too.

Everyone that i know finished the race in good timing. It is afterall the first tri race for 2007. With Bukit Merah, Kenyir, PD and Desaru to come, there is a lot of rooms for improvement.

I also found out from Kimberly that the swim was at least 1.7km long, the bike official distance is 38km and the run was just 9km. So, with respect to the distance, i've only did 1km less as i did swim at least 1.5km and bike more than 40km. Thank God the run was only 9km! Hahahahah!

Here is a small stats of my race:

Swim: 38:00
Bike: 1:24:20
Run: 1:05:17

Bike Average Speed: 27.5km/h
Max: 56.5km/h

Calorie burned : 4080 cal.
Average HR : Forgot to note
Max HR: Forgot to Note


Papa didn't win Number 1, so Ryan write N1 on forehead

IronMan 20072008. Here i come!

Edited: Thanks Zabil for pointing out the wrong year i wanted to join! hahahahah!