PD Triathlons

On July 22nd I drove down to PD for the annual pilgrimage for the PD triathlons. Saturday was the sprint distance race which was supposed to be 400 meter swim 20k bike and a 3k run. the 20k bike (my strongest leg) turned out to be less than 10k.

I had a good swim (although after the race everyone was really concerned about the "disastrous" swim I'd had - don't they know - I'm just slow!), on the bike I got within sight of Iwata San my main rival but with such a short cycle leg I did little to eat into his lead.

The run was pleasant and I held no illusions of catching him - after all he wins run races outright! Long and short of it I came 2nd in the over 40's and won a nice trophy and a pair of Brook's track suit bottoms that would have been too small for my boys - hopefully I can get them changed.

On Sunday morning I drove down again for the Olympic distance race and although I was on time and pretty well organised I was chatting away without realising that Mr Chan was going to get things underway a bit sharpish. I thought I'd get in near the shore and warm up by swimming to the start, as I was midway through jumping in Mr Chan shouted "READY" I couldn't stop myself so it was a mad swim to try to get to the start. As it happened I was a bout 20 seconds late and then had to fight over all of the breaststrokers. All that said and done I ended up having quite a competitive swim for me and headed out on the bike just behind the first 2 relay riders (the relay swimmers started about 4 minutes behind us).

Doubled up with another relay guy and then really started pushing hard - after about 12k we got picked up by 4 or 5 other relay riders and then the pace really picked up. Swept up loads of people on the bike including my main rival in this race Don Khor. The ride was so fast that in the end Don got dropped which took the pressure off a bit. Ride time was about 57 minutes for exactly 40k - fast or what thanks to the relay cyclists.

Started the run feeling OK (in an exhausted sort of a way) and immediately got into a ding dong battle with a guy that I thought was "Ip" (the guy from Macau that I pipped at the post in Singapore). We kept swapping places and every time I thought I'd broken him he shot past me again. At the last drinks station I feigned an attempt to get water but instead picked up the pace. This was enough to drop the guy with 1 1/2k's left (although I didn't look back - I just assumed he was on my heels). With about 400m left I saw a guy in front of me running well but I was catching him, he seemed to have a similar number to mine (therefore probably in the same age-group) but my oxygen starved brain just couldn't compute who he was - I passed him with 125 meters to go - big mistake! It turned out that THIS WAS ACTUALLY "Ip" and as I predicted after Singapore he'd knew who I was this time. The sprint to the finish was a no-contest victory for him - beat me by 3 seconds. I was second again, won another nice trophy and RM500 for my troubles.

Great event as always huge fun, wonderful people great friends.