Nexus Sprint Triathlon

The Nexus race was organised by a group of the International schools in and around KL. Its primary focus is to introduce and involve the kids in triathlons. The categories started from the under 7's up to the Open Division.

I entered as I'd like Seb and Sid to have a crack at this race next year (if they want to I hasten to add). We got there early to see the younger kids doing their stuff. I have to say they were amazing. I think I could have held off the under 7yo category in the pool but would have been fairly and squarely beaten by the under 9's. Seeing the kids nut it out round the last 500m of the school playing field was as inspiring for me as watching any pro race or seeing competitors come down an Ironman finish chute.

The open category didn't kick off until almost noon, it was piping hot to say the least. One of the reasons I'd entered was because I'd seen Damian Baynes, Mark Firth, Neil Smith and Mark Williams had all registered. As it turned out they all pulled out for one reason or another. So I started the swim with Ezer and the top Malaysian Juniors. I got well and truly got spanked over the 400m swim. The three juniors were long gone by the time Ezer and I dragged ourselves out the pool.

Onto the bike and the chase was on. Soon after the start I took a wrong turning and had to stop dead and come back - I really didn't enjoy that. At the end of the first lap I caught two of the youngsters up and sat on their tails for a k or so until there was a slight uphill and nice open road. I gave Gladys' pedals a little tickle and I was off. Fortunately they reacted too late and I was soon bearing down on Ricky (well known for his formidable swimming prowess). Dropped him too and now it was a case of trying to put enough time between me and them to avoid the little racing snakes zooming past me on the run.

I came into T2 far too fast and ended up with one shoe off and one on. What a twazzock!!! Took the shoe off (with a little too much swearing with the amount of kids spectating - oops sorry!) and off onto the run. Marcus (one of the teachers, organisers and competitors) told me that the run course was undulating and due to the distance (5k) and heat might prove to be challenging for some of the competitors. (I just reread the course description and it says the run "will be both Challenging and rewarding" haha). As it turned out the first kilometre was flat and then a sharp left hand turn and WHAM, it was the north face of the Eiger!!! I thought the Lake Kenyir Tri was ridiculously steep but this was mental.

I focused on not damaging my Achilles any more than they were (an almost impossible task considering the gradient) and kept the strides short and the cadence as high as was possible with such steep "cliff faces"! I was nicely on the way back when I saw the trio of juniors, they weren't going to catch me so the pressure was off. The last descent back onto the main road was even more mental than the climbs. Falling over was a real concern and the juniors told me later that they made a pact between the three of them to walk down it. Clearly I wasn't that bright and ran down (in a fashion).

Back down the main road, I cheered on everyone on the way out on the run, it was so cool to see so many different kinds of people giving this race a crack. Everyone seemed to be loving it which was great. Round the playing field and down the home straight high-fiving Sebastian and Siddhart along the way (the absolute highpoint of the day).

The boys came up to me later and Sid said "Dad, did you really come first? Or not really?" Haha what do I have to do to impress these little fellas?


At the prize-giving I got the trophy for "1st Place - Boys Open" Haha. I did feel a bit out of place and was a bit embarrassed to find that my "rivals" had all pulled out of the race. The juniors kept me honest though (Alex 2nd and Ricky 3rd) and if they can get their cycling skills close to their swimming skills they're going to be amazing.

So a great day, great fun, I think Sid and Seb got a good idea of what it's all about especially as they saw kids not much older than them doing it. Hopefully I'll be cheering them on next year.