Ironman 70.3 Putrajaya 2015

I was actually supposed to do IM70.3 Cebu but had to pull out. So I changed plans to the infamous Putrajaya....

I had heard horror stories about the water and the heat...but well every race has its challenges which makes the whole IM experience unique.

This meant I had just 16 weeks to prepare though!

To juggle family commitments, this meant early morning trainings and squeezing in whatever I could.

Well very quickly race day came...

The drive across the causeway was met with a 1.5 hour jam...i took it slow to PJ and arrived about 4pm.

When unpacking the bike from the car I realised my rear dee was stuck! I couldn't change to the 3 smaller gears at the rear! I tried to fix it myself but couldn't, so I rushed down to the race expo where the race mechanic was.

And since I was there I decided to check in...

Shit's getting real I thought to myself as they put on my ID band...which would be on my wrist for the next 3 days....

The obligatory selfie with the M dot!

There wasn't much to buy at the expo, except an event tee and an IM cap. My bike was done and it was starting to rain so I hurried back to the car, popped the bike in and headed back to my hotel.


The event tee had the names of all participants on it! Spot my name!

















I was staying at the Pullman Lakeside Putrajaya. It was a very nice hotel, and really buzzing as there were triathletes everywhere. On checking in, I could see people off on reccee rides, pushing their bikes in to check-in, hanging around. It was an exciting atmosphere!

On checking in, the staff told us breakfast for Saturday and Sunday would start at 5am...woohoo! Really felt like a star as they wished us all the best for the race.

Dinner was at iOi Mall, I think the best mall in PJ. While there, I went to Tesco and loaded up on mineral water for race morning.

The only drawback of Pullman was my room was facing the Marina. There was a party every night till 11pm, and the music could be clearly heard in my room. Thankfully though, they did stop at 11pm so I could have some sleep.

I met up with Zul for a quick chat and arranged with Noel, Eddie and Sebastian for the next day breakfast and reccee swim. 


Day 2

We arranged to have breakfast at 6am, and I met Noel and Eddie as well as Justin at the breakfast restaurant. Sebastian came a bit later and after a nice breakfast and toilet stops, I met Zul at the lobby and Zul, Sebastian and me drove off to the race site together.

We had read that it was not advisable to do the reccee swim as there was a chance the lake water would give us a tummy ache for the next day. Nevertheless we decided heck with it and just try.

We were excited when we reached therace site and started to take pics. It was all our first IM70.3 and we were feeling very suaku!

 

This is Zul. Zul and me have known each other more then 20 years. We used to cycle together in sec school around Pasir Ris and cycled everywhere, Ubin, Coastal, ECP etc.

Who would have known 20 years later, we would both be doing an IM70.3 together.....

   
Like i said, we had heard horror stories about the water of PJ, how if you wore white, when you came out your clothes would be brown. When we reached there, this was the sight we saw....

A really beautiful lake actually...

A few more selfies and we hit the water.

The water was really warm actually, murky but I felt it was like swimming in ECP without the saltiness. The reccee swim was a short 750m course, after the uturn my sighting was totally off as the buoys had no rope and i kept going off course. 

After the swim, Zul Sebastian and me headed back to the hotel and OTOT. I had a second breakfast with the family and chilled at the pool with Zul afterwards for a while.

I took a short nap and woke up around noon and decided to do my bike check in.

It was hot. Really hot. While racking my bike I left my phone on top of my bag in the sun and it overheated, refusing to take pictures!

bike nicely racked with our name and bib number.

w

I had actually left my helmet overnight....when I arrived on race morning, I didn't have a helmet for them to check. Got a slight ticking off from the race official but no biggie they were quite nice too

So after racking the bike I decided to try to reccee the bike route. However I didnt have a navigator and took a wrong turn. I decided to return to the hotel but from what I saw...the bike route had surprises for us.


My inlaws (MIL, SIL, her hubby and baby) had came down to PJ too for a holiday so the rest of the day was spent with them and dinner was at nearby Galeria



Day 3 - Race Day


Woke up at 4:30am and got ready. Got the race number tattoo on without incident, was worried I would screw it up

A quick breakfast with Noel Eddie and Justin, ending with us heading to the toilets, and I was off to the race! This is it.

The swim was a rolling start based on your expected swim completion time. Eddie and me went to pen 2 (46mins to 55mins). We were both nervous and excited and the atmosphere was electrifying. I think quite a lot of ppl just started with the sub 45mins wave though. Eddie and me wished each other luck and shook hands. Good to have you there Eddie! 30mins or so after the first group, we both jumped in!

I had a ok swim, I wasn't pushing very hard, but as usual my problem was sighting. Went off course quite a bit, but managed to correct as I went along. Whenever I overtook breaststrokers I would think ah I'm on the right course, but sometimes I would suddenly find myself all alone and would stop to take a quick sighting. Final swim time was 47mins, definitely not my best but still below 50mins as targeted.

 

 Exiting the swim...

Checking the garmin of course...my hand got kicked a few times out on the swim course but fortunately it didnt stop my garmin

 

A quick transition and it was on to the bike! Everybody had said it was rolling hills and shouldn't be a problem. Yah.right.

The bike course was like 45km of all 3 bridges of West Coast Highway, plus viaduct, and at least 3 slopes like Bartley viaduct. Then you do it again. On my second loop, despite salt pills, electrolytes and regular feeding at 45mins intervals, I suffered cramps on the climbs. Had to switch to 39t chainring to climb, (something I rarely do in Sg), and couldn't put too much power in as it would mean instant cramp.Climbs were going up at 14kmh max as anymore I would cramp up.

 

 With about 10km to go, caught up with Janlex and we both cursed the climbs... She fought on too, and we both went into T2 together. Just in time as I had finished all my water and electrolyte drink! I had gone thru all the bike aid stations without stopping as I felt I had enough water and electrolyte drinks. However I had ran out of both with almost 10km to go so grabbed a bidon at the last aid station. It was beautiful ice coke and I cursed myself for not stopping before!

Had 2 incidents on the bike course. First incident, I was climbing and overtook a guy on the left. He said hey you cant overtake on the left and I snapped at him you hogging the right what. Which was true as he was close to the cones and the left was wide open.

Second incident, I was navigating the hair pin roundabout about 10km away from transition. As it was a hairpin I was taking my own lines of course which mean going from left to right. As I entered it was clear and I thought I was the only one. However, suddenly I heard cursing from behind me and an ang mor cursed at me for blocking him and sped off. I was like...huh? Oh well.

 

T2 and it was time for the run. Janlex and me exited together and she proceeded to leave me in the dust. She came in 2nd for her cat!

 

Running has always been my weakest discipline. Before the race, I had only managed to clock one run of 21km. This was the only time I had ever ran 21km. Other then that it was weekly morning LSD of about 15km.

My cramps were already catching up with me, my thighs were locking up and I literally couldn't run the first 2km. Reaching the first aid station, I took an ice bath, drank, and took 2 ice sponges with me.

 Tip: I had purposely bought a cap instead of using a visor. I put the sponge under my cap, and on my chest, whenever I needed, I would give a little squeeze and have ice water running down head and chest. This helped to lower my body temperature thruout the very hot run.

After the ice bath, my legs felt ok so managed to start running. There was another guy beside me who ran same pace as me and we both paced each other at an easy pace.

My cramps caught up with me again and I asked the medical aid for deep heat rub...that plus ice bath helped to keep my muscles from locking up. And so somehow I managed to run walk the first loop. 

Going into the second loop I felt more energized...but because I was running soaking wet all the way, my toes were starting to get blisters. I also stubbed my toe and had a painful middle toe. No choice for it, run walk (but more walk), every shower shower, every aid station ice bath drink water, ice cold coke or isotonic drink, and leave with 2 ice sponges.

 Amelia took this photo. She shouted, Ironman where can walk wan??!!! In my heart I wanted to shout at her you come and do lah!!! lols but thanks for the support Amelia.

By this time it was really hot already and the sponges would heat up after maybe 10mins, but better then nothing. When there was 3km left, a lady beside me remarked this was gonna be the longest 3km...joined 2 gentlemen walking at the 2km left mark and we chit chatted. By now I really couldn't run more then 500m without muscles locking up..passed aid station 6, the most happening station as it had music and the volunteers were all cheering us on...less then 1km to go....

at the final turn up the finishing chute I slow jogged thru, high 5 the Mc...and crossed the finish line! 

Wrapped in an ice towel, a volunteer supported me, asked me if I was alright...told him cramps and he brought me to the medical tent where the good medics drenched my legs in ice water and put ice packs...i laid back and bliss!

And so this is my hard earned medal. The hardest medal I ever earned.

My finisher certificate. I had thought I would do 7:30, my coach predicted sub 7. Well if I hadnt walked that much maybe I cold have sub 7 lols!

So many people to thank! Firstly God as always for journey mercies and your wonderful miracles!

The family, putting up with my early morning disappearances and distraction. The wife for coming to support in the hot sun!

Yuxuan for all the tips, and equipment loans. David Yellowfish for the you will die!!! And 8 hours u dun come back

Eddie Noel Zul Sebastian Justin for hanging together for the race.

All the support from Team Triumphant!

All the early morning likes and encouragement on my ig...u know who you are!

Amelia for support and race pics, as well as all the other photographers out there.

Finally in closing, before the race, Marina had told me, expect the unexpected.

She was right.

A 70.3 is doable. But, you have to respect the course, respect the distance and expect the unexpected. Or else, the course will chew you up and spit you out. It's what makes a tri race, how you manage the unexpected, how you fight the mental battle, how you get yourself across the finish line. Looking back, I dont know how I started the run with both my thighs locking up. I thought to myself erm dude, you got 21km to go. But the thought of stopping and giving up never crossed my mind, it was a fight km by km. They will tell you, trust your training, but your training will get you so far...the rest is managing the unexpected and your mental battle with yourself. And the feeling when you cross the finish line and they wrap that towel around you....i felt myself choking up. And I was triumphant.