After IM 70.3 Putrajaya, I had a feeling of unfinished business, and with the new baby due in August, I wanted to get another half iron distance under my belt.
I had always heard Desaru would be a fun race, and there were some friends who signed up so I decided to do it too.
The race would be on 13th June, the day after my birthday, so my birthday was spent travelling there and pre-race prep.
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| loading up the car for departure |
Changi Ferry Terminal parking was free, and with my parents, wife and son coming along, I decided to just hook up the bike, drive to Changi, and leave the car there.
Keith, Abel and Danny would be taking the ferry too, along with respective wives and families.
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| Group selfie before boarding the ferry! |
Scary to watch them load and stack the bikes on the ferry...the ferry was very full with lots of bikes!
The ferry journey took about 20mins, cleared customs and boarded the bus to Lotus Desaru. The land transport was better organised, there was a seperate caravan for the bikes.
The bus journey took about 30mins to Lotus and it was raining when we reached. The lobby was madness as they were clearing those checking out first and we were told we would have an hour plus to wait. Hungry and wet, we decided to go eat. The first restaurant had only buffet and was a madhouse, so we went to the Seafood Restaurant.
Roger, Adrian and Neyton started arriving and after eating, we went to check-in. Just in time as my number was being called when we reached the reception. After settling in the families etc to the rooms, we proceeded to collect our race pack.
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| *like!* |
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| apparently, this IG account does not exist... |
Race pack collection was smooth, but I was starting to find some of the staff familiar. The lady informed me of the family dinner that night, with no limit to the number of pax. Cool as I had 5 pax with me. So after race pack collection we went back to our rooms to rest, and a bit later I brought Lucas to the pool for a short while.
We met later at 6pm for the 113 Triathlon family dinner and race briefing. There were about 450 participants, not including their family etc, and it was really crowded. The queue for the food was very long and the food ran out most of the time. Still it was free and the food wasn't bad.
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| are we having gels for dinner? |
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| the racers tomorrow! |
The race director started his brief later in the night, and I was thinking he looked very familiar....when I saw Neyton later on I confirmed with him and yes...he was the same guy at last year's 2XU Biathlon in Singapore, a race which I volunteered at. I knew then we were gonna be in for an interesting time...
Well after dinner it was time for last minute preps and bedtime!
Alarm was set at 4:30 and I woke up, got ready and went for breakfast.
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| Race number on. |
I went to check in my bike to transition first and found that my original slot had a small drain hole right behind, which my feet could slip into the grilles. It was covered with red carpet, but there was still a danger I could twist my foot. I approached the race director and he found another slot for me, which was a nice quiet corner heehee. It was time for breakfast!
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| Original transition slot |
After setting up, I had to go to the toilet twice, which was a bitch in my back zip Zoot speed suit. Everyone was asking I'm not wearing Triumphant? Well I was inside. I knew this suit was good in the water, and wanted to test it out as a swim skin. It wouldn't work though for the bike and run legs of anything more then a sprint distance.
Toilet done and went to find the rest at the start point. It was picture taking time!
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| Beautiful sunrise over Desaru |
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| licks |
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| We look on to the start of our 113km adventure |
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| and we're off! |
I had talked swim tactics with coach David Yellowfish before, and I asked myself what he would do. The answer was simple. From start, do a straight diagonal line to the furthest buoy on the left, right turn to the last buoy, right turn centre buoy, again to left most buoy, furthest buoy, and then a straight diagonal line to swim exit. This is opposed to blindly following the ropes, which is about 50m out to the centre buoy.
Sighting this time wasnt that bad for me, I followed other swimmers and tried to spot the one buoy. More or less managed to make straight lines and exited the water in 47mins. A PB, as my PJ swim of 1.9km was 47mins as well. This meant I shaved off at least 2mins. Garmin shows an avg pace of 2:13/100m vs 2:23/100m for PJ. I think also my Zoot speedsuit had a part to play.( I swam with the Triumphant tri top and bottom in PJ)
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| exiting the water |
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| running to transition |
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| they had showers installed for swim exit! love this pic lols |
So feeling pretty good for the good swim, it was a quick change in T1 and out for the bike!
The bike route was described as rolling hills with some pretty windy areas. OK.
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| bike elevation data from Strava |
There was a bit of hooha at the race dinner the previous night about drafting. The French guy who had podium multiple times spoke strongly against it, reminding us this was a race against ourselves and drafting was cheating. Out on the course, I saw quite a few people drafting, especially roadies would draft TT bikes. less then 5km out I already saw one doggedly drafting a TT. I told the TT rider he had a tail and he was like sigh what to do...I turned to the roadie and looked at him and he gave me a big grin. I asked him drafting shiok ah? and his smile faded.
I have to admit though when I caught up with Keith, there were groups around us whose speeds were more or less the same. Slowing down would have been a lost of momentum and speeding up would have been expanding too much energy. So we were probably in a draft zone for a while. But after I went up front, I didn't draft anyone all the way.
It was a long, grueling ride...learning my lesson from PJ, i stopped at 2 aid stations to grab some cold 100plus, gurgling it down as fast as I could. I changed to my 39 teeth chain ring for a lot of the climbs, and Strava data shows a total of 600+m of elevation.
After the last Uturn, my neck and shoulders were aching, some climbs I could only climb less then 14kmh, and I was riding 25-28kmh only. I could barely lift my head and hallucinated the roundabout to the hotel a few times. Good thing I went for the bike fit at LOUE Bicycles though, it would have been much worse if I hadn't!
My garmin beeped 90km....and still the roundabout was nowhere to be seen! After struggling on, I finally saw it with relief. This meant there was about 5km more to go.
Neyton had overtook me some where around here, but I could still see him. Finally I caught up nearing transition and it started to rain! I grumbled to him about the distance, we both checked and had about 95km by then. Then we both laughed as we remembered who was the race director. We then rolled into T2 together.
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| rolling into T2 with Neyton |
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| I aged 50 years on the bike route! |
Feeling a bit fed-up with the extra distance and wet, I took my time in T2, drying myself off and changing. Felt good though that I didn't have any cramps (thanks to the bike fit again!) and so I was off for the 21km run.
The family was waiting and cheering on at the transition exit which felt good, and I ran off happily. I was determined to maintain a slow comfortable pace, with a 4min run / 1min walk strategy.
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| Lucas cheering me out of T2 |
Exiting T2 and after two turns, we were greeted with a steep slope up out of the hotel. Too early to go all out so I just jogged up slowly. This was to be the first of many slopes on the run course. After exiting the hotel, I found that Team Bandung had set up a volunteer aid station handing out drinks and Neyton tells me later bak kwa! Great spirit! I found out from Kat later that many thought they were part of the organisers, and they were being scolded for running out of drinks etc at other stations.
I stuck to my run/walk strategy and felt pretty good. After a few kms, I was averaging slightly less then 8min/km, a calculation in my head meant if i could keep it up I could finish in 2hr 48min, which I would be happy with. So I maintained it for the first 5kms until.....I was greeted with the most soul breaking sight.
The U turn point would be at the top of a HILL. It was really a HILL. With about 50m elevation, and you would be going at a steep incline for at least 500m. No way was I going to kill myself on that slope, and fortunately my 1min walk time was up most of it so this was more or less according to schedule. Saw Neyton coming down and he shouted encouragement.
At the top was a waterpoint with redbull along with the usual water and 100plus. Took a drink and jogged down the slope with relief. Saw Janlex climbing up on the other side and tried to encourage her and she was cursing and swearing too lols.
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| the crazy run elevation! |
So I struggled on with the run. There were more slopes but nothing as bad as that hill. After passing the hotel and U-turn, I saw Keith and Abel at the next water station. Keith was cramping bad and looking for muscle relaxant spray. I told him to put ice on the cramps, that had helped me in PJ. Passing them I ran on. I was pass 10km now and starting to fade, walking and walking more. I felt tightness in my chest at some points so I took longer walk breaks, and also found I couldnt run the full 4mins anymore. Approaching the hill the second time, I sat down beside the road and wringed my soaking socks off as I didnt want to get blisters on my toes. Up the hill, I saw the distance marker as 15.1km, but my garmin was showing 16.1km. I knew the run was going to be longer too.
Going down the hill, Janlex overtook me saying go go go...erm ok you go ahead lol. I was close to bonking by now, finished two gels already and starting to get really hungry. I started thinking of burgers...
So I continued on, somewhere along the way, a gal wearing Seamonsta with another guy pacing passed, the guy asking me if I needed muscle cream. I said no , thank you! and they passed on. I passed them at the next water station and then they passed me again, the guy telling me come run with them. I tried to for a while and told him I really need a burger lols. After a while I couldnt run anymore and they continued on.
Finally passed the hotel to get to the last U-turn point and collect the last rubber band. Down to the hotel, down the slope, up another slope, and finally down the last slope to the finish line!
Saw my family near the finish
line and Lucas cheering me on, he ran down the red carpet beside me...
approached the finish line and did a jump (making sure I landed on the
timing mat though!)
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| concerned about traffic from the back lols |
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| finish line! |
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| I am TRIUMPHANT! |
And so I completed one of the toughest races in the region! Although I felt a bit disgruntled that I couldn't PB, I was reminded that yes this is one of the toughest races around and completion is something to be proud of.
I cooled down with the rest of the families, went to collect my bike and change and went for the burger I was thinking about for the last hour or so.
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| hard earned medal |
That night, we all had dinner at Jade Garden Seafood restaurant. Neyton helped us to tag along with Team Bandung and Kat generously let us take the coach with them and helped us reserve a table and order some dishes first. Next year, if Team Triumphant returns to Desaru, we will gladly contribute to Team Bandung's aid station!
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| the famous Jade Garden Seafood Corner |
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| these lobsters cost RM980! |
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| wefie! |
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| Roger had already left with my family. Thank you Roger for ferrying them! |
The next morning, it was an early breakfast and check out and back to Singapore.
Did I enjoy the race? Well, after I got over not being able to get a PB, yes I did. The race was very value for money, easy to get to, convenient, the hotel was pretty good (but I think if you want to relax, dont come during school holidays), food there was good as well.
There is no Ironman branding to this race, but it is a sense of family and community, and it is one of the toughest in the region.
Will I come back next year? I think I will!
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| the finisher T and medal |
Pic credits go to Keith and his wife Jasmyn, Neyton and fiance Rica, Shanaz Shamsuddin, Cycling Magazine Malaysia
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