OSIM TRI 2009

Completed my first OSIM sprint Tri today. I've previously done tri before, but that was in Army.. distance is abt the same or a little bit more.. OSIM tri is a little costly i would say, $92 . Considering the logistics involved, the road blocks, okay lar.. give it to them..

before beginning the race..

My bike..

Begun the race with a 750m swim, target time was 18min, but i took 24min instead.. There are a few reasons to the slowness of the swim.

1. There are many slow swimmers that are freaking inconsiderate, like to chiong first and block the path. hard to get past them when everyone is chionging.

2. Some ppl are swimming breaststroke. kicking left and right.. need to siam, tio kick damn pain.

3. I ho lan a bit, cos i swam on the outer lane, trying to avoid ppl from pt 1 and 2, making me swim a much longer distance in the end..

So ya.. a compound of all 3, results in me having a slow swim..

That was followed by a 20km cycle.. Targeted time was 40mins, and i completed in 39mins. The only part of the race that I actually hit under the target.. haha.. ironically, i had the least training in it actually. The route was rather smooth, not much haphazard hair-pin turns, and was wide enough for ppl to overtake.. so yupz, a good ride overall..

After the cycle, it was a 5km run.. Honestly, I've not trained the transition AT ALL, so all my transitions were rather slow, and the worst one is actually the one from bike to run, cos the thigh muscle will get cramped. got down from the bike, and felt the hamstring tightening, had to immediately do some stretching, if not sure gone case one.. Did a min or two worth of stretching, i moved off for the final leg of the race.. Started off real slow, perhaps due to the fatigue accumulating, and the lack of training cause me to feel it..

Half way thru the run, i was actually struggling a bit, asking myself, why am I putting myself thru a torquering race on a sat afternoon, 12.30pm, swimming-cycling-running under the bloody hot sun. I only had one thing running thru my mind, and that was, I can't fail myself.. If i can't complete this short race, How am I going to complete my eventual aim, IRONMAN. With that in mind.. I had only one way out.. that was to carry on running.. it was a mental battle over a tired body.. In the end I persevere and won.. Finished running the race in a time of 1hr 42mins. well.. it's a little bit slower than what I would have liked.. but it's still a good effort. further improvement could be made to my transition and swim.. I can only get better. =)

With Ben after our race..

Tired but happy

After the race, rushed home to change, cos at 3pm, got a musical to watch at esplanade.. SING DOLLAR. It's a musical put up by our local artist, and it was so politically incorrect, ( most of it ). showing how ppl work so hard for $$, and to what extend do they go abt doing it. It robs in the chinese, philipino maid, thai gal. I'm quite impressed by the sets they have, and it was very nicely done. Local musical standards have improved over the years and it's getting more worth it to watch them.

After the show, We went to sukiyaki at Marina square, level 2. It's a shabu-shabu place, going at $19.90 buffet, eat all you can in 100 mins, without GST. Not bad for the price you pay.. and the meat is tender and soft.. yum yum!! next time I know where to go when I want to makan shabu-shabu liao..

Just nice today had a NDP preview, so we got a chance to have a glimpse of the fireworks this yr live. Haha... nice shapes shown in the sky this yr.. special note to the heart shapes and stars.. Pretty designs.. together with the normal style, it was a pleasant night with a beautiful sky..