Here comes the story.
Woke up by 4a.m and preparing race gear on race day, I was blurred like a drunkard due to insufficient sleeping hours as I slept at 1:30a.m. After having my oats, Zane drove me to race destination and all the way I was just sleeping inside the car because I was too sleepy. 5:35a.m we reached and TA (Transition Area) had opened up for athletes for setting up their gear. Bike, shoes, nutrition, and bib number were arranged according to my past race experiences.
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| 6:30 a.m, bike shoes clipped on pedals. |
Then, sent our bags for baggage and waited beside Millennium Tower for our wave to start and somebody just late for the event. Tze Hwee overslept and woke up at 6:50a.m, while I was suffering in insomnia he could sleep tight and deep. God, you're just little bit unfair. I could say this is the biggest event I've ever entered, thousand of people I could met on race day. Aldrain Yeo, a triathlete from Team Time Triathlon. We had a small talk and blessing each other for the race. (Aldrain, hope to join you on training next time, haha.) Tri-Stupe, the most famous triathlete blogger from 2ndSkins but I didn't manage to talk to him. Rupert Chen, semi-pro age group triathlete and others active triathletes.
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| Surprised! I love this shot so much. From Left: Zane, Tze Hwee, Jhan Yong, and Me. Photo Credit: BaikBike.com |
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| I didn't know you were there taking photo, Shan. Haha, who stole your ice-cream, Jhan Yong? Photo credit: Shan Hoh |
However, our wave started quite late (almost about 8:15a.m something) due to some technical problem, I guess. It was a deep water start, I liked it so much as it did give the feel of taking part in IRONMAN in Kailua-Kona. I got out of water at my expected time and ran into TA1 to get my bike. As a swimmer, I need not to worry about my swim leg. All the way out I was thinking whether to use fly mounting or not, in the end, I used the normal classic way to mount my bike as it isn't my bike and I need to take good care of it.
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| Running to the transition area :) Photo Credit: Yew Khuay |
With an alternating pedaling and resting I had wasted too much of time sitting on saddle and resting on roadside. At last 15km I was completely down and lying on the roadside. The volunteer came for asking my body condition and I returned back a question. Did the cut off time passed? He replied:"If you going back now you still able to catch up with". At that moment, I saw there was hope, there was light. I didn't DNF appear in my race career so I clipped back my shoes on pedals and pedaling as hard as I could to reach TA2. By the time I reached, Zoe told me that it was just 2 minute passed and I'd been out off the race. That was pretty awkward and I got myself to the medical tent and slept at there.
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| First loop smooth and fast Photo credit: QQ's sNAP |
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| Feel ashamed that I didn't finish the run leg. |
Watching other athletes came back with their Mdot towels and finisher medals, I was unable to accept my poor performance that day. I ain't like Pui San that Rupert compensated her with his towel and finisher medal, even though Jhan Yong or Tze Hwee did offer it still meaningless as I didn't earn them when I crossing the finished line. Even some athletes might tell me that not to worry, there still another race. Yes, I knew but I was training in 4 months past just for this race. To be frank, it's quite annoying to hear when you really upset. But what to do? Life still going on, and training still going on.
Within a week for calming down, I do finally accept the fact that I DNF this race.
I swear I'll be back on next for taking back what I'd lost at Putrajaya on April 13th, 2014.
