PD TRI Rehearsal 2

Sunday, 9 July 2006 - What A Day To Remember!!

Met up with Mon at 6.30 a.m. at Edwin's bike shop & car pooled with Mon to PD. Reached Admiral Marina at 7.45 a.m. Was raining but rain stopped after 8.15 a.m.

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>Photos taken from KC's blog:

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After short briefing by Mr Chan (including a short swim demo by Mr Chan), we started the day off with a 1.5 km swim at the marina. This time we went full distance. Kept an EZ pace thru'out and glad I did not feel any downside effects from yeaterday's (feel so long) ride. Knocked head-on with Mon somewhere in the mid-way mark after the first u-turn. Despite all the clear water we had, we smacked into each other like magnets. Recovered quickly and Mon caught up with me. Drafted behind him as much as possible. We made sure we swam the full distance by swimming from buoy to buoy until we got back to the start/ finish pontoon. We clocked 31:30. I was 48 seconds slower than the 30:42 logged in last year's race. Dissappointed with timing but after accounting for yesterday's almost 100km ride, the head-on collision with Mon and the lack of buoys (for sighting), perhaps I did not do too badly.

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Had a quick shower at the pontoon and headed out for T1 at Ironman pace. After another round of briefing from Mr Chan and photography session, we were off for a 40 km ride. Despite the wet and slippery road, Cecil started the fire up front and pulled away with Don, Jacky Loh, Simon X, Wendy and the army guy at the "highway" (just 2-3 km into the ride). Glad I managed to react quick enough and hanged on to the 1st chase group comprising Wei, Ronnie Gui, Eugune, the elite race from Belgium, Kimberly Yap and a few others. We caught up with the 1st pack shortly after we left the "highway". Then, mighty Simon X broke away SOLO. Just like the last PD training session, none in the peleton bothered to chase down the SuperBrit except for the army guy. And like what happened in the last session, I thot we wld again catch the breakaway before the 20km u-turn. A few km later, the peleton caught the army guy but SuperBrit was long gone & out of sight. As we approached the 20km u-turn, we saw Simon riding solo on the opposite side of the road. By my reckoning, he was some 500m ahead the main peleton, which was by then relegated to a chase pack. At the u-turn, the peleton was reduced to a smaller pack comprising Don, Cecil, Jackie, Wendy, Wei, Eugune, Kimberly, army guy, one other rider and I.

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There was absolutely no down time. Immediately after the u-turn, the chase pack was back in top speed again. In fact, Mr Chan was screaming to us at the u-turn to "chase Simon X, CHASE SIMON X!!!!" The pace on the return leg was interupted twice - first when a horse crossed the road and then a herd of cows wandering by the road side (yes, we get a lot of those animals when we ride in rural Malaysia but the horse was a 1st experience for me). With the memory of Ah Wei's recent accident with a duck still fresh in our minds, all of us seemed very careful this time and slowed down from quite a distance. When we got back to the "highway", the pack was reduced to Don, Cecil, Jackie, Wendy, Wei, Eugune, army guy and I. Despite the concerted effort, we failed to catch Simon. At the "highway", we had one final battle - one final sprint to reach the flyover just b4 the roundabout. I started the sprint first (wrong strategy) but fizzled out towards the end. I think Cecil won the sprint. Ave bike speed at end of ride was 35km/h.

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I had a quick T2, swallowed a packet of PowerGel and ran off with my bike helmet still attached to my head. Jacky was the 1st to spot me and I felt so embarrassed for that. Felt a little weak and heavy initially but loosened up nicely after the 1st water station. The Belgium guy zoomed passed me somewhere b4 the 1st water station. He was the fastest runner that morning. He was already running back in the opposite direction when I was some 1 km to the Avillion u-turn. I think I had a good run thanks to the drafting on the bike, the cloudy weather and the water stations provided by Mr Chan. My 5km splits were 24:39 and 24:29.

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Later, I had a BIG lunch with the Chin Woo Gang near PD town.