Port Dickson International Triathlon 2009 - Race Day

12 July 2009 - Race Day

Today, 12 July 2009, is the race day.  My first triathlon race.  I came early, as early as 6 o'clock in the morning.  Quite a number of competitors already there at the parking area.  Some of them actually sleep in their car.  They probably came a bit early, so they just take a nap while waiting for the transition area to be open.  Handful of event worker working hard to get the place ready.  Had my buffet breakfast at the hotel, I was careful not to take something that can upset my sensitive stomach; something with lot of chili in it.  I'm still full from serious carbo-loading feast last night, so I can't really eat much.

Came to the transition area very early, around 6:30am.  The morning is still dark, but few participant already get the bike hanged on the bike rack.  Here my Scott CR1 look pretty humble sit next to a Cervelo P3.

After a toilet break, I went to the car to get my race bag (with all the things that I think i may need during the race) and my bike to the transition area.  It still dark, but some of the guys already hang their bike at their respective stations.  Found my spot at the transition.  All stations are numbered accordingly, and my station was at the center row, toward the far end from the bike-out exit, but closer to entrance from the swim leg.  In this race, Transition-1  (swim-bike)  and Transition-2 (bike-run) are the same place.  That making things a bit easier.  By 6:45, more and more triathletes start pouring in into the transition area with the all kind of bikes.  Many of these bikes looks really intimidating, with their carbon wheel, triathlon specific frame, aero helmet like the one they use in pro time trial, and saw a bike with a full disc wheel.  Next, body marking.  I get myself 'tattoed' with number 449.  Having numbers printed on both my arms made me feel like a triathlete.  I wished they marked my legs as well, but they didn't.  That will make it look more aggressive and mean.
Saw my wife outside the fence with my parents.  My children are still at the hotel, they will come later.  Met some friends.  Some are from my cycling group, and few from my swim training group. I also meet my childhood friend Kalam.  Haven't met him for at least 25 years.  We went to the same primary school back in our kampung (village).  I actually found his name on XTERRA web page as one of the finishers. Obviously he also into triathlon, and other endurance sport.  Managed to locate him on facebook, and started communicating.

 Me (on the left) with Mejar Kalam.

 Me, waiting for the swim start.

Participant listening to final pre-swim briefing.

The swim started around 8 am.  By 7:50, all participant already gathered on the beach.  There's one last pre-swim briefing by the organizer at the starting point, but I can't really make up of what they trying to say.  They probably explaining the swim route.  My eyes keeping busy looking at the sea.  Water look a bit rough, and intimidating.

Swim start for the younger age group. 

The swim start was done in several waves based on age group, and also different waves for male and female. 

Swim start for my age group

The water was a bit choppy that morning. We were warned last night during the post race briefing.  A lot of guys was saying it was quite bad, but I have seen worse during my diving days, so I'm used to this.  I did some practice swim before the swim start.  Wow.... swimming here is way different from my swim training in the pool.  The water is so murky, can't even see my hand.  The waves make the swim a bit difficult.  After swim couple of round going back and forth, I think i got the hang of it.  I doesn't seems so bad.

I get myself in middle of the group during the swim start.  While the guys in the front run as fast as the could toward the water, those in the middle and at the back have to wait till those in front of us start swimming. The first 100 meters was a bit physical.  Someone hit my face and almost knock my goggle of my face, some elbow and some kicks too, but it wasn't too bad.  On the other hand, I also kicked someone behind me (in the spirit of sportsmanship of course), and I think I knocked a goggle off someone face.  Sorry dude, no hard feeling. This is sport.  Once I managed to secure a space for me to swim, it allow me do normal my freestyle stroke.  For a while afterward, seems like everyone was moving at the same pace with a synchronized strokes.  It feel just like a cycling peloton. 

 That is me swim at top of the photo.

But that 'swim peloton' only last for a short while.  At about 400 meters into the swim, I get myself tangled with the safety line.  The safety line is not really a safety line, cause I cannot hold on to it to float myself.  It just a marker for the swim lane.  I waste same valuable minutes trying to untangled myself.  No I am not in panic mode, since this is not my first time getting tangled with some lines in the sea.  Still remember those day where I was tangled pretty bad from an abandoned fishing net during one of my dives in the Red Sea many years back.  Back then I carry knife with me, and released myself by cutting them up.  Trying to stay still in the deep and trying to release myself is not really that easy.  It actually tangled around my legs, and part of my upper.  I'm trying to remain calm, and eventually I released myself from the line.  Actually that could be my fault.  I was thinking if I were to swim close to the line, my swim line can be shortened and I can save some precious time.  But somehow swimming close to the line make me tangled, and lot of other guys already swam past me by the time I released myself.   

We have to swim pass three giant buoy, and make a u-turn round the 3rd buoy, and going back the way we came, but on different lane.  Once I start to swim away from the line, then I realized I have problem with my navigation.  At first I tried to follow other swimmer hoping that they know what they are doing. But some of them went way off course, and since I was following them, I went off course as well.  Raise my head every couple of strokes really slow me down.  I never practiced this in the pool. The choppy sea and some current doesn't help either.  The current wasn't as bad as I swim entering the marina, and I can feel my swim is getting faster here.  But again, I wasted too much time either going off course, or stop to check my direction.  The last 500 meters was a little tough.  The wave is getting taller, sometimes I just cannot see the beach.  We are being push up and down by the wave.  It is still swim-able, but my pace is almost stagnant.  That 500 meters feel so far away.  Finally I reached the beach, and as I walk toward the transition, I checked my time.  50 minutes! That is slower than my slowest in time for 1.5 km.  My average was around 40 minutes, so I'm 10 minutes slower than usual.

The sea was a little rough.  Some swimmer have to be rescued, like this guy here got pick-up by the jet-ski.

 

I always remind myself that this is my first triathlon, and my aim is to finish.  So I really take my time during the first transition; the swim-bike transition. 

Me in yellow cap taking shower.

 

Finished the quick shower and head to transition.  Checked the time again, 50 minutes for the swim!

Looking for my bike at the transition.  Still plenty of bikes around.

 

Taking my time to prepare myself for the bike ride.  No hurry.  My target is just to finish.. But I actually took too much time on the swim-bike transition.

 

As I start moving, a plastic bag blown by the wind toward my rear wheel, stucked and rolled deep inside the cassette as I move the bike.

 

Realized a plastic bag have deeply pressed into my rear cassette

Trying hard to remove the plastic bag.

 

The plastic bag got stucked pretty bad, why this is happening to me?.

Finally released my rear-cassette from the plastic bag. By this time, all of the guys that finished the swim with me already long gone.

 

 

Setting my cleat on the pedal to begin the ride.  There's my wife with the camera capturing some photo and video clips. 

Begin my 40 km bike ride.

My first transition doesn't went as smooth as I hope it was.  I could not decide what to wear and what to carry; whether to put on the sock, but my feet still wet, so I skipped the sock.  Heart rate monitor? I don't think I will pushed my heart too much, so skipped that too.  Do I carry 2 bottle, or 1 bottle?.  2 bottle seems too much for 40 km ride, but I carry both bottles anyway.  Put plenty of sun block, till my skin become white, even whiter than Britney spears.  Now that looks pretty ugly, so I wipe it off my face and arms.  Checked my Garmin cyclo-GPS, everything work in perfect order.  As I pushed my bike toward the bike-exit, than I felt some resistance from the rear wheel. Initially I thought my brake pad was pressed upon the rim. To my surprise, there was a plastic bag which somehow pressed deep in my cassette. 

It was mind boggling of how the plastic bag can stucked into my rear wheel.  After looking at the video, then it seem like the wind have blown the plastic bag and it accidentally landed on my rear wheel.  As I move the bike, it wrapped itself around my rear cassette.  Took me a while to get rid of the plastic.  I may have touch some cabling while fixing that problem, cause soon after ward, my front derailleur cannot shift up anymore.

As I exit the transition and ride the bike toward the main road, I was overwhelmed with joy, cause I knew that I have completed the dreaded swim.  I was worried that I would have panicked too much during the swim, and eventually abandoned the race.  But somehow the swim was not really that hard.  1.5 km might not be a short swim, but after all the hours I put up in the pool, the long swim doesn't feel so hard anymore.  50 minutes is still slow compare other seasoned triathlete, but I'm happy just to finish it nevertheless.

Bike route for PD-Tri 2009

The bike route started from Avillion Admiral hotel, ride toward Port Dickson main road, turn right on the main rod, take the first left turn afterward, and continue on a short stretch toward PD-Seremban highway, take a right turn at the next traffic light and continue on a 17 km stretch of low traffic road surrounded by rubber trees and small villages.  I ride till a  final check-point and make a u-turn, and ride back toward Avillion hotel using the same route.  As I make the right turn toward the long stretch, saw group of cyclist heading back on the opposite direction.  Those must be the elite, did a quick math in my head, they probably 30 km or 50 minutes ahead of me.  As I pickup my speed on the long stretch, I tried to shift to the big crank, and then I realized the front derailleur doesn't shift up.  Tried it few more times but still it doesn't shift.  Damn, now I stucked with smaller crank for the entire ride. There are some flat and downhill stretch that will be so great if I have the big crank.
In the inital stage of the ride, I did overtake few riders, including one fine young lady on a Cervelo.  They must be strong swimmer but slow rider.  Having said that, I have to confessed that I am not really a fast bike rider myself.  I also have few strong riders overtaking me.  Now they must be weak swimmers, but strong riders.  I must have lie somewhere in between, that is, not really a strong swimmer, and not really a strong rider.  Run, that's my weakest discipline.  A month ago my run was downright hopeless. But lately thing is getting a much better.
Ride passed a Hindu temple, look like there's a wedding taking place.  My best of luck to the brides, and hope they live happily ever after. Marriage is such a great institution, and should be celebrated.
  All riders are spread apart, and not in big pelotons like in normal cycling race.  Some part of the bike ride, I actually ride alone.  I tend to slow my pace when I ride alone.  I wish i can tag along with some of them, but those guys that overtake me went too fast, and those that I overtook feel a bit too slow.  Hard to go fast if I can only use the smaller crank.
After the u-turn at the check-point, feel my pace is getting slower.  Must be the headwind.  Then I have this guy overtake me, and his pace is just like mine, around 30 km/h.  He's rather tall, and slim, and that remind me of carlos Sastre, 2008 Tour de France yellow jersey winner. For the sake of this blog, I'll call him 'Carlos'.  I was drafting behind Carlos forquite a while, saving myself some energy riding against the headwind.  Someone tell me drafting is not allowed in triathlon, but is it? Saw those pro elite doing exactly that.  Unlike the real Carlos sastre, this Carlos is not really a climber.  His pace getting slower during the climb, I just went passed him and going further up front, leaving him way at the back.  I thought that he must be way behind me, then to my surprised, he was ahead of me during initial stage of the run.  I wonder when did he overtook me.
The 40 km ride took me 1:29, according to my Garmin.  Average speed 27 km/h, max speed 42 km/h. Not bad considering I only ride with a single crank, futhermore I am on a 50/34 compact crankset, instead of the normal 53/39 which most of the guys here are using.

One of the earlier group that finished the bike ride.

 

That's me at the end of my bike ride.  Heading toward the Transition to begin my run.

Going out from Transition area, another 10 km run to go

.

My first km into the run, and few runners already on their way back to the transition i.e. the finish line.  In this race different age group start at different time, so hard to tell who is first, second or so.  But this guy wearing white cap definitely way ahead of me (maybe 50 minutes or so).

After a little over an hour, another hundred meters to the glory (my first triathlon finish).

Few more step to the finish.  Finally completed my first triathlon.  

 

 Right after the run, with finisher's medal around my neck.

The 10 km run took me 1 hr and 8 minutes.  Not bad considering I'm still nursing a knee injury.  Only last week I managed to do a full 10 km run without limping. My average pace about 6 min 48 sec per km.  I won't dare to go faster than that, afraid that I might snapped something on my left leg, especially the knee.  Still have few more session to go with the physiotherapist, and an visit is due with my orthopedic.
The run is from the transition at Avilion resort, going out toward the main road and make a left turn, and run along the beach toward the check-point 5 km away, where we did a u-turn and running back to the Avilion for the finish.  I ran passed few resort which we (me and wife) have stayed during our early day of marriage.  Ran passed Regency, yes we stayed there many years ago.  At the time we only have one child.  Now it have a new name.  Then Bayu beach resort, yes been there too, and there are others that we have visited in our younger days.  My mind start flashing back to those old memories on vacations we had at all these places ten to twelve years back. Even with all these flashbacks, I do not forget that I'm still running in this race. Running at my comfortable pace between 6 to 7 minutes per km.  Few fast runners overtook me, and I overtook the slower ones as well.  The weather was cloudy, but no rain, with refreshing breeze blowing from the sea make the run quite enjoyable.  My pain radar is on alert to detect any pain from the left knee, but so far there's none.  I did chit chat with some runners along the way, and many of these guys are like me, first timer.
I'm still eager to do more running when I realized I almost there toward the finish line.  Somehow I was not as tired as I expected to be.  I still have a lot (of energy) left inside me.  Must the the carbo-load from last night pasta feast.  After 1 hour 8 minutes I crossed the finish lines, and they crowned me with the finishers medal around my neck.  Total times is 3 hours 41 minutes according to my stopwatch.  The official time from the organizer is exactly the same.
Overall, I really enjoy this triathlon.  This is an Olympic distance triathlon; 1.5 km swim, 40 km bike and 10 km run.  This is something that I can enjoy, without worrying that I may no be able to walk the next day.  In my future Olympic distance triathlon, I can try to improve my time.  3hr41min is rather slow.  I wasted too much time on the transition.  I didn't push harder on the bike, and my navigation on my swim is way off.  i also need to work more on my swim stroke.  The run, I have to do it slowly to improve my pace.  My target is to do 10 km under 1 hour, and 2hr30min for 20km.  These target should be do-able, but I will not stretch my leg too much.  If I snapped something again, it will take many months to heal.  Looking forward to my next race, the Putrajaya ironman.  The last I heard this event have been delayed till October.  Hopefully no more delays.  I did register for Desaru Long Distance triathlon, but some family matter came up, so have to skip that.  So Putrajaya, here I come....

Port Dickson International Triathlon 2009 - the Day Before

 Finally the day came, for my first triathlon; Port Dickson International Triathlon 2009 on 12 July 2009.  The word 'International' put some glamour into the event. Yes, it is true, this is an international event, participant came from may corner of the world.  In fact, more than half of the participant was foreigner.
I came a day earlier. Since Port Dickson is a holiday spot, I brought my family along. The bike won't fit into the family MPV with 7 other people in it , so I have to drive my wife car alone and carry my bike with me.
Arrived at Avilion Admiral resort, the race venue, around noon. The registration was pretty straightforward. Got my goodies;  t-shirt, timing chip, my numbers tag (bib), bike tags, and few other race stuff. The timing chip sound a bit techno-gadget, but it actually look like a piece of cheap plastic.  I was given number 449.  Wow, this is my first sport number tag in many many years.  Maybe the first since primary or high school.  I also get myself a race belt from the stall inside the hotel.
Later checked-in at the nearby hotel, at one of those vacation apartment, which I despised so much staying there. Ideally I should have stay in Admiral resot, but this place was fully booked.
My family (wife, our 4 children and our maid) came around noon.  My parents, brother and sister also make their way from my hometown (a village near Gemas town). So I have quite a number of supporters going to cheer my up.
Later in the day, I went back to the Avillion to see the Sprint triathlon race. Got the chance to see the route for the swim the next day. The water looks murky, which is common for Port Dickson.  The water near the barrier close to Avillion hotel was down right dirty.  I'm so used to swim and dive in crystal clear water, and looking at this water I knew that I may not going to enjoy the swim that much. That is the reason I have never came to Port Dickson for the past many years even though it's only one and half hour drive from home.

This is how the swim area looks the day before.  Look pretty calm.

Swim entrance into the Marina. 

Part of the marina. The water here looks calm.  Good for swimming. But tomorrow, who knows.

 The swim route overlay on satellite image from Google.  The swim began from the beach, then into the marina, make a u-turn at the end and swim back to the starting line. Total 1.5 km.

Some short distance triathlon events were held on Saturday 11-July-2009.  Since tomorrow going to be my first triathlon race, I spend the afternoon watching the event to see if there any tips I can pickup from those races. 
My only concern is the swim.  For some reason long distance open water swim feel intimidating. Probably natural human instinct who are naturally afraid of water.  Too many things bugging me about the swim.  What if I get a cramp, what if the current too strong, what if I got sucked by the downcurrent, and there are so many things that made me think twice about the race tomorrow.  On the other hand, I spent most of my training on the swim. Couple of months back I'm struggling to finish 200 meters, but as of last week, I'm becoming quite comfortable to do 2 km continuous swim.  

Later in the afternoon, spent some time with my my family, and went for some sightseeing at the beach.  That night I went back to Avillion resort for some pre-race briefing.  Before that, I joined the other triathletes for a carbo-loading dinner.  The word carbo-loading implies that everybody will eat like a real hungry gentlemen; i.e. eating a lot.  We were served with a feast of high carbohydrate meals; pasta, spaghetti, potatoes, rice etc.  So concerned that I may not have enough energy for tomorrow's race, I actually eat quite a lot that night.  So ashamed to others who share the table with me, I move to another table after my third refill. 

Then back to the hotel to get my things ready for tomorrow.  Bring my bike up to the apartment, and get it checked and prepared.  Set-up Garmin GPS, replace the battery for the cadence sensor,  sticked the number tag on my bike etc.  I find it hard to choose what to bring for the race tomorrow.  I do have have my checklist, but somehow my checklist is a bit overkill. I don't think I need the heart rate monitor. Don't think i need the sock for the bike, but I bring them anyway.  I knew I will need the sock for the 10 km run.  My legs need all the support that it can have.  After all, I'm still in physio therapy for my knee injury because of running few months back.  Talk about running, I can feel good about my run now after many sessions with the physio therapist.  Those physio did works wonders on me, but still I can't run they I way I want it to be.

Can't sleep well that night.  I'm still concerned about the dreaded swim early morning tomorrow.  The apartment only have 2 rooms.  With my brother, sisters and parent coming in the last minutes, now we have 11 people sharing the whole apartment.  I shared a single bed with my 10 year old boy Hafiz.  He claimed majority stake on the bed's real estate.  Can take my mind off from tomorrow's race, especially the dreaded swim leg.  Maybe, maybe because from what I read, most fatalities in triathlon happened during the swim.  And at this very place 2 years ago (2007), a competitor died during the swim.  This is my first triathlon, and my first long distance open water swim in the sea. So it's natural to be a little afraid.  But there's no turning back.  I want to do this so bad.  After all, I set my goal to do the Putrajaya Ironman this year, and this is one step closer to that.