My race was held at half past 3pm the next afternoon under the deadly rays of the sun. There was a short drizzle before hand which soon cleared into a super clear, pale blue sky. Normally that would be lovely, but the sun beamed on us heavily and standing for any longer than 5min broke more than just a trickle of sweat!
Our bikes were set up and while some did there warm ups, many others decided to avoid the sun under cooling shades. I went for a swim warm up through the entire 750m loop.
There weren't a large number of competitors but the fight for the buoys were nevertheless agressive.
We were set off by a horn into a beach start straight into the choppy waters. It was a quick start and very quickly the swimmers were spread out by their capabilities. I led for a short period before a singaporean passed by and I sat on him for the majority of the race. That was mistake.
being tossed around helplessly by the constant high waves, it was extremely hard to sight the buoys and to stop chugging down salty sea waters! And with someone else to block the view only made it harder. I kept my head to to focus on my stroke after passing the first of three buoys, but only sighted to realize I had been taken far off coarse. It took huge effort to chase down the singaporean and was not easy to 'stay calm'.
I finished the first swim leg half a minute down on the leader, trudging out of the water and recklessly trying to force the legs through the sand. I had taken in too much sea water by the end of the swim and my shoulders were falling off. My throat was stinging with salt and it felt awful running with my tummy slushing about.
As soon as I got on the bike I was met with a short steep climb before heading into the main road for a 20km loop. I took my time and steadily advanced towards the leader and before long I caught him. The road was straight and long, stretching out with long gradual hills. there was nothing on the sides but grey bushes, rocks, sand, and grass. It was dessert-like and seemed of something I would expect Kona Ironman to look like. We worked together on the bike (I worked most of it) and as we approached the 10km mark, my teammate from the back flew by. I had expected that and prepared to take off and work with him instead, but had over exerted trying to chase him down going 60km/hr+. It left me in the unrecoverable stage and I had to grit my teeth together to just pull through the bike leg. The heat did not help at all with my thirst and dehydration from the swim, and all I could do was sip and gargle my mouth with what I had. I couldn't drink much as I was already bloated with sea water, but still thirsty! I was on the brink and felt like pulling the the side and ending it. I let myself rest down a slope which only helped a little. But it helped.
Off the bike was straight into a 500m of sand running. I hate sand running! With not much power in me, as soon as my rhythm went, so did everything else. At the end of that part was straight into the short uphill that we had to climb previously at the start of the bike. By the end of it I acid had built up tremendously in my legs and stitches were buikding all over.
knowing the new leader was two far ahead (About 2minutes) and the third was just as far, if not even further back, I decided to just keep my form and get through the race. With that much taken out of me all I hoped for was the cross the finish line in one piece, and work on the race that was to be held the following weekend. I crossed the finish line with the time of 1hr5mins (I'm sure the run was short!)
Overall, great clear sea waters, wonderful bike coarse and run coarse (All long coarse), but all to the opposite to my liking!
I'm spending my next few days resting a lot and following Steve's "Short & Sharp" sessions before heading off the Singapore this time, further down than Desaru, to race in a short coarse sprint distance event (That, I like!), although it's non-drafting, the roads are very technical and flat, so it should not be spreading us out too much.
