Sunday 8 July 07

PD tri clinic was scheduled for this day. Ali was supposed to wake me up at 6am, but only did so half an hour later. Bukan pasal dia bangun lambat. He was up by 6, but took his sweet time berak kow kow! Patut la later that day he cycled power-power punya!

As a result, we were quite late to depart. So aku melenjan cukup-cukup kat PD highway tu. Bergegar van aku. Managed to arrive at 7:30 on the dot. But where was everyone? There were only 4 bikes on the rack, and only Eugene Loong and his wife was in sight.


Car pool buddies. Ali and Foo Chee Yoong.

Slowly, people started to show up. More and more familiar faces start to pop up. Ramai betul datang hari tu.


Can recognize people or not?

At about 8:15am, Mr Chan gave a briefing of how the day will go.


"Aaaaa. Don't worry so much aah. Here PD got no fish. Kenyir got. Big like this. Can bite you off easily." *Obviously he didn't say those words.

The swim starts at about 8:45am. I waited at the beach for the swim group to return. There were a lot of happenings at the beach. So I took my time exploring.


Mejar Kalam's boys caught a fish.


Flexing their Steve Irwin muscles, they also caught a jellyfish.


And later a crab!!


The boys must've been really good fish trainers too. After a few minutes, they've managed to teach the fish to swim on its side!


Adrian didn't participate in the clinic that day. So he had some fun with his son, Lucas. But I bet this is one of his first subversive moves to get Lucas into the sport.

The first swimmer came back after about 30-odd minutes.


Kim Yap. She can play rugby with those shoulders! Scrum!

Then the 40km bicycle leg was up. Crunch time (iye la sangat). It was a mass start. Kelam kabut gak rasanya, because I was late waiting for the last swimmers to come out. Tapi bagus gak, baru race simulation ada scene kelam-kabut ginih.


Swarm of bees. I feel so humble to pedal along the superstars.

The first 5km was uneventful. Semua kayuh melow-melow bersama-sama. Then we got near the first junction, the point where everyone is free to henjut sesedap rasa.

I didn't even clear the junction when hell broke loose. I fell down at the slippery junction and got dragged for a good 0.57 meters (2 other cyclist share the same fate). Aduh! All the mental prep I did earlier pun jatuh bertaburan bak pasir di tepi pantai.

I got up and jumped back onto the bike. At this moment, my vocabulary IQ plummeted, as I only had 2 words in my head. 'Shit' and 'fuck' (pardon my French). And my creativity boils down to how I arrange those 2 words in a sentence.

All my plans of drafting in a group and what nots were forgotten. All I had in mind was to get as far ahead as possible. Nak kejar apa aku pun tak tau. I wasn't in a right state of mind masa tu.

One third into the bike course, the superstars are already on their way back. Simon was first to show up, making love with the police car. Then it was Azwar and Eugene Chan working together. Dicky came later alone. Adzim was also alone after Dicky. Semua kuat-kuat belaka.

Route was undulating. Naik turun naik turun. Ada la flats sini sana. I suffered when going up, but a few people ate my dust on downhills and flats. What joy of being heavy. Haha.

Bike leg lasted 1 hour 40 minutes. Kira sendiri lah average berapa. Come race day, I plan to improve it to 1 Hour 30 mins. Mari kita lihat siapa yang kena!

I skipped the running (memang tak plan pun, saje je nak sound kuat), but Ali did the whole course. He is officially now a triathlete. Respect.

There was a lucky draw at the end of the clinic and my bad luck earlier turned for the better. My name was called for a free entry! Cayalah. So I'll be racing for free!! Bacin had the better deal for the day. Dapat Oakley shades tuuuuu.

Me, Chee Yoong and Ali had lunch in Teluk Kemang. Kedai Anjung Selera has the best daging salai masak lemak in the world!


Toluk Komang.

We left PD for Seremban. As we reached home, Ali realized he left his camera at the kedai makan. So we had to drive all the way back to PD to get the camera. Nasib baik aabang tu baik, he kept the camera for us.


Muka lega dapat recover camera.

On our way back, I realized that 2 laps of driving up and down PD from Seremban doesn't even cover 2/3rd of Ironman bike leg! At that moment, the magnitude of Ironman came into perspective. I now have a new-found respect for those who have done Ironman, and especially those who will be doing Ironman for the first time. Nasib baik gua tarik balik plan nak participate tahun depan.

Bacin, Faie, Stupe. Gua salute sama lu!!!