Cold Storage Singapore Triathlon: My First Triathlon

I'v completed an Aquathlon and a Duathlon early this year. So it came the final test, triathlon. Singapore Triathlon (organized by Triathlon Association of Singapore) used to be sponsored by OSIM and held in July. However OSIM dropped out from the sponsorship and just before the race TAS announced Cold Storage's taking over. All are same, the course, the age group, as before, except there was no more elite group. So it was totally a amateur triathlon race : )

I planned to finish the Standard Distance (1.5km swimming, 40km cycling, 10km running) within 3:30 and didn't want to rush, not only because I'v not been cycling for several month due to my wife's concern (more road accident recently and several cyclists suffered), but also I didn't want to push too much to interfere my marathon training.

29 Sept, I cycled to the race venue East Coast Park CP F, in a 10km route through Bedok Town (I used in Singapore Duathlon). I arrived at ~8:40 and my wave would started at 9:00am. I hurried to set up my transition and rushed to the swimming start. Sun was hot then, I plunged into the sea and found to water hot too. I met my TI coach Tang Siew Kwan who was in pink swim cap (I was in yellow) and supposed to start 10min later than my wave. We wished good luck to each other. I though he would catch up me but I wished I could catch up him in the run.

My wave started 9:00 sharp, I stuck at the back of the wave and swam south towards the 1st buoy. The tide was a bit strong and  towards west so I need to peep every a few stroke to make sure on track. From the 1st buoy to 2nd buoy it was much easier despite the head tide. After the 2nd buoy we headed back to the beach for the 2nd loop (750m per loop), again I was struggling with the side way tide: I often found myself  far away from the other swimmers. It took me more time to complete the loop for lacking of open water sighting skill. I finished the 1st loop in less than 22min. The 2nd loop was exactly the same experience to me. I found myself over took by a lot of pink caps (10min late starter), and even blue caps! (20min late starter). I was sure Tang was with them. When I crawled on the beach, there were just few yellow cap left. I packed me up and dashed to the transition area. The system record my swim leg to be 43:39.

The following bike leg I still rode my MTB as in Singapore Duathlon. I did not invested in bike because I was not ready to commit my self to triathlon, to me swim and cycling were still cross training to running only. The course was almost same as in Singapore Duathlon except the start turn not so abrupt (I did hit the barricade in the beginning of 2nd loop of Singapore Duathlon), and head wind not so strong. I maintained the same speed (24kph) as in Singapore Duathlon and kept my HR ~160bpm. It took me ~1:40 to finished the 6 loops cycling leg, system recorded my T1+Cycling+T2 timing to be 1:48:12.

Unlike in Singapore Duathlon, I did not ban by any official from running in barefoot. Instead, the marshals gave me applause when I ran out. The running leg was not so sweet as it looked. I suffered HR spiking an leg stiffness right after switch because I never trained bike-run brick. My breath was hard and had not a little strength in quads at all! I tried to run with only hamstrings and calves, it works. Only after 1st 5km loop it became better. Just before I thought I could run strong, my energy depleted, I could only run ~5km/min pace. Fortunately, I overtook my TI coach Tang at the early of 2nd loop. I finished the running leg within 51:51. It was the 19th fast within my age group. But my swim and bike really sucked. Finally my timing was 3:23:42, ranked 96 among 141 participants, beat my TI coach by 1min.