Sport: Panaga

Could not get my mind off the event this morning so I will relive it in words, starting with when I arrived at Panaga Recreational Club.

I met Tn Farhan and he was talking about how modest he was in attempting the triathlon. I received a phone call from Tn Fakhrul, wondering whether I was awake or not. I mentioned that I was at Panaga already and he told me that they (Tn Fakhrul, Tn Masmun, Tn Amirul, Tn Airul) were on the way there. I went into the clubhouse and asked where to register. The organizer said that it would be another 10 minutes, so I went and set up my bike and transition area.

Almost finished setting up, I met several army boys (god, how I wish I could remember their names) and we talked about the event. After a little bantering, I went and registered. I got my right arm written 64 and proceeded with putting the race numbers on my shirt. I saw the Sirs arriving and greeted them. Well, Tn Airul was the first to greet me, but I greeted them generally. Haha.

We went in and waited for our turn to get in the pool. Tn Amirul was going on about whether I could beat another contestant. Boy, was I nervous. I seriously do not know how I will perform in the water. I saw Tn Fakhrul started off, quite strongly I might add. Then, Tn Masmun. In the midst of it all, I could not help but smile at the effort given by the participants. My number was mentioned and I went into the pool. I started with freestyle but on my second length I could feel that I was losing it. Halfway through length three or four, I was mixing and matching several strokes. I ended up with breast stroke for the rest of my swim. How humiliating. :S

I got out of the pool, and somebody congratulated me. being slightly disoriented, I just smiled, high fived and started running to the transition area. Got on my towel, cracked open a waterbottle, proceeded to rinse my feet and put on my socks, then shoes. Here came the slowest part of the transition. My shirt. I did not dry my body off well, so My shirt was stuck halfway up my back. This is the time I realize that I should probably get a tri-top. Put of my sunglasses, gloves, lastly helmet. During that time, I noticed Tn Fakhrul was in the transition area as well. He started cycling a good 6 seconds ahead of me, and I know that I will not be able to catch to him on the cycle.

I started spinning out of Panaga and turned right. I looked down to my down-tube and was horrified, I did not have a bottle. Stupid! I was going to try and finish my cycle leg with out fluids. Hmmm... so I ended up spinning at 28 to 31 km/hr. My thighs felt like lead at that time. I had a good 3 people overtaking me on the cycle. An italian dude, a female participant and a full triathlon participant (I knew that because he had 14 on his arm). I got into the transition area and turned around, and saw participant number 51. Female participant, vaguely familiar but I could not place her face at that time. So we started the run, and I kept thinking to myself, keep the normal pace, breathe normally, come what may... haha... sadly, by the time I got to the beach part of the run, I was seriously tired. I did not have my heart monitor with me so it was difficult to calculate my heart rate. deciding that not pushing it is better, I walked to catch my breath. Bad choice, because once you stop, there is a tendency to stop again. I saw the white tents and trudged along in a slow jog.

The triathlon is done with, now I want to know how well I did. hmmm....