A Race... Just for dignity

Alright, so last weekend, on Sunday 2 July 2006, I went to the OSIM SIngapore Triathlon 2006 as part of the Olympic Distance Triathlon relay open category, doing the obvious event - swimming. We actually participated just for fun, thus the title, which I will explain in a while. But in the end, at the event itself, we took it more seriously than planned, and ended up in a pretty good position.

For a brief introduction, the olympic distance triathlon relay is a race where there are three legs to the race - 1.5km of swimming, 40km of cycling and 10km of running - each done by a different person. I was down for swimming, senior Frank for cycling and fellow Pre-U Sem presenter Gerald for running.

Ah, back to the title. We arrived at the event pretty early, so we walked around at a leisurely pace. When we just got to the starting line (that's where the swimming part starts), we heard the following announcement: "Swimmers ready? GO!". So you do realise that at this point, there was a crowd of 56 other swimmers who just started the race, and we were just staring at them. Our faces clearly spelt "WTF". Man, I never undressed so fast in my life. And when I first touched water, my PINK swimming cap wouldn't come on properly. So there you have it guys, a race to fight for our dignity, to save ourselves from being last and to save some face for ME who was wearing a PINK swimming cap.

The organisers have no fashion sense.

So, a little commentary on my part of the race. Actually, I wasn't really the last person to start. There was someone else, and he made a futile effort to not remain that way by tugging on me to propel himself forward. Too bad it didn't work, cause he got a backward propulsion from my kick smack on his face. Yeah, mass swimming is really dirty, there's more kicking and pulling later on in the race.

The first sensation that was exhumed to me was the shock of realising that the water was pushing back! I mean, OMG! The water moves!!! That never happens during training at the swimming pool! Oh, and it was moving AGAINST me! In big waves! Yeah, it didn't really occur to me that swimming in open water would be so much different than the swimming pool. There were resisting forces, unpredictable waves, totally obscured seafloor, choking and blinding salty seawater and absolute blindness at navigation.

When you swim 300 metres offshore, its a bit hard to navigate as the horizon and shore looks curved. Navigating according to the parallel waves was quite hopeless, as the waves change directions according to the passing ships, so I found myself lead astray quite a few times.

Not to mention the seawater. Half an hour of endless swimming in the sea makes really burns your throat. Thirst was the only feeling. And extreme irritation. And of course exhaustion. Half my efforts were spent on surfacing, since the water level wasn't constant.

While I was swimming, I wondered why nobody swam past me. It didn't occur to me till later, that how could there be anyone passing me when I was last in line! HAHA. Laugh with me guys. So I could only overtake, not get overtaken.

All in all, it was quite a refreshening experience, as I did pick up some tips on swimming in open water. Like play violent when violence is used on you. And it was really cool coinciding my strokes with the swash, to give it an extra propulsion.

My other teammates had their own little adventures too. The cyclists almost rammed into the barrier threee times. One of which was cause by me and the runner, who shocked him with our sudden loud cheer at a sharp corner. Hey, it wasn't our fault. It was the shadiest and coolest corner around. He lost all feelings in his family jewels after all that. And the runner was a media magnet as he ran a full 10km at high speed with a JESTER HAT on. Yeah, we really joined this thing as a joke at first. For real. He got the joke of the day. "Hey, that joker can run!"

But in the end, we got quite decent results, despite the fact that none of us did any real training for it.

Bib - R297
Name MOHAMMED FARHAN BIN RAS, CHIN ZHAN SHENG, GERALD SOO ENG SIANG
Nationality - Singapore
Swim - 00:36:18
BikeCP1 - 4
BikeCP2 - 4
Bike - 01:18:07
RunCP1 - 2
RunCP2 - 2
Run - 00:42:17
Total - 02:36:41
Rank - 16

Yes, you read it right. After starting last, trying to hide a pink cap, gone on kamikazi crashes, ran like a crown, we still topped 41 other people to get ourselves the 16th placing. I calculated from the timings that I overtaken 28 others in the swimming round, and the runner owned 40 in his leg of the race (there were runners from other categories too, and I'm too lazy to calculate how many the cyclist owned). So like they say in dota, OWN-AGE!

00:36:18. Definitely not my personal best. How can it when I had to brave the shock of moving water, trying not to suffocate on seawater and propelling upwards instead of forward? 1.2mins per lap (over 30). Terrible time. But it's quite ok, considering it's my first open water experience.

Ok ok, I know you want this:



The colours are a bit off, since I had to digitally edit off the website link from the picture. If you want to find more, go hunt me down at http://www.sportsphotox.com. But please don't, cause this is the best picture and it's ugly. I look fat in the pictures after getting bloated up on seawater.

In the end, all of us are hooked onto the adrenaline rush of a triathlon and ended up with the promise of a more dignified return in next year's race. Too bad for Frank and his NS, we gotta find ourselves a new cyclist. Next year, we're really gonna train for it, and looking at the bunch of old people in that category, it'll be another TOTAL OWNAGE next year.

So go TEAM ACJC!!!