Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement to get
this blog up and running again! Didn’t know there was much response here and
have left it in a lingo for a while. My bad!
Lets get started shall we? J_
Langkawi has always been this mystical place to do a ironman
to me. For one, it is ranked as the 2nd hardest Ironman race in the
world (based on the average finisher timing). Second, I have trained on the
soil before and have a understanding of what awaits on the bike course.
Ewin, Alan and myself touchdown on Wednesday. Alan and
myself stayed at De Baron Hotel. It is exactly 20m away from the transition
area, which will make my pre-race ritual and pilgrimage all so much more
convenient.
It is always nice and comforting to be at a race with many
fellow friends and familiar faces. It made my lead-up to the race so much more
relax and never a day passed with all the friendly banter and joke cracked at
every corner of the island. The folks from SeaMonsta and SBR were a great and
fun bunch to hang around with!
I my personal ‘soigneur’ took leave during my race week from
his busy schedule so that he can ensure that everything for me is well taken
care off. He built up both our bikes
within an hour so that we can go out for test ride first thing in the morning!
By the time we were all settled down and was nearing the
evening, we went to collect our rented motorbike to do a motor tour of the bike
course.
With Alan’s past experience racing bicycles, we marked out
areas and segment where there may be potential elements that might be key to my
performance on race day. This is critical on a bike leg of a ironman as that
will be where you will spending the most hour on and in order to limit that
duration spent, everything must be well calculated and anticipated for. From the gearings to be used, line to pick and
power meter readings, these are all important aspect of racing as too much or
too little you give could cost you in the final run leg of an ironman.
Race day.
Transition check-in at 0600hrs.
This must have been the fastest I have ever done my bike
set-up. 15 mins in total was all it took for me to get everything race ready. I
decided to head back to the hotel for another quick 30mins snooze since it was
just a short walk away as transition closed at 6.30 and race starts at 7.15.
Swim
This is the first time Ironman is trying out the new format
where we no longer start the swim as a mass start. Rather, we start off as a
ITT format of 4 per wave into the water and your timing will only start when
you pass the timing mat.
Myself along with many fellow female athlete’s think that
this is a great idea and shows that the voices of women in the sports I being
heard by IM. More often than not in the races I have been to where there is a
mass start swim, women are typically the last wave and will need to be fighting
and jostling for space with the slower AG men and breast stroke swimmer.
This puts all women on a leveled field and gives one another
a better chance of winning the coveted Kona slot allocated to each age group.
The swim all in all, was extremely well organized and was
very clearly marked out with ample kayaks. Water was warm and murky but nothing
I need to worry about at this point. Race plan was to keep myself within
striking distance. Swim time 1.12hrs, position 3rd.
Bike
My favorite leg of the Ironman race.
It was a no brainer for me when the #1 bicycle brand in the
world, Specialized decided to offer me a contract to work with them once my
contract with my previous bicycle sponsor expires. I laid out my big goals for
2014 and immediately, they came up with the SW Shiv TT to race on the whole
year. This was the lightest TT bike and fastest TT bike I have ever came
across.
The bike profile was undulating and made up mainly of rollers
followed by some pretty short but steep ramp between 6-14 %. With only the
exception of one 16% ramp but nothing of the rumored 20% climb I was hearing
prior to the race.
In less than 5 km of the bike leg, athletes will all need to
tackle a 5km stretch of rollers called Langkawi highway. It has 3 big rollers
in it. It starts off with a 800m climb at between 4-8% gradient and a super
flowing decent that an take your up to speed beyond 70km/h for me. The 2nd
roller is much shorter around 600m and with the speed you manage to gain on the
decent prior, you are to coast up to the halfway mark of the ramp until the
point where the gradient starts to hover around 10-14%. At this point, I keep
checking on my power output to make sure I don’t get overly excited and
overcooked myself. The race is still young and I needed a constant reminder to
myself to keep it steady.
After going through the first two rollers, the 3rd
one felt so much easier and should only be around 6-8% max gradient.
After the stretch on Langkawi Highway, it was a right turn
towards a small town where the first drink stop awaits.
From the pre race moto-recce, I’ve have marked out a power
station on the left side of the road as a land mark to indicated a steep ramp
ahead. The ramp started off as a 4-6% gradient for approximately 300m and
shoots straight up to 14-16%. At this point of the race as early as it may
seems, many of the Age groupers before me is starting to show signs of fatigue
from their efforts they might have expelled on the Langkawi highway. This
spurred me on and affirmed that my game plan is starting on a right note.
Patience is key on a course like langkawi.
By the 30km mark, I manage to caught up with Cintia, a
fellow accomplish age grouper whom herself, have tasted success in Ironman and
been to Kona. At the mark, I was still around 3mins behind the leading women in
my age group.
Alan being my race day support crew was present at the 45km
mark to relay splits to me and that I was making up time on the leading girl
before heading into the stretch in Datai. I know that was good news as I
especially like a rolling terrain on the bike course.
Datai is a notorious stretch where its undulation can spike
as high as 10% across the 10km course of it. As I have trained on these roads
prior, I started to gain time on my sole remaining competitor, approaching each
ramps with more effort knowing that a nice smooth descend awaits after every
single climb.
Once out of Datai, the remaining stretch of road back to the
90km u-turn point had nothing eventful besides gauging my efforts in the cross
wind while riding pass some short stretch of rice fields.
Come the 110km mark, I suddenly found the leading girl
stopped at the side of the road with her helmets off. Alan relayed back to me
that she seems like she was unable to cope with the humidity and heat on the
course and had to stopped. By the 130km mark, I had a 4mins lead on the 2nd
girl and decided to keep a strong and steady pace and take lesser risk for the
remaining of the ride. Alan relayed at one of the strategic point he stationed
himself and on the course telling me that the leading girl has resumed the race
in 2nd position and has gained 30-35sec on me within the 10km
stretch in Datai. No doubt I didn’t push hard along Datai, I was pretty sure I
was not riding at a pace to have 30 secs gained on. I decided to go off in the 150km mark to
start stretching my lead again and see where my legs will take me on the run. I
had to seize whatever opportunity I had now that I am in the lead.
Coming off the bike leg in 5hrs 45mins, 1st
position in my age group.
Run
The run course was pan flat with no elevation beyond 8m.
Sounds easy right?
What the organizers failed to mentioned was how open and
barren the canopy was going to be. And the temperatures were soaring’s around
40 deg Celsius.
I know I could not just sit up and wait for a sprint in a
race. I HAD to gain time on everybody in my age group.
Keeping the pace around 5.15/km on my first two lap was
relatively manageable at that point with my mind fixed on not getting caught.
When I started my 3rd lap was when Alan relayed
to me I had a lead of over 25mins at that point.
I told myself I needed to stay focus. The race is not over
until you crossed the line. The was almost nothing more left in the tank for me
at that point but my hunger for that coveted Kona slot kept playing in my mind.
The children of Smile Asia that left such a deep impression in my on my mission
trip to Yangon in May. My sponsors that had believed in my ability to represent
them well. The friends and family who are ever so supportive in me when I
decided to not have a mainstream day job and focus on being the first full time
Female Ironman Athlete in Singapore.
I needed to press on. I cant stop my competitors to try and
gain time on me at that point of the race, what I can do is not to do anything
stupid on the run course to jeopardize my lead in the race. This is all very
new territory for me being in a lead of an ironman race for so long.
By the start of my 4th lap, I had a lead of
30mins and I know I had sealed the deal.
I pick my run lines smoothly and not have any awkward
movement that may offset a cramp. Timing my nutrition properly so that I do not
run out of mojo on my last lap. I was really struggling at this point and at
some point felt my femur starting to haunt me.
At this point I saw Ewin on the opposite side of the run
course who was struggling with his back, still not throwing in the towel and
calling it a day and continued pressing on in the run. Having trained with him on a weekly basis and I know he was not having the best of days, he still respected the race and push on. That really strike a cord in me
during that race that nobody should ever make me quite or stop, unless I allow
it to.
A good friend of mine Lappo, shouted on the run course words
of encouragements and it spurred me on to keep digging deep even when I had
resulted in a my ever so familiar, limp-a-jog.
I crossed the line eventually in 11 hrs 18mins. Same as my
personal best, but certainly on a much more demanding course.
I was overwhelmed with emotions as It was always something i
wanted to achieve since the start of the year and I was so glad all the sacrifices and efforts was not in
vain.
I finally won my age group in 2014 and secured a Kona slot
in 2015, making me the 1st local girl from Singapore to ever qualify twice.
Thank you to
everybody cheering me during the race may it be on the island, Singapore or all
over the world.
Thank you to my beloved Sponsors: Smile Asia, Key Power,
Specialized Bicycle, RockTape, LifeCycles.
Without all your support and beliefs in me, I wouldn’t have been
able to achieve and believe what I am today. Last but not least, Thank you Alan. :)
Photo Credits to SBR and Joyce Chang