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Just finished the biathlon yesterday morning. Wow.
Woke up at 5:20 to shower and eat and everything. Reached there
6:20 and registered and got my body marked with my number. Today I
would be number 840 for the race.
Anyways, the race was flagged
off at 8:10 and the course would begin in the water for the 1.5 km swim
in a triangle around big orange buoys followed by a 10 km run up and down East
Coast Park. We all line up at the entrance to the beach and the
horn sounds. We were briefed that this morning the current would
be pushing us towards the right so I run around to the outside of the
crowd and dive into the water hoping to avoid the mass orgy of flailing
legs and arms and bobbing heads. 1100 people splashing around in
the water wearing red and blue swimming caps is quite a sight to see if you ever get the chance, even if
you don't ever plan to participate in a biathlon ever (which everyone should give a shot anyways  ).
Anyways, I'm off into our wonderful Singaporean green water where the
only thing you can see are the legs in front of you that are about to
kick your face. Oddly enough I get little pinpricks every now and
then all over my body...have no idea what the heck it is because it can't be
jellyfish. In my entire swimming training never once have I swam
out in the open water so this is a new experience. I find myself
having to bob my head up every now and then just to make sure that I'm
still swimming on the right course. Forget to look up for a while
and all of a sudden you find the entire group way off to your right and
you're basically swimming by yourself in the wrong direction....suck it
up and turn back again. It's the hugest waste of time losing your direction but
swimming on the outskirts of the group is the only way you're able to
move forward without constantly being threatened by the legs of the
swimmers in front of you.
Oh yes, almost like half of them were swimming breaststroke too which
annoyed the heck out of me. You'd be swimming freestyle and all
of a sudden out of nowhere a big foot comes out and whacks you in the
head or chest. Yea ok breaststroke every now and then to get your
bearings is alright but these guys that did it for the entire length
were downright irritating.
Ready to go. This is the attire of -choice- for the biathlon. Saves the step of putting on
shorts later. Of course you'll have the occasional guy that
decides to run only in his little trunks...lets try not to think about
that 
Other than those little irritants the swim itself felt quite
good. Throughout the entire swim strangely I didn't feel tired at
all and it seemed that my strokes were pulling me right along. Or
so it seemed, because in the green water you have no way to gauge
whether you're moving fast, slow, or even in the right direction.
For all you knew you could be splashing as fast as your arms could go
but still not going anywhere!
If it weren't for the fact that I had to constantly keep slowing down
to check whether I was going in the right direction the swim probably
would have gone quite well once I got into the correct rhythm and
form. But on the other hand, that's exactly what makes open water
swimming that much more difficult.
Actually I heard that last year's biathlon had rope guides to mark out
the path because it was held in Sentosa where the water had NO
current...ah too bad no more this year.
Most of you should know that swimming for a long period of time
dehydrates you and leaves you quite thirsty by the time you leave the
pool. Now combine that feeling with the feeling of salt burning
your mouth and nasal cavity. Finally add big whiffs of gasoline
that last several minutes on end caused by the engines of the safety
boats that were floating around. That's pretty much the
experience you get when you're swimming out in the ocean for a long
time. So you can imagine by the time I finally reached the beach
again my throat was screaming for water.
On my way back I get a strange stitch on my right side that only lets
me breath from the right side otherwise it hurts to breath from the
left. Disappears by the time I reach the shore.
Feet finally hit sand again. Quickly dash up the beach to the
transition area where they've demarcated little squares on the ground
to put your stuff. My trusty bottle of Gatorade is sitting there
and I quickly grab it for a drink. Two gulps. Actually two HUGE
gulps because when I looked back at the bottle two-thirds of it was
gone. Too much. Shit. Quickly dried my feet, socks and shoes on,
running singlet on, off I go.
People putting their stuff at the 'transition area' before the race. Each box is only like 2x2 ft.
Me putting on my shoes after finishing the swim. I look really burnt don't I? I think it's just the camera...
If you look at the map carefully you'll find that I have to go out 1 km
to the left and then back again before going through the majority of
the running route. This inital 2 km was the most painful part of
the entire race. The transitioning between swimming and running is
something that can be done well after many practices. Frankly I
haven't practiced enough and I have neglected running for favor of swim
training...and it shows. After swimming your legs are
surprisingly tired and if you don't take it easy when starting out the
run you'll end up with either cramps or stitches.
Turns up I wound up with stitches pretty much almost right from the
very start. This made the beginning of the run really
painful. The 700 mL of Gatorade sloshing around in my stomach
doesn't help either. 1km, 2km, 3km, still got the stitches, stomach in
pain. Also start to feel like throwing up. I was told
before the race by a captain from my unit that this might happen
because of the salt water that you swallow during the swim (although I
don't recall swallowing any). He recommended to vomit it out and
then 'feel better' after. I didn't see how this would work (plus
the risk of dehydration) so I decided to stomach it. The slight urges
puke left after a while. Keep on running.
As a matter of fact, my body transition from swimming mode to running
mode was so slow that it wasn't until the 5 km mark that I finally
reached 'the zone' at which you feel that you're just cruising
along. Prior to this I was being overtaken by countless numbers
of people. With 5 km down and only 5 more to go, I gradually
start increasing my pace. 7 km mark and I feel like I'm
flying. Such a shame that it started so late in the run because
now I'm overtaking people one by one with my quickened pace. This
pretty much continues on until the end where I'm basically sprinting
past the people in front of the finish line. My mom and dad
happened to be watching on the side of the road cheering me on. Heh
feel sorry they had to wait so long just for that moment. Well at least
I didn't end the race by slowly stumbling over the line and then
collapsing afterwards...
Basically just feeling wasted after the race...
I'd like to think of the run to be 'my style' where I start slow and
'finish strong' -which is true to a certain extent- but the fact that I
was able to all out sprint at the very end without much effort goes to
show how much energy I still had left and hadn't used properly. Heh,
goes to show I hadn't conditioned myself for the swim-run transition
which sucked up a lot of time.
Oh yes, my time. Irrelevant...haha ok fine it was 1 hour 50
minutes...kinda like crap but oh well. There's always next time
(but as to how I'm going to do it up in Cornell I have no idea). As for
my placing I have no idea until they come out with the full results
(plus more photos) in a few days time.
Right now my legs are killing me. Ah I have a rugby match tomorrow morning too...against last year's champions...joy
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| | Posted 3/27/2005 12:21 AM - 24 Views - 4 eProps - 2 comments
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