This Promise

Malakoff Powerman Asian Duathlon Championships 2012:

Run 11.4km - Bike 64km -Run 11.4km

buddy at starting line 

under the famed putrajaya sail-wired bridges 

 slogging through the main thorough-fare at the last-leg's run. *everyone seems to be using a Newton these days!

 sprinting towards the finishing line! With buddy again! He quietly sneaked up behind my back, ran forward and wanted to 'suprise' me - Ha!

GW and B. Finished in 4:23hrs, 39/121 in 20-29 age group. Excellent time out, given recent lack of training and a nadir of effort put into it, and of course the weather played a role too, with the ever-present evening storms. Biked once in 3 weeks beforehand, never quite clocked even an 8km run for 2 weeks. Kinda afraid of DNF, due to my alarming lackadaisical efforts. Nevertheless, had read an article just a couple of days back, stating the importance of proper carboloading 24-28 hours prior to the race - tried this out instead.
Rained till midnight - was worried that it'll be a pretty sordid and wet morning race. Flag-off at 7am notwithstanding, I raced off the blocks - did the first 11km in a healthy 55mins; out of the transition within 2 mins. Felt good going into riding, but hardly 5k riding and chasing the frontrunners, the right vastus medialis started to tingle- i knew this was a sign of undertraining and over estimating the body's capability. Quickly decided to not push too much, ie conserve and hence continue at a steady pace of 30km/h, but yet, those uncles on their tri-bike with buttress calves, kept slipping past me one by one. I was helpless. Tried to draft, but was warned once by the marshall - backed off, as this was an international standard race. Took 3 powergels at KM1 , KM30 and KM58, just before approaching transition 2. Looked at the clock: only 3:05hrs! Wheeled in, as it started to rain, quickly packed my belongings into the plastic bag, and jogged off gingerly as both quadriceps were now leaden felt. Guess it was mostly a battle of mind over matter, but common sense kept me from pushing  and fearing-risking cramps ie DNF. Decided to jog and run mostly; approaching the final run-through, got outsprinted by Leo sneakily - caught up on him, and approached the finish together! Well, he's improved tremendously from the first i've met him during the duathlon series this year with Mr Loh- keep up the great work big guy! Latif, Ben, KC did respectably well too, all completing within the 5:30hrs cut off. Kinda thought if i've had pushed a little further, might be able to achieve a sub 4:15hrs race- who knows!? Time for a hiatus from racing, buck up on improving the running gait, swimming free-style and endurance biking. Ran all i've wanted this year: Brooks HM, Larian Gemilang 1M, UM Staff Games track and field, MUDS duathlon series X3, PJ Dawn HM, KL HM, Ekiden relay, BHP Orange run 10k, Adidas KOTR 16.8k, PJ HM, PD OD triathlon, Desaru LD Triathlon and Powerman! Woah, what a fanstastic year of running!

Sabah's the next stop!