CIP 2018 Race Report

This race had the potential to be one of my best race, yet it turned out to be my first DNF due to a technical fault, which once again highlighted the glaring shortcoming in my racing repertoire - cycling.

Having done long distance road running (though not super outstanding) for years had given me enough experience on handling the effects and optimised my racing strategies based on my current physical conditions, I will also know when and how to push it when needed.

Swimming shouldn't even be a question since I'm carrying the TI name, though I should be looking at clocking even faster times

Cycling? Nah. Just use the same old cyclo-cross bike that I had bought years ago, with no upgrades or changes to the parts that I started with. (a well meaning friend helped me to procure this bike, thinking that I may need the versatility of handing different cycling conditions, even though I made it clear that the only reason to cycle is for racing tris. My fault that I can't tell the difference between road bike /tri bike /cyclo Cross)

Cheapo me trying to squeeze mileage out of the miserly fortune that I had spent on this bike, resulting in poor mediocre race results which I gladly used to explain poor race performances.

Again, the prep for CIP 2018 wasn't fantastic as I always do. No brick training, didn't clock the required mileage for each discipline, though I had a minor breakthrough in swimming.

After making some minor changes to my solo swim practices, of getting more used to faster tempo, I finally managed to, for the first time, break the 30 min barrier for 1500m in a pool. The gains were purely technique based rather than any physical conditioning, so I was pretty pleased when I clocked a 35min swim this year, which was pretty close to my pool pace. (a 10min improvement from last year, which I admittedly fared poorly)

The longest single ride that I managed to clock on training was at 78km, though I could feel that I managed to get some gains as well as I could feel I was getting stronger in the aeroposition. Though I had a minor episode in my final practice ride last week of getting stranded at the remote end of changi coastal road with 2 flats. The first was a long standing minute puncture that slowly deflated the rear tyre, which I realised on the ride and tried to fix it. I cleared out 2 small metal pieces from the tyre and used the CO2 cartridge to inflate the tyre, which ended up bursting immediately, as the inner tube was caught in a pinch by the tyre. Had to call dad for rescue at 6am without trying to get them worried about something really nasty that happened to me.

Well, it seems that I didn't really learn from that incident, and repeated the same mistake in the race. 25km into lap 1 and a fellow participant pointed out I was running on flat. Stopped by the road to fix it. Repeated the same steps but this time with the hand pump. The replacement was filling up nicely as I tried to get it to 80psi. And at the moment when I hit 80psi, I heard another burst, and at that moment, I realised that I repeated the same mistake and ended my race prematurely. My 1st DNF for a 703 race. Even when I was fully bloodied in cebu, I didn't give up.

This was technical, so there's no way I could get back into this race. As I came to grips with the reality of DNF, I could only pick myself up and slowly walk back to the transition area, hoping that the race officials will come by and spot me, and ferry me back to TA and put me out of my misery. After a long walk and multiple officials stopping by, one of them finally offered to ferry me and my bike on his motorbike - yes, handcarry my bicycle as I pillion on his motorbike. Whatever it takes man...

Got back to the officials tentage, and took my DNF, lamenting that chance of PB in such a rare fine weather. The officials suggested that I could continue with the run, just without timing chip and no official results (still DNF) and I jumped at the opportunity! Afterall I'm just after the fun of completing, timing didn't really mean much except for an official record. Not that the official timing will be of any use anyway.

Checked in my bike into the TA, did my T2 and started my run. It was a pretty unique experience though, as it was the time when the 1st female Pro just ran into T2, so I was effectively starting my run with the Pros!

Was a little ashamed of the fact that I'm a DNF, and the spectators took my photos as I ran past them, though I tried to keep my pace respectable in the first half of the run. Pretty chill to have the empty run course all to myself for lap 1, as I kept up the 5.30 to 5.45 pace for the first 10km.

Took the 2nd lap much more slowly as stitches and cramps started to set in. After a good 3km of run walk, I managed to get back into a slow jog to run off the pain. It never went off. I just managed to endure it as I picked up pace again as I got nearer to the finish line.

The time on my watch showed 1h59m as I crossed the finish line, but the distance seems to be 19km instead of 21km. Doesn't matter. What I had gathered was the damned mental strength and agility to manage the physical condition and pain to be just below the red line of cramping up again.

The race clock probably showed 4h51m when I crossed the finish line. I just kept low and walked back to the TA to pick up my hotel room card.

I probably raised a few eyebrows with the Elites on why this nondescript guy managed to finish so quickly.  (same expression I saw on those still cycling when I started run lap 1)

Even though this was a DNF, I guess I had more chuckles than being sad about it.

Key takeaways :
Best swim so far. Continue to refine my TI technique to continue improving!
Great management on the run. Grind through the pain and mental weakness, and the body can carry through.
Damned that freaking excuse of a lousy bike. Time to look into upgrading if I wanna continue racing Tris. Not only the physical bike, but also the knowledge, just like how I converted my worst discipline to my strongest suite. Time to get more technical.