Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore

Hi all. How you guys been? Been MIA from here for quite sometime due to my heavy schedules. I miss here so much! Glad to be back to update a lil of what I've gone through lately. Here's the story. I've recently participated my first Ironman challenge in Singapore in the Team event with my riding buddy and his cousin who is based in Singapore. We figured out its best that we join the team as we have not been training hard PLUS we are no way a pro by all means.

Ironman 70.3 is broken down into 3 categories ie swimming 2km, cycling 90km and running 25km! Guess what? I took the swimming! I'd only done 3 weeks of swimming practices in the pool while my team mates had ample of practices in their respective fields. You know what they say. The pressure is on the first and the last one!

Yeap, so we reached Singapore the day before to checkout the venue and to put my team mate's bike at the transition area. I swear I've not seen so many pro bikes in my life! There were thousands of them and these athletes were dead serious. Some of them have already begun training and warm up sessions the day before while we were taking our own sweet time wondering around the scene checking out people's gear.

Then came the actual day. My heart was pouncing real hard of course. I put on my first ever upper and bottom 2XU compression tights. According to the experts, these compression suits helps to minimise muscle injuries and helps us from getting cramps. By 8:20am, all swimmers gathered at the starting line getting ready for their first taste of sea water.

As soon as the gun marshals fire the gun we all ran towards the sea and there we go. It was more kicking and slapping more than swimming at first but as everyone spread out I began move into my freestyle mode. Everything was fine until I felt strange. For a moment I cant breath. I felt somethings not right. I slipped in to panic mode. Fatigue hit me and told myself this must not be it. My team mates are stil waiting for me in the transition area. In a split second I tried to stay calm and try to figure out what went wrong and there it was. My suit! It was way too tight and I couldnt breath normally plus I have not been training with a suit. I rolled up my suit up soon after and continued swimming with difficulty of course.

I managed to complete 1 km and headed to the beach before jumping back to the sea for the second lap. It was there I took off my suit and jumped straight back to the water. I felt all the pressure was behind me and swam as if I'm gliding with the waves! As soon as I got back up to the to beach, I ran towards the transition area to pass the timing chip to my teammate Wong who was already waiting with his bike. He continued with his 90km cycling and then passed on to my other teammate Christina who ran 25km and finished the race in style.

It was indeed a great experience to be competing in an international event. It was not about winning. Its more of teamwork than anything else. I guess my timing was the worst compared to my teammates but they made up to it by with their experience. My teammate Wong was the 4th fastest in the overall cycling!!! Gosh I felt really bad but at the end of the day we really had fun! I look forward to join the individual event next year WITH proper training and I will carry the experience I learnt from this event to the next! PEACE!

See you next year Singapore!