The Virgin Sprint Triathlon

Me with Tri-buddy YenYen

The afternoon before the race, I decided to take part in the Osim Corporate Traithlon, using the alias, Grace Ong (Bib #3130). Grace, Chin's cousin, was ill so she gave-up her slot, and me, crazy woman that I am, thought I'd just go and wing it with zero preparation and training.

In all honesty, it didn't turn out that badly. Firstly, they cut down the swim from 750m to 200m because the weather was bad. This helped tremendously as I really cannot swim and the plan was to do the breast-stroke all the way anyway. Chin and San had this great idea that we should find some fast ang-mohs so we could draft behind them (this is supposed to conserve energy). Anyway, it was a bad call because I ended up being pushed really close to the rope behind a very erratic swimmer and ended up tangled in the rope! Since it was only 200m, it really didn't make much difference with the time.

The 2nd leg was the 20km cycle. I have only taken my bike out seriously twice since I got it and I ride at a snail's pace of 25km/hr . I was also a little apprehensive since the roads were still wet from the heavy rains. Well, this was the tougest part. The 3 laps just went on and on FOREVER..... people were passing me right, left and center; including the handicapped who were just amazing with their stamina and guts. Boy was I relievedwhen it was over! My butt was hurting, my back was aching, my thighs were burning from rubbing against the bloody saddle!

After that, things could only get better! The 5km run was a little difficult to get into since I was still reeling from the torture of the bike, but once I got into it, it was actually the best part of the race. All my joyful running training helped! yeah!

Well, I (aka Grace Ong), finished 47th out of 73 with a time of 1hr and 31min (6.06m swim, 54min bike, 31min run). Not great, but respectable in my opinion. Mat, on the other hand, was a little harsh with "But mum, you didn't even make it to the 50th percentile!". Guess he gets that from me (sheepish look).

So that's it, my virgin sprint tri! Technically, I am still a virgin though as a sprint (and this is a cut-down sprint at that!) only qualifies as 2nd base........ the home-run will come when I do the Olympic Distance. The target is to do the OD before I turn 40 so I have some years left.....