One year as a triathlete. One epic year it has been.

I was back at the Gold Coast last weekend to celebrate my anniversary as a triathlete by racing the Gold Coast Half Ironman. It was known from the forecast that it would rain cats and dogs. And it did! At the swim start I had a chat with Dylan Rock. He was looking confident and ready for it. It was a pretty quick swim in calm waters of Calypso bay, but somehow I went a minute slower than last year. After a year of training, I would have expected some improvement, but it seems my new swim technique may have some issues. When I came out of the water and everybody screamed “Cave man!” Had to be extremely careful running on those slippery wooden planks. Gerald had an unlucky fall.

When I sat on the bike, I took about 10kms to build into it, undistracted by those who went flying in the first 10k. I was feeling strong, kept high cadence, and started passing riders. The ride in the rain has never been this enjoyable. The only time I felt it was dangerous was when coming to a narrow section of the road over a bridge. Due to foggy sunnies, I missed the sign, and found myself on the wrong side of the road on course for a headon collision with another rider. Lucky I could swerve through the cones and there was no one on my left side. Unfortunately there were a few crashes in the race, one head on, and a couple of those who went off the road. I heard someone’s handle bars came off on a turn, and another one fell in a grassy drain gutter. There were bike numbers every 10meters on the road. Water bottles, puncture kits and heaps of sunglasses – expensive

ones!

The last section of the bike got quite windy, but I was feeling strong to ride through it. Finished the bike 7min faster than last year, but with a lot more left to run with. Unfortunately my shoes were soaked in rain – a perfect recipie for blisters. As soon as I came out of the transition, I heard things like:

“Go the cave man!”

“Hey mommy... look Sponge bob!”

“Looking good Giiii”

But the best one has to be... “Free love...” Haa! Haa!

The course was quite muddy in some sections but heaps of people gave me hi five and cheered, which kept me going. Paced myself in the first lap, got a bit tired by the second, and lost my form 15kms into the run. It was all HTFU and suck it up princess after that. Saw loads of familiar faces in the race including Tom, Gerald, Karen,

Cameron the Ratdog, Sunnygirl, Karen, Brent, Kimberly, Arpit, Pete Goldie.

Finish chute was heaps fun. I danced and high five'd with the amazing spect

ators

including Stef Henson an others who were out there cheering in

that rain. Stoked by half an hour PB, I was pretty happy.

Then I saw a crazy girl who finished just behind me do a cart wheel across the finish line! Then we locked our arms and did a bit of round and round bush dance. Tom’s mum was cheering at the finish line as well.

Huge respect to the vollies and the spectators who coped up with rain for hours to support the competitors. Couldn’t have been a better way to celebrate anniversary. The souvenirs include heart shaped tan lines from the heart shaped sunnies, and blistered feet. Love this sport! :-)

Forster Olympic Triathlon

Dt: 19 Sep 2010
There was overcast, the beach sand was cold, the water looked cold, but it was not! Nice 1.5km swim, I saw a stingray near the first buoy. The course was 2 laps around a rectangle of buoys, but one extra buoy in the middle of the outer side confused me. I thought it’s a corner and turned left, only to be told by a paddler that I have gone off course.

The transition area had sharp gravel all over it, and to make it worse, the athletes were required to do a lap around it before they reach their bikes. We said “Ouch ouch ouch ouch” at every step, then sucked it up and kept running.

The bike course was flat with some rolling hills, but never had to switch to the smaller chain ring. The road was rough, but still enjoyable.

The run was undulating 10k and heaps fun. There were bits of off road, grass, a long bridge with climbs on both sides, and a scenic shore line. The finish area was full of spectators and Pete was at his best as always in keeping everyone entertained with his commentary. After the finish, the fruit ice cream platter in the refreshment area was the best thing you could have. Excellent festival environment, great support from the locals, and the scenic beauty of Forster makes this event stand out.

Saw a number of trannies, including Marnifer at the dinner, Coach@Tri at the ocean swim, Mr Blonde at the finish line, Mr Flower who was seriously smashing the run and made it to podium in his AG, smitty who won silver in his AG, animal who ran past me like one.

Ironman Regensburg Race Report

Pre race day registration was a mess. There was registration at one place, bag collection at another place in the city, shuttle to T1 from a third place, and I was given wrong directions. I couldn’t find threaded CO2 canisters anywhere in the city or at the bike expo. So I decided to take risk and race without a puncture repair kit. The race day morning looked beautiful. There was mist over the lake and the transition area was lit by the pink sun light. It was a 2500 people mass start. This has to be the biggest mass start I have ever done. There was excitement everywhere. As soon as the start gun went off, the triathletes dashed into the water. The swim was a mess as expected. Two noticeable differences when comparing with Australian triathlons:

1. The good thing about European triathletes is that they are more respectful than their Aussie counterparts. They don’t swim over other triathletes, they don’t pull them by the ankles at the buoy turns
2. The bad thing about European triathletes is that they don’t know how to swim. I was drafting behind one and all of a sudden, he stopped doing freestyle, and started breast stroke. Finding him too slow, I decided to swim around him, but his frog kicks were too wide to dodge.
3. European triathletes don’t mind swimming on the wrong side of the buoys and cutting the corners. The good thing about this is that in such a large group of swimmers, it may reduce the congestion at the turns and is safer that way.

I swam 1h17, which is 5min slower than Ironman Australia, even though I went harder. It must be due to buoyancy difference between salt water and fresh water swims. My transition was far from smooth. Took a leak, which was a great idea, as it is always hard on the bike. Then there were triathletes everywhere at the bike mount line, who wouldn’t give way to others. In an attempt to dodge them and sit on the bike, my shoe came off from the paddle, but don’t think I lost too much time. Then I had to remember yelling “Rider left” instead of “Rider right” we would yell in Australia when overtaking. Slow cyclists everywhere, hard to find room to safely overtake. There were a few long climbs on the course, with nice descends and flat stretches. The course was scenic. The 180k bike leg was a two loop course through the old European villages, where you can use the entire width of the road to go fast on the turns, just like you see in the cycling TTs in European pro cycling tours. The supportive crowd yelled “hop hop hop hop...” and “super” to encourage the cyclists on the climbs. I felt great for 60k, then had some back ache but nothing too bad. I started getting slight cramps in calves around 150k. Thinking that there’s still a bloody marathon to go, I increased my water and salt intake. The water in Germany is hard water. It has very high salt contents. It’s like sea water. The more you drink, more thirsty you feel. I probably drank too much. My 310xt says 177km instead of 180km, so either the bike course was smaller or I took some short cut?! About 12km before the T2, we crossed a bridge from where we could see Walhalla. The bike dismount point came without a warning, and there was very short time to take foot out of the shoes. The 6h16 split was 23min faster than PMIM, and I felt sub 12hr is within reach.

T2 was smooth. Took another leak, but the run felt strange. All that water I drank in the last 30k of the bike was sitting on my gut, giving me stomach cramps. I couldn’t find my running form. By 6-7 km into the run, I got frustrated and decided to induce vomit. Then I wouldn’t stop throwing up. I threw up about 3L of fluids at four different times. I felt weak. It was impossible to hammer a good time in the marathon. Soon I started getting bad cramps in my calves. The worse was that I couldn’t eat anything after it. So, the marathon became more of a run/walk. My custom Compressport calf socks were awesome. I discovered their alternate advantage. When I started getting cramps, I took some ice cubes from the aid stations and stuffed them in my compression socks. It eased up the cramps, prevented my legs from seizing, and kept me going from one aid station to the other. I dragged my ass across the finish line in just under 14hours. This time I really enjoyed the finish chute. Did high five with almost every spectator standing along the finish chute, danced with joy, and said “Du bist ein Ironman” to the other finishers who were rushing to the finish line. A great ironman, but my perfect race is yet to come. I hope it will be at Busso. The after party was excellent, and the volunteers party was a great way to socialise with the friendly volunteers from Regensburg and the villages around.

Good food! Good beer! Great people!! Makes me want to go back :-)

Ironman Australia 2010 - Port Macquarie

I am writing this race report 11 weeks after racing Ironman. The primary purpose is to recall the ups and downs I experienced in the race, and prepare myself for the Ironman Regensburg in six weeks from now.

On the race day, I woke up at 2am and started feeding as per the feeding strategy advised by my mentor George Lowe. The feeding strategy was simple. Eat one gel one hour before the race, one gel half an hour before, and one gel just before the start. Then a gel every 20min on the bike, and a gel every 30 min on the run. I prepared a high concentration thick shake of protein powder and electrolyte, which was equivalent to 6-7 bottles of normal concentration, that I would sip and drink water afterwards.

At the start, I was relaxed it didn't feel any different than a normal training day, except for that I don't train with such a large group. My approach was to race it as a long training day, with primary goal to finish it, and secondary goal to enjoy it.

Although I had trained plenty, I was not sure how the body will respond to the race pace. It was the zone of uncertainty. I considered plenty of worst case scenarios, including that I may sweat out all the selenium (essential to keep the ticker thumping) in my body during such a long race – resulting in cardiac arrest, and made sure I take some supplements day before.

The waters were calm. There was a false start at the pro end. Probably triggered by some spectator blowing a pressure horn. The announcer announced “bring them back .... bring them back...” but the pros were already swimming hard with their head down in the water. It was too late to stop them. The cannon fired soon after that, and the main pack started the swim. There was plenty of sea weed floating around that would occasionally get stuck in my goggles. I kept swimming my own pace, and feeling good after the first lap. So I started to push slightly hard in the second lap. There was some pole in the middle of the course, and I collided head on with it. It was marked with a buoy, but I wasn't looking ahead – watch out for it!

I came out of the swim feeling good, and was quick in the transition. I started the bike leg overtaking heaps of people. I knew it was going to be a long ride, but I was feeling good, and kept that pace. First lap was a breeze and the crowd at Mathew Flinder Drive hill was fantastic at cheering. The cyclists were super slow up the hill and blocked the whole road. I suddenly found I had to pull brakes, but didn't lose much momentum. The second lap was slightly hard. The highlight of the race was being chased by a man dressed in green mankini like Borat up the MFD. I thought it was in response to me chasing the pro cyclists in Tour Downunder up Willunga Hill back in January. It was a great effort, a brave one!

The third lap was hard. I couldn't get enough water at the drink stations as they were giving only half filled small biddons. I could carry only one on my bike, which won't last until the next drink station. After 150km, I was feeling back pain. I changed the riding position from aero to the bull horn bars. From my past experiences in half Ironman, I found that I can't engage core muscles during running if I break my back during the cycling leg. The wind picked up, on the third lap, and I was going really slow, sitting upright instead of in aero poistion. I could have gone faster, but wanted to save myself for the marathon. My chain came off twice during the third lap.

After finishing the bike leg, a volunteer took away my bike. I didn't know it works like that, and I forgot to take off my Garmin 310xt off the bike, and had to ask a volunteer to bring it to me. The volunteers were great and brought it back as I was about to finish the transition. I had a quick transition and was off running at a good rhythm, feeling pretty fresh. I went 11km in the first hour. After 14k, I started to feel that cramps are building up in my calves. I ate vegemite and swollowed it down with water at the next drink station. It didn't help much. By 18km, my speed had really dropped. By 28km, my legs seized. It felt like if I continue running now, the muscles will pop out of my calves, and I wouldn't be able to even walk, and the finish would be impossible. So, I started walking. I walked for 7-8 km, then tried

to run. In first attempt I failed. Then I tried again. The body says “lye down on the side of the road.” Starting to run again is the hardest thing I felt in the Ironman. It was purely mental. I started to run, but every step was hurting. I could feel my toes are hurting due to pressure against the tip of the shoe, but just like everyone else out there on the course, you suck it up princess. Later I had a black toe nail which fell off after two months. During all this suffering, the spectators kept cheering me, and that's what kept me going.

When I reached the finish chute, it was the moment of joy. I knew I have made it. The uncertainty about whether I can do it was gone, replaced by the happiness. The joy went through the roof. I opened my arms wide to embrace the majestic environment. Then I started dancing with happiness. I was full of joy, and danced crazy hard despite the calves cramping really bad on every move of the leg. Pain didn't matter anymore. Peter Murray was the announcer at the finish line. He gave me a “hi five” and said the big words “Gi Singh, you are an IRONMAN!” I danced mad at the finish line, and Peter called me back to dance again in front of the spectators. It was an honour. I kept dancing with joy until another finisher – Chris, picked me up and took me away from there. The spectators loved it. I loved it. It was an epic moment, that will remain fresh in my memory for a long long time.

I had so much fun that I can say it was without the doubt the best day ever. I loved the crowd at Port Macquarie. I have to go back next year and race it again. I can't wait for that long. So I will be competing in two more Ironman races before Ironman Australia in May 2011.

Check out the dance at 3:00min mark in this video:

Gold Coast Half Ironman 2009: The birth of a Triathlete

There was blood everywhere. Loads of it. On my legs, cycling shoes, all over the transition area, neighbor's towel, it was oozing out from my hands in all directions as I hurried through the first transition and prepared for the 90km cycling leg. But all this gore was no where near the worst horrors of the race.

My Gold Coast Half Ironman triathlon started at approximately 7am, with the 1.9km swimming leg in the murky waters of Calypso Bay. That is the feeding time for large horrible bull sharks that live in those waters. The swim start was a bit more rough than usual and everyone was trying to draft behind the fast swimmers. I got kicked in face many times, but got a good draft until someone kicked on my balls. I lost rhythm and fell behind the group of leading swimmers. I tried to close the gap, but due to poor visibility in murky waters, I got drifted off the course about 400m into the swim. Through murky water, I saw what looked like blooms of some brown coloured jelly fishes below. I hardly considered them a threat and continued swimming until my hands brushed on them. They were no jelly fishes! They were blade sharp oysters which had ripped open the skin on my hands before I could realise.

When I looked at my hands to assess the damage while still swimming, they looked as bad as if I have tried to stop half a dozen arrows with my bare hands. The salt water was just adding to the fun of things. But worse, it was infested by bull sharks. I had 1.5km more to swim, and after so many months of training and waiting, I was not too keen to leave the race unfinished. So, I continued to swim, trying to catch the fast group, leaving behind a strong blood trail while some of the slower swimmers drafted behind me. I don't know whether it was real or just a hallucination due to excessive blood loss that I was seeing large shark like image just under me. Whatever it was, it was a nightmare. I finished the swim in 37min, and ran to the transition area where I had a chance to slowdown and see the blood oozing out of my hands. There was blood everywhere. Loads of it! My blood pouring out right in front of me!!

I took off my wetsuit, grabbed the bike and ran in my pink budgy smugglers. The race officials said “Stop! You can't race without a shirt on.”
“What? I don't have any shirt in the transition area,” I replied. A spectator took off their singlet and said “Can he wear this?” The official said “Yeahp!” I grabbed his shirt, took off my helmet, wore it, and wore my helmet again. I think that guy was very kind. He was an angel. He helped me when I needed it. I can turn gay for him. And I think the race officials or whoever makes rules like that are gay. With adrenaline pumping, I started the cycling leg as if I am on fire. I had to consciously calm down myself as there was a long way to go. The winds were very strong and during the last lap, I was doing 25km/hr against the wind and overtaking heaps of people. I managed an average of 31km/hr over the 90km distance completing the leg in about 2hours and 55 min. I was feeling strong for the running, and in the transition area, I gulped some
energy gel and water, which turned out to be a perfect recipe for disaster. The water and gel sat on the gut, and gave painful cramps as I tried to get into the running rhythm. I just couldn't run properly for the first 10km. I had strength in my legs, but couldn't use it. Faster I would try to go, more pain I will have in the stomach, and I would have to stop running. This was very frustrating. But after 10km, the cramps abated a bit, and I could get into reasonable pace. But no way on earth I could have made up for the time I lost during the first 10 km. My running time went through the roof with 2hours and 27min for 21 km. I completed the Gold Coast Half Ironman triathlon in 6hrs and 6min. I was happy that I made it within the cut-off and hence I qualify for Ironman Australia. The first thing I asked the officials after the race was "Were there any shark attacks?" I was glad to hear a "no" for a change.

My thanks to Jules, George Lowe, and all the friends at DHBC who supported me with advise and encouragement to achieve this. 4th October 2009 is the day I will remember as the day when a triathlete was born. This is the day when I got a new life. A triathlete's life. A better life :)

Next triathlon: Port Macquarie Half Ironman, 1st Nov 2009, target time: 5:30hrs on the bloody hilly course.

Transitions Forum Thread

Port Macquarie Half Ironman 2009

With a seeded swim start according to the expected finish time, I started in the 34min to 40min category with a goal to finish the swim in 35 min. But for some strange reason, the swimmers in front of me were slower than me, and swimmers behind were faster. As a result, I was swimming over someone, and someone was swimming over me. It was more like a “drown the other swimmers competition” than a triathlon. Or maybe that’s wot a triathlon is supposed to be.



There was a slow swimmer ahead left, and a slow swimmer ahead right, and I was about to swim past them in the middle when all of a sudden they decided to close the gap between them, and squish me. I had to push them aside to make way for myself. I heard about another guy who was swimming next to a female triathlete. I think he would have been enjoying the company of the opposite sex until she unleashed her deadly weapon – her long finger nails. She scratched his face multiple times (probably unintentionally) and he came out of the swim bruised and bleeding. I think swimming in oysters would be safer than that. I followed the bubbles left by swimmers ahead and finished the 1.9 km swim in 35min, which was my target time.




Wore a sponge bob t-shirt in the transition area and went of on bike. The crowd loved it. The kids loved it. I had installed an aero bottle on TT bars the day before, and within the first km, it started to come out of the bars. The holding Velcro strap failed. So I had to do a bit of mechanical repairs – I used my elastic hair band to hold the bottle in place, and it worked very well. Although it was ridiculously hard to drink water from its pointed straw, and I felt I am just carrying a kilo of unnecessary weight on my bike. Anyways, I started to overtake people.





Someone ahead of me had dropped their helmet number sticker, and it got stuck on my front tire. It started to make “chick chick chick chick chick” sound as it would brush with the brakes in every rotation of the wheel. The cyclist I was overtaking started laughing at wot was going on. I tried to grab it off from the tyre while overtaking him at about 35km/hr, but it got stuck in the brake pads. It now made a continuous sound – “chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirr rr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...” By this time, the cyclist I was still overtaking was about to fall off from his bike laughing. He was a bit nuts. I putted my hand near the brake pad and grabbed the bloody sticker off from the tyre. Got the minor burn on the thumb, but it was worth it.



The Mathew Flincher Rd Hill in the cycling stage was at 36km and 81km. It is quite a steep climb, and I had to get out of the saddle to grind it in a low gear. There was a girl who was cheering “Go Giiiiii” but I have no idea who she was. The climb depleted quite a bit of energy, but hey, wot’s half Ironman without a challenge? A course with downstream swim, downhill cycling course with wind a tail wind, and downhill turn would be a disgrace to Half Ironman, and leave you quite down from where you started iniit?




Well, I finished the bike leg in about 3 hours (2hr55 + transitions), but my legs were jelly in the run. A chick went past me and said “You passed me on the bike, now I pass you in the run.” I couldn’t get a fast pace out of my legs, and I didn’t want to hammer it hard because 21 km is a bit long distance for that. There was a group of girls sitting by the side of the running track, and they cheers “Go Giiii! Go...!!!!!”
I asked "how do you know my name?"
They said "it was in newspaper."
“Wot newspaper?” I asked.
One of them replied “Port Macquarie News.”
I think she was being smart arse. I guess I will never find out who these ladies were and how they know my name! Others who didn’t know my name were cheering me by saying “Go sponge bob!” (kids loved that t-shirt)
“Go budgy smuggler”
“Go Jamaica!” :-S
“Go Predator!!” lol


Great crowd and a great day. I was happy that I gave a good attempt, and a identified that running is where I need to start working on. Looking forward to do that course again in Ironman Australia in March 2010!

Original Race Report on the Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club Forum

Sri Chinmoy half marathon - Centennial Park, 13 June 2010

Race Report:
On the race morning, Tom was giving excuses for not wearing budgy smugglers. "It's seven degrees Gi!," he said. As we know that Tom was sick last week, and still decided to run 7km anyway, we can let him get away with this excuse this time. I think the weather couldn't have been better. When it is a bit cold, the athletes don't feel too thirsty in a half marathon distance race. There were a few people running in HTC gear and many familiar faces from different triathlon clubs. I was hoping for a PB over my road race time at Sydney half marathon four weeks ago, but wasn't sure I would manage to get a PB after I looked at the course. It was a hilly cross country course through the Centennial Park. Running on grass and sand is relatively slower than road running as grass/sand absorbs a bit of force you apply on the ground.

The race started 5min late. There was a minute of silence and then they announced "Runners Go!" I was the first off the block, and led the palaton for about 300m. Then I realised I don't know the course and not sure should I follow this fence or go straight. So, I eased up a bit and let the fast runners lead. By 1.5km, I was 8th. Since then I kept dropping places. It is a scenic course around the duck ponds, hills and dense trees. My HR for the first 7km was over 180bpm. I felt I was going too fast. So I floated for the next 7km and picked up the pace in the last 7km to finish it off in 1h47min. It was still a PB of 8 min over the Sydney half marathon 4 weeks ago, and I was happy with that. Sri Chinmoy races are very well organised with water station every 2km. They cost 1/4th of the Sydney half marathon price, and that includes bananas, oranges and pancakes at the end of the race. Tom would race just for the pancakes. He ate four pancakes! The next PB... err... the next SC half marathon is at Dolls Point on 11th July. See you there!