the race

So today was race day again. It was time for me to tackle the sprint distance one more time and I was hoping I'd at least beat my time or feel better physically in general.

Mission accomplished on both counts. Once again, I was reminded of the power of last Saturday's adventure race. I don't think it strengthened my body half as much as it did my mind. Whilst in the past I would have found it hard pushing the distances, thinking 'can I do it?', today's race was more of a 'hmm, can I do it it in 1.5 hrs?'

Heh okay, so I was being a little ambitious.

My best time thus far (and this is not saying much, seeing as it was only my second sprint race!) was 1hr50mins @ OSIM. Today, I cut it down by 10 mins and this was a huge personal achievement. I have yet to confirm this of course, but I'm my watch readings were a good estimate.

My body felt pretty strong throughout and I didn't feel like dying when I crossed the finish line - although I did feel relieved. I think it had partly to do with the fact that I took a spill at the end of my bike leg, and the pain was starting to set in in my knees. In fact, by the time we'd gotten home, I could barely bend it or walk, let alone jump and put pressure on it. (Aero is going to find the limping on Monday very amusing.)

Strangely enough, my weakest leg today was my bike leg. The water was pretty trecherous - and my prayers go out to the participant who was called home to God today - but I felt pretty good throughout. My upper body was a little tired but I came out of the water fresh and ready to tackle the next leg. Think the swim training has definitely be helping.

On the bike, however, I felt weak. I tried to maintain a 30km/hr speed and it was an okay effort. But I just couldn't push any harder than that and this was really frustrating. I was on my largest chain ring and I knew it was going to make the running that much harder when I started. On my last lap, I intended to dismount whilst coming to a halt - a trick that Sher and I taught ourselves when we were but ickle girlies. But my eggbeater was gunked with a thick wad of sticky mud and I failed to disengaged the clip from the pedal.

Splat.

And right onto the knees as well. Ouch. My knees were a little shocked but I jogged back to transition, where a very happy husband was there to pour ice cold water on my head whilst I changed my shoes.

The first 800m running was tough. My legs felt heavy from the lactic acid build-up and my knees were still reeling from the shock. I'd poured some water on the wounds so the wound was biting me something chronic. Decided to take my mind off it by trying to pass any female participants I saw.

There was this one lady who was running at a pretty good pace. I ran alongside her and we gave each other words of encouragement. But the inner devil in me decided to overtake, so I left her behind. She ran back up alongside me at one point and we started to talk about how the swim went, and the fact that I'd gotten bitten at least six times by sea bugs. But I decided that I wanted to try and get as good a ranking as possible, so I picked up speed again and left her behind. Couldn't find her after that. Passed a couple of others and then I was heading back to the finish line.

It was really sweet coz as I headed back, Andrea and her beau Hansel started cheering me on, encouraging me to keep going. I was feeling pretty good at that point but still, the sight and sound of such support spurs you on even more. It was really nice to get the support! In fact, I think Andrea did her best to catch us at as many points as she could to cheer us on. The husband and I were pretty touched.

Speaking of the hubby, he was at the finish line waiting for me, but he was talking to a business contact. He tried to introduce me when I got there, but all I could say was, "Hi, nice to meet you... Sorry but you will have to excuse me, I have to go pee."

Hmm, not exactly the perfect wife sometimes, am I! :/


the day's supporter and photographer


just us


andrew, the whirling dervish


isn't my helmet kinda wonky


homerun


mud fest


this made cleaning shadowfax and zippy an ARSE