My Mother-In-Law

It was slightly over a year ago when my mother-in-law collapsed in her living room. She was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance where she spent the next few days under doctors' supervision, and then when she was discharged, my wife sought my permission for her mom to come live with us. I replied in the affirmative immediately.

Although I've been married for over 20 years, I'm a little embarrassed to say that I did not really know my parents-in-law that well. Apart from knowing that my mother-in-law is a gullible person, there wasn't much more that I knew about her; and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't at least a little worried about what I would find out about her. Of course I make the rules in my home and I made it crystal clear to my wife from the very beginning that I wasn't gonna do something just to please her mom; I would be myself still, and if her mom gets offended by something that I've done or said, then that's just too bad!

During the one year since my mother-in-law moved to my house, I've learned a lot more about her. I can confirm that she is indeed a gullible woman, but there's more than that, of course. She is perhaps 90% deaf, and suffers from issues related to old age such as forgetfulness—she can never remember to switch off the lights, fans and TV, for example. She also regularly forgets to close the water tap, thus resulting in emptying our water tank.

She has the habit of being the commentator whenever we watch TV together. Of course she spends almost the whole day sitting in front of the TV watching reruns after reruns on Astro, and by the time I want to watch a programme, she probably knows the scripts by heart already, and simply can't control herself from wanting to tell what comes next. I'm sometimes tempted to keep reminding her not to spoil the show, but unfortunately she's either too deaf to hear what I'm saying, or she's just too forgetful to remember what she's told. In due course, when I'm stuck in the traffic jam on my way home from work, my mind starts to wonder; and I'd imagine stuff like buying a duct tape to be used when I'm watching TV at home. Traffic jams, as you probably already know, can give rise to ugly thoughts!

But sometimes she does get tired of watching reruns too; and she'd read the Bible instead, or she'd doze off on the sofa while the TV is watching her sleep. I'm guessing that the sounds from the TV has a soothing effect on her ears, as are lullabies to babies, even though it's practically impossible for her to understand what the sounds are all about, thanks to her deafness.

Conversations with my mother-in-law may sound a lot like a broken record player, since one has to repeat like a hundred times before she's able to grasp what is being said; and like most old folks, she has the tendency to repeat and keep repeating the same topic over and over again. If one is not careful, his blood pressure may shoot through the roof from just having a conversation with my mother-in-law.

Having one's mother-in-law living under the same roof is not for the faint-hearted. To be fair, however, not all mothers-in-law are like mine, because I've seen some old women her age, and found that they're still quite sane. But I'm proud to say that I've survived for a year, and I'm confident that I can survive a lot longer too. People have been asking me how I did it, and my answer has always been the same—I treat my mother-in-law sympathetically, and always bearing in mind that one of these days I will become old and sick like her too. When and if that happens, I'd imagine that I would appreciate it very much if the young ones could also understand why I'm like that.

Getting old, sick and senile can be quite scary. Sometimes, I catch myself observing my mother-in-law from the dining table as she's watching TV and I'm overwhelmed with feeling pity for her. And then again my mind starts to wonder, and I am horrified by the thought that my wife may end up looking like her mom one of these days! Damn all these scary thoughts!

The Ironman

Many of my family members and friends are aware that I'm active in sports, and that I'm in fact an Ironman. Not everybody knows much about being an Ironman, or how to earn that title. So let me explain quickly what it's all about. 

The Ironman is just like any other brandnames out there, and in the sport of triathlon, it means a person who's conquered a 3.8km swim, a 180km bike, and finally a 42.2km run, one after another continuously, and all within a total cut off time of 17 hours. In some events, the cut off times may be a little shorter. The title, once earned, will remain forever.

To an average person, it may seem impossible to even swim 3.8km, or bike a distance of 180km, or run 42.2km, let alone doing all those one after another within 17 hours. But I have always said that the race itself is not the toughest part. In my opinion, the toughest part of becoming an Ironman is in the months and months of training when one requires a lot of discipline. He trains on a daily basis for what seems like eternity, and at the height of the programme, he has almost no life other than training. It is there during the months of training that most people would fail!

Now some people know quite a lot about being an Ironman—they know, for example, about the ridiculous distances in the 3 disciplines; they know about the training programmes etc; that all the training can help to improve the fitness and endurance. But what they seem not to know is that we are still human; we are still flesh and blood, and we are not immune from falling ill sometimes! It can be frustrating when people say something like, "But you're an Ironman; how come you have the flu?"

I'm approaching 51 years old soon, and I feel like I've never been any fitter than I am today, even when I compare myself to the times when I was in my twenties. My resting pulse is down to about 40bpm and these days jogging between 5km to 10km at a pace of say 6min/km is not very tiring to me. 

But actually, I do have some issues such as a bit of pain in my joints, especially my knees. This lately, I find that recovery takes a little longer. I still have to be careful with what I consume, or else I would see my cholesterol level rise at an alarming rate. Although my blood pressure is generally within the "normal range", I notice that it may rise to a "borderline high" on some occasions; I mean it will rise for no apparent reason—not just when my wife sends me a text message, asking me to buy a large pack of tampons containing 30 pieces at the pharmacy near my office.

So you see folks, we Ironmans are human too, and we are very much like any of you out there. We did not come from the planet Krypton, wearing our underwear over our tights. We do fall sick every now and then just like anybody else. The next time you see your Ironman friend under the weather, please don't be surprised—he is just being human. 

The only difference is perhaps we're dumb enough to torture our bodies—for only God knows why—so that we can spend a ton of money to race for an entire day on a weekend, and then earn the title Ironman.

113 Triathlon Sabah—The Nail-Biting Finish that Didn't Happen

I've raced so many types of endurance races, each with its own epic excitement. I thought the Ironman Western Australia (IMWA) last December was the ultimate challenge against my friend, Teo Chen Lung. But when I beat him in that race, he swiftly challenged me to yet another race, which was yesterday—The 113 Triathlon Sabah, held in Nexus Karambunai. 

In the IMWA, I beat Teo by a mere margin of approximately 15 minutes, and according to Teo in that race he beat me in the swim and run legs, although he acknowledged that I won the bet, because I crossed the finish line first. As soon as I agreed to the challenge in the 113 Triathlon Sabah, Teo bought a new bike, i.e. the P5 Cervelo which he said was the "fastest bike in the world" based on wind tunnel testing. Upon reaching KK, he made further upgrades to include a power meter and some other installations. Although he was supposed to have gone for the Hong Kong Marathon earlier this year, he decided to cancel that trip, so that he could focus fully on beating this old man!

I knew that I would lose to Teo in yesterday's race, because it was a much shorter distance. I have said before that I just don't have the speed to put up much fight against younger opponents. But although it was an uphill task, I decided to at least put up a good fight for an epic finish. I reckoned that even if I'd lose the race against Teo, I'd at least make him run for his money! What made me even more pressured was that Teo said he will try to beat me in the run leg; and when he has caught up from behind, he would tap me on my shoulder before overtaking me! That absolutely made me even more determined not to let him tap my shoulder! To achieve that, I would have to attack his weaknesses starting with the swim. 

Well we are both not very good in the swim, but I felt that I had a slight advantage. You see, both of us used to have the "sinking-legs" problem when we started swimming a couple of years ago, and I've invested a lot of time and efforts figuring out a way for a solution. I have since solved that problem, and gone on to work on my strokes and kicks. On the other hand, Teo's biggest mistake was when he bought a wetsuit almost 3 years ago. That wetsuit absolutely sealed his fate as far as swimming was concerned. He's been training with the wetsuit about 90% of the time, and at times he'd swim several kilometres in the pool per session. I'm not a big fan of yardage when it comes to swimming; I'd rather focus on the technique. But just to make sure, I made more visits to the pool starting from a couple of weeks ago.

On the other hand, I've been neglecting my run a bit, but I thought no matter how fast I can run on an ordinary day, during the 113 Triathlon, I would be very slow anyway. So I had to gamble a bit on how I would balance between the 3 disciplines. I also decided to shed 2kg over the last 2 weeks from 72kg to 70kg, just to make sure that I get to my optimal racing weight.

Yesterday morning was an amazing start to say the least. I arrived at Nexus Karambunai at exactly 6:30am, and then as I was unloading my wife's bike, I realised that I had forgotten my cycling shoes at home. A single journey from my home to Nexus would usually take about half an hour, and the flag off time for the race was at 7am. It was obvious that there's not enough time, and I resigned to the fact that this was gonna be the end of what would have been an epic challenge against Teo!

But the thing to do in an emergency is to keep a cool head. After offloading my wife's bike, I floored the accelerator in my crazy attempt to get my shoes at home. I must have been going at an average of 120kph for most of the journey home, my front wheels vibrating violently; and of course I was cursing everybody on a leisurely Sunday drive who's blocking my way. It was still very early in the morning, and there wasn't any traffic jam, but I felt like the whole world was conspiring to slow me down; all the traffic lights along the way were red! But in the end, I made it back to Nexus at 7:15am, clearly I had missed the flag off. Still keeping my cool, I parked my car at the roadside, offloaded my bike and rushed to the transition area. I had planned to beg the Race Director to still let me join the race even though I was late. I didn't mind the late start as long as I could still join the race. Upon reaching the transition, I quickly racked up my bike, laid out my stuff, grabbed my googles and swimming cap, and rushed to the beach.

Then the second surprise of the morning. The race had not started! It must have been about 7:20am when I arrived at the beach, panting and my heart rate over the roof! I was accorded with a loud cheer for making it to the start line after all. I felt like I deserved a special trophy for the new record I've set for making that journey from Nexus to Damai and back in just a little over 40 minutes!

It turned out that the flag off was delayed because the Fire Brigade folks were late. They were supposed to inspect the swim course and then give the greenlight before the race was to start. Thank goodness this is Malaysia, and tardiness is a common thing; and in this case it helped me to catch my breath! But soon the wait became unbearable. The participants were rather anxious and everyone was worried about the precious time slipping by. The temperature was rising by the minute, and everyone was becoming restless.

Some tried to remain calm by meditating...

Some were discussing about bike technologies and bike splits...

While some were actually doing the split...

But in the end, at about 8:15am, we were finally flagged off. Because of the long delay, the organiser decided to shorten the swim leg from 2 loops to just 1 loop. However, one of the buoys had drifted slightly farther from shore, resulting in the swim leg becoming a little longer than 1km. The foreshore area was a little rough and the waves were hard to swim in. But as we got beyond the second buoy, it became much more pleasant to swim. I had by then lost track of Teo, but there was no time to worry about him at that point. I just continued swimming as calmly and consistently as I could; and a little over 25 minutes later, I emerged from the sea, not knowing if I was ahead of Teo or not. But no matter, if Teo's ahead, I would fight hard to catch up in the bike leg.

It was nice to see the transition area still crowded with people. In the past whenever I raced the triathlon, I would always arrive at Transition 1 just to find a deserted area with just a few bikes remaining. But not today. I put on my "wings", then my socks and cycling shoes, sunglasses and helmet. Then a few gulps of my trusted Carbopro; bike off the rack and off I went. 

At that point I still did not know where's Teo. But I was determined to fight during the bike leg. There's 90km worth of cycling to accomplish that! I wasn't gonna lose the bet without a fight! Little did I know that Teo was actually behind me at that point. I found out later that he was about 2 minutes slower in the swim. But 2 minutes is not really a big deal for a race of over 100km. That deficit can always be offset in the bike leg, especially with the help of his super P5! Coming out of transition, I suspect Teo must have started rehearsing his killer face that he's so famous for.

I took my time to build up speed during the bike leg. My heart was still beating like crazy from the swim. When I felt a little steadier, I began working on the pedals. Along the way, I overtook Hakimi and IM Dr Shah. Then some other participants. But after about half an hour, Teo was still nowhere to be seen. I began to feel a little worried. At the U-turn in Serusup, I took note of my time, and then on the return leg, I saw Amy, Hakimi and Shah. Shortly later, I finally overtook Vachel. Anslem was further ahead, and Boneventure of course was drafting behind him. Rayner was also a few minutes up ahead. Then suddenly I saw Teo coming from the opposite side of the road! Looking at my watch, I noticed that I was about 2.5 minutes since I reached the U-turn behind me, which meant, at that point, I was about 5 minutes ahead of Teo! Still not good enough, but it's a long ride still.

I continued focusing on timely nutrition and pedalling consistently all the way back to Kelapa Bakar, and as I was approaching that U-turn, I saw Anslem on the other side of the road with Bonaventure drafting behind him. Rayner was not very far behind them.

We repeated the Kelapa Bakar-Serusup for the second time. But on the return of that second loop, the wind started picking up like never before. It was quite a struggle. I saw my average speed dropped from 34kph to 33kph to 32kph; not so good news for my plan to build up the gap against Teo. The last few kilometres as I was approaching Transition 2, I had to slow down to rest my legs so that there's something left for the 21km run. As I was cruising that last stretch to Nexus, I saw Rayner up ahead, and I eventually overtook him too.

But Rayner was faster in his transition. As I started out for the 21km run, I saw Amy coming into transition. I wasn't sure how much lead I had against Teo then. But I knew that it's not much. Shortly after I passed the T-junction heading to the lagoon, Teo was making his approach to T2.

Making rough calculations in my head, I had perhaps a little over 10 minutes lead over Teo at that point. Teo was of course gonna catch up sooner or later, especially since my legs were getting tired. But I wanted to make him work hard for it! Still, because I had the lead, I decided to reward myself with a rest—a big mistake to make at this stage of the race. But I was feeling tired, and if I were to force myself, I may invite cramps.

As I was making the U-turn near the lagoon, I noticed that Amy had caught up with me. Still a long way to run, and I was torn between wanting to keep up with Amy and conserving energy in anticipation of a last-minute energy requirement to fight Teo. I ran and walked and Amy was coming closer and closer all the time. I could almost feel her breath behind me!

In the end, the inevitable happened. Amy overtook me at about 5km into the run. I felt tempted to increase my pace. But I had to be careful not to burn out. The exhaustion was overwhelming, and the temperature was sheer madness. In the end, I decided to be patient and played safe. It wasn't till we arrived at the next water station when I saw Amy again. I just grabbed a cup of water and continued. A short while later Amy came from behind and suggested that we pace each other. So we continued running and walking together for a few kilometres until we completed the first loop of the run.

During all this, I haven't forgotten about Teo, because I knew he would strike sooner or later. I knew that he couldn't resist the dramatic finish with the famous killer face. I just continued keeping my cool. All the muscles in my body were screaming for me to stop, but I wanted to fight till the end!

Well, I continued running with Amy for the next few kilometres until I judged it fairly safe to increase my pace. Whatever plans Teo had in his mind about a last minute strike, I was just gonna give it all that I had in my legs. Accordingly I started building up the gap against Amy. Slow and steady, one step at a time, just focus on the finish line. And then approximately 100m before reaching the finish line, one last pathetic look over my shoulder to find that Teo wasn't there! And this was how I finished the race in 5hours 59mins.

Never say die! If a nerd like me can do it, anybody can do it too! I'm not sure if the happiness was because of finishing or because I was able to beat Teo again. I only managed to get 6th in my category; and it was a very strong field. But I'm so glad the torture is over! Amy finished just a few minutes after me and emerged champion in her category. 

I waited for Teo to arrive. The minutes passed. Rayner arrived at the finish line, Shah and Vachel too. But still no Teo. In the end I decided to go take a quick shower. Later on, I found out that Teo had finished in about 6hours 41mins. I had expected a nail-biting finish against Teo, but it was an anti-climax. It doesn't matter; I'm just looking forward to a hard-earned dinner at Sutera!

It was a well-organised event except for the shortened swim. According to my Garmin, the run was only for 20km as opposed to 21km. And as expected Mia got yet another pyjama size L finisher T-shirt despite my special request to the organiser to set aside one XS T-shirt.

I was also honoured to finally meet the famous Rupert Chen whom had an interesting outfit when going up the stage to receive his champion trophy!

Photo credit: Tsen Shin Yon, Douglas Yu, and Dr Shah and friend.

Ultra Trail 101

I have lost count of the number of visitors arriving at this blog seeking information on running the ultra trail marathon in general, as well as The Most Beautiful Thing specifically. I suspect that many of them were newbies, although perhaps they have run several road marathons.

As a matter of fact, there is an abundance of resource out there on ultra trail running, including books and magazines, online articles, and these are mostly written by professional and elite trail runners. There is actually no shortage of information. However, the majority of trail runners are not what one might describe as elite runners. Most of them are ordinary folks with desk jobs, and they're running trails merely for the sake of having fun while savouring the beauty of the countryside. But at the same time, they are also hoping to finish within the cutoff times, and earn the finisher medals in the end. Well, I range myself among the latter group of mortals. I'm certainly not born a great ultra runner; far from it, when I hit the trails, I'd struggle immensely!

This post is intended to be a brief guide for the newbies, or for ordinary folks like me, whom may wish to indulge in ultra trail running. As for the seasoned or elite ultra trail runners, please bear with this post as it may seem like it's plagued with too many wrong advice! But after all, we are the weaker breed of the human species that can't handle the kind of physical exertion that the elites can. So here goes nothing!

Training

The first thing to know about ultra trail running is that you will need to train for it. I know that sounds like an obvious advice, but you'd be surprised at how many people actually registering for the ultra trail, but are unwilling to train for it. I shall not dwell too much about specific programmes, because unfortunately for most of us with full-time jobs, time is a luxury that we just don't have enough of. After allowing for work, family and social obligations, there is very little time left for training. The only way to do it is to make the time. Meaning sacrifices will have to be made, i.e. forgoing some other things or obligations.

When preparing for an ultra trail race, I'd continue running the midweek sessions as if training for the ordinary road marathons. Which means approximately 3 sessions of about 10km run each. I would love to do more, but that is all the time I have. Then the weekends are more punishing—a back-to-back running on Saturdays and Sundays. Start with say 2 to 3 hours of running, preferably on trails of course, on Saturday, followed by another similar session on Sunday. However, the weekend workouts shall increase in distance (or duration) over the weeks and months to a point where the Saturday workout becomes longer than the Sunday workout. In my case, as I drew closer to the race day, I have trained up to 13 hours on a Saturday, i.e. spending the whole day from the wee hours of the morning up to sunset.

The only bonus advice that I can offer if you are preparing for The Most Beautiful Thing is to include lots of hill training over the weekends. So hills, hills and more hills. And when you have done that, do some more hill training. Get the idea?

Weight

Apart from keeping your body weight to an optimal level for the race, you will also have to be careful with the weight of your bag. There will normally be mandatory items set by the organiser. These are items that must be carried with you throughout the race, failing which may result in time penalty or even disqualification. Other than that, try very hard to keep things to the very bare minimum, because it's so easy to get carried away, and the bag can easily grow in size.

Race Pace

I marvel at the elite runners; they surge ahead at the start gun, and they can keep it up till they cross the finish line. I'm afraid no such thing for the rest of us—live with it! I have always said that the vast majority of failure cases in long distance running is because of surging out too fast at the start gun. In fact, I happen to know some people who can run a 1:45 half marathon, but can't go below 4:30 full marathon even after a few attempts.

The key is to race smart; perhaps even walk uphill and run only on flat surface and going downhill, something like that. That way, you can save precious energy. Try to resist the temptation to waste energy, even if you feel like you have a lot to spare. But god dammit, just watching some of these energy-wasting antics can really make my day—I can almost feel the joy of the moment!

Nutrition

Unlike the common road marathons, nutrition is of paramount importance in the ultra trail race. It can make or break the race for everybody including the elite runners. An average human body can store up to about 2000 calories of glycogen, and that amount is simply insufficient for the entire ultra trail distance. Which means the runner will have to consume something to replenish depleting calories during the race.

What I normally do is to begin eating approximately half an hour into the race, and keep eating every half an hour until I cross the finish line. This means you will have to carry enough food with you, at least enough to make the next aid station. The only proviso is to control the portions. All you need is an approximate 300-400 calories per race hour. That is to say about 150-200 calories every half an hour. I usually rotate between energy gels and other solid food. But 300-400 calories is not much; most people can easily consume that amount per hour. Eating too much food at a time can lead to stomach discomfort. But beyond that, there is a more significant reason. Eating a big meal tends to draw more blood into the digestive system and for a longer period too, thus leaving lesser amount of blood for the muscles.

The other thing to bear in mind is of course hydration. If you are not sufficiently hydrated, that will invite a host of problems; a kind of chain reaction that will ultimately affect your performance. So the short advice is to drink enough liquid throughout the race.

Anyway, try to resist the temptation to over-indulge in food since some stations offer an assortment of irresistible goodies, especially if you're stealing somebody's Kodak moment by over-doing the nutrition thingy in the background, hmm?

Cut Off Times

Before I sign up for any race I'd usually want to know about the cut off times. Then I ask myself if I have it in me to meet those cut off times. If not, then can I train my body to be able to meet those cut off. If the answer is still "NO", then I would not register. For I'm allergic to failure, and I'm a realistic person. If it's beyond my ability, I will stay away. I can accept that I can't possibly conquer all the challenges out there in the world. I am satisfied.

But some people are not like that. They find an interesting race, sign up for it, and then enjoy surprising themselves on the race day. Perhaps it's like reading a murder mystery or watching The X-Files on tv, where the lesser we know at the beginning, the more fun it's gonna be at the finish line.

Nevertheless, if you are like me, i.e. having that dreadful disease kiasunisis, then you will want to train hard enough to meet whatever cut off times set by the organiser. A time limit is there for a reason; it is a race, not a tour of the countryside. Don't grumble. If you want to go for a stroll in the woods, then by all means, don't join a race, join a tour instead.

The Finish Line

In most races, crossing the finish line is the climax of the challenge. In fact, that's the one single goal that everyone is after. Of course in the process of getting there, we also get to enjoy the ups and downs along the way; all those beautiful scenery; new friends met; the kind of experience that money can't buy.

The irony of it all though, the finish line for most people is not really a finish line at all. The newbies reading this post should be warned that running the ultra trail can be addictive. Once you have crossed a finish line, you will want to cross  many more finish lines. It is in that sense that the finish line is in fact the start line in a strange way!

Good luck on your next ultra. Happy trails!

The Judge & The Executioner

I once learned the martial art of self-defense known as silat in my early twenties. I'd say I became quite good at it, and I had lots of fun honing my skill. But in a freak accident during a training session, I injured a fellow student rather seriously. I was so scared; I thought he was gonna die. I gave up on silat shortly after that.

I can still remember my master fairly well, although I haven't met him for almost 30 years now. He was a very humble man of few words. He must have been about 50 when I knew him all those years ago, and I was amazed by his agility; he could move exceptionally fast on his feet almost effortlessly. The last time I spoke to him, he reminded me to walk away from fights; never ever engage in any fight unless it is absolutely necessary.

But people are not like that, really—when they have no ability to defend themselves, they tend to be a little timid. They will try very hard to stay away from any situation that could potentially give rise to the use of force. That is, of course, just natural because in the event of a fight, the odds are against them to win. However, if they have the power and strength over others, there is that tendency to be imposing. They may become courageous and maybe even become a big bully!

In my younger days, there were occasions when I was tempted to use what I've learned on others to teach them some good lesson, because some people seemed like they absolutely deserved a good kick in their butts! I could say they had it coming! I said I felt tempted, but I never did act on that temptation. Nevertheless, that was enough to show me that when one has the power, there is that tendency to use it! There is that inner sense in all of us to punish others whom we think deserve that punishment!

But being civilised, we have the legal system firmly established. The parties in dispute shall appear before a judge, and the latter shall decide which party is in the wrong. He then metes out the appropriate punishment. Then a different party shall carry out that punishment as decided by the judge.

I fancy, however, that the judge, acting in his capacity as the judge may on some occasions derive some sort of secret pleasure of seeing a criminal squirming in the witness box; and in some cases, maybe he would have loved to be the person actually carrying out the punishment. There is that strange sadistic nature in all of us—the lust to cause pain upon others, especially if we're convinced that they deserve it. It is just unfortunate that the law doesn't quite work that way. So the judge shall judge; and the executioner shall execute whatever punishment.

I read with interest the news of the man assaulting another on grounds that the latter had sexually harassed his sisters. I find it disturbing that he said "any man would have done the same thing in his position". I think it would be interesting to know how he would have acted if he was just a tiny and weak man, and the person he's accusing of sexual harassment was a huge muscular man twice his size. Perhaps in such a case, he would have sought the help of the police, and then allowed the legal system to take its course? And at any rate, I don't believe that any man would have done what he did. Some of us are civilized; and we do act in a civilized manner.

It is also interesting to note that he also had the support of his followers. Sometimes, it is very easy to get caught in the moment, and all of us have been guilty at times to fall prey to anger. We are convinced that we are seeing something wrong happening, and we want immediate action to correct that wrong. Accordingly, we take immediate action, thus assuming the role of the judge as well as the executioner.

But one of these days, some of these people whom are supporting the assault will be accused of something that they did not do, and they, too, will be assaulted without being given the opportunity of the legal process to take its course to prove their case. I'm guessing maybe in such a case, they wouldn't be very supportive of the notion of taking the law into one's own hand. It's amazing how quickly one can change one's opinion when seeing a problem from within oneself. That's life, I guess...

Hindsight is Twenty-Twenty

I used to spend a lot of time having interesting conversations with my running buddy, Dr Peter. You see, we were not what one would describe as runners when we were younger. But as fate would have it, we started running at more or less the same time in 2008 when the first Borneo International Marathon was organised; and within a few months we became running buddies. It was during those many, many running sessions that we've been having our interesting conversations—discussing about topics ranging from life experiences, world issues, the medical profession, and practically anything under the sun.

Alas, throughout the years, I have developed the passion for cycling and swimming, and our paths would cross less frequently these days. It feels like it's been ages ago since the last time I ran together with Peter. But this evening, I met Peter at the Likas Sports Complex, and we were able to indulge in our typical conversation again.

One of the issues that came up was on the recent Vibram HK 100km that had to be aborted due to severe weather condition. Many participants were stranded at Tai Mo San, the tallest mountain in Hong Kong. I have seen video clips, and I was rather surprised. The rescue mission was quite dramatic. 

I've done the Vibram HK 100 twice of course, and it was during my first attempt that I almost gave up at CP8. Those who know me well would know that I almost never give up on anything once I set my mind to do it. I can still remember that I was shaking uncontrollably from the cold, and it seemed like no amount of blanket and hot tea could help me. My fingers were numb and I had little sensation in them. A lady volunteer then gave me her gloves, and after a few minutes, my fingers felt much better. I struggled through the remaining few kilometres and eventually crossed the finish line a few hours later.

Now bear in mind that although it was cold when I almost gave up, there was no ice then. Yet it was horrible for me. So I can just imagine what the participants were going through when ice set in on Tai Mo San. I find it interesting to note that while some people are praising the organiser for aborting the race when the weather turned for the worse, others are saying that the race shouldn't have started at all. 

Actually, what I've learned from my own experience in the many, many races that I've joined before, is that when things go wrong, especially when there are casualties. The blame will be on the organiser no matter what the organiser does. No amount of preparation can help the organiser.

We have our own The Most Beautiful Thing (TMBT) here in Sabah, of course, and the organiser is very strict on the mandatory kit. Some of the items may seem irrelevant, and it's amusing that some participants were ridiculing the organiser for seemingly being paranoid. Some participants have gone on to challenge the organiser's decision.

The truth is that the organiser is also human; it is impossible for him to know what will happen in the course of the race. Things can suddenly go horribly wrong when you least expect them. One can only try to mitigate those by being prepared.

The frosty condition at Tai Mo San was reported to be the worst in 6 decades. What's the odds of ice forming on Tai Mo San at the time of flag off? It would have been  nice if the organiser had a crystal ball. Yeah, that would be good enough for the organiser to abort the race altogether.

The thing is, when seeing an accomplished event, it is so easy to say that the organiser should have done this and that from the very beginning. Hindsight is Twenty-Twenty! Too many of these people would say they would have known so and so would happen. But I bet if they were put in the shoes of the organiser, something would go wrong too. Something almost always would go wrong!

Wouldn't it be nice if we can see the future? There will never be any accidents in this world. Nobody will ever make mistakes. And my step-mother would be a rich woman today because for heaven's sake, I don't know how much money she has burnt on buying 4D TOTO up to now. But no, she is not a rich woman today, having been buying 4D for ages now. Alway the same story on each draw—Kalau saya tau...

Hindsight is Twenty-Twenty!

Putrajaya Ultra Aquathlon 2016

A friend of mine, Andy Foo, whom I got to know when he organised the 113 Sabah Triathlon 2015, sent me a text message some time towards the end of last year, asking me if I'd like to join his ultra aquathlon in Putrajaya on the 24th this month. I was then about to race the Ironman Western Australia (IMWA) and wasn't even thinking about yet another race so soon in 2016, especially a race that contained the word "ultra" in its title. It wasn't until after the IMWA when I was compiling my racing calendar for 2016, and I ended up revisiting the official website of the Putrajaya Ultra Aquathlon 2016.

I was pleasantly surprised that that word "ultra" was rather misleading after all. Earlier, I had the impression that the race was one that would take perhaps over 5-6 hours to finish. But actually it's much shorter than that. The race comprised a 2.25km swim, followed by a 22km run. However, the run distance was later reduced slightly to 21km. Although I'm not a good swimmer, 2.25km is not such a dreadful distance in the water for me these days. As far as the 21km run, I haven't been training on my speed for ages now, because when preparing for the Ironman, my focus was on endurance, not speed. Still, 21km is the minimum distance that I run on every weekend these days, although I'd run it very slowly.

Photo credit: Rany Tan - Start of race; about to enter lake

And so I was there at the starting line at the lake in Putrajaya last Sunday for my first ever aquathlon. The ultra participants had to swim 3 loops. Standing there at the edge of the lake, and looking out to the buoys, it seemed like such a long distance to swim. But like in any other race, I measure distances in sections, not its total. So I'd worry about the first loop of 750m first. When I have conquered that, then I would worry about the second 750m loop; and when I'm done with that, I will worry about the final loop. Something like that. I find that it's not too intimidating seeing the distance that way.

There are pros and cons about swimming multiple loops of course, but if I had it my way, I'd prefer it to be a single loop. I can still remember swimming a single 1.9km loop in the Putrajaya 70.3 last year. The reason I prefer a single loop is that during the start of the race, it will be chaotic—people are all over each other; there will be lots of kicking and slapping and elbowing. For a lousy swimmer like me, it can be quite a nightmare. But later on the crowd will begin to thin out, and it will be much easier to swim. In this particular event, however, we had to swim 3 loops. And then later on, we were joined by another crowd of a different category; and then again by yet another group later. So we had to go through the chaotic episodes several times in the same event. I suppose this is small matter for good swimmers, but it's a big deal for me.

Anyway, I'm happy to say that I did not swallow a lot of water during this event. I don't know if that could be interpreted as having improved in my swim or because I was extra careful to prevent swallowing the lake water. That in itself was quite an achievement for me. I felt a huge relief as I exited the water, and I took my time jogging up the path to the transition area, passing the shower on the way there.

Photo credit: Eddie Wls - Post-swim, on the way to transition

I had my Garmin 920XT set for the aquathlon. But during the chaotic situation mid-swim, someone kicked my watch, thus switching it into the transition mode. I stopped swimming for a moment while trying to remedy the situation, but it was no good. The transition mode was not reversible. I pressed the button and set it to the running mode anyway, and then continued swimming. Actually, the time-keeping process is of little consequence; after all every participant had the timing chip on, and proper timing will be captured by the respective sensors along the way till the finish line. But many of my friends would know that I'm suffering from a common disease known as KIASUNISIS. These days, most people just can't live without their GPS watches, you see. They just have to keep looking at it every few minutes, all the way to the finish line. But anyway, when I exited the swim, I pressed my watch again, and it registered the end of the race, when actually I haven't even begun the run yet! However, I was still able to get the total time of the workout thus far, i.e. 55 minutes. So at least I knew the time I took for the swim was about 55 mins.

As I was about to start running, I reset my watch again; this time just a plain running workout mode. I had no idea how much time I spent for transition. Perhaps it was a mere 3-4 minutes, but because of the KIASUNISIS disease that I mentioned earlier, it felt like 10 minutes.

Switching from swimming to running was quite a shock to my system. My legs simply refused to fire up. I felt like I had to drag my feet and somehow my quads felt overworked. It probably had a lot to do with the sudden change in position from horizontal (flat) on the surface of the water to upright in the running position. But if I have to go through this whole thing again, perhaps I'd make it a point to switch from the 2-beat kicks to the 6-beat kicks in the last 50m-100m of the swim. That ought to pump more blood into my legs in preparation for the run.

The first half of the 21km run was rather pleasant as the sun was just beginning to show its true colours. But the second half was very hot. In fact, so hot that I must have consumed twice the amount of water than the first half. And the last 5km or so was exceptionally tough for my tired legs. I had to alternate between running and walking. It was rather embarrassing that it became obvious to me by midway that I wasn't even gonna be able to finish the 21km in under 2 hours. But pride was just one part of the story. I was also thinking of finishing among the last few in my category. Oh! let me tell you, KIASUNISIS is a terrible disease!

Photo credit: Eddie Wls - Midway of the 21km run

I came into this race thinking that I was not up to the challenge. I would have preferred to train at least a little bit on my speed. But I reckoned that I would be more than happy if I could finish the race somewhere in the middle of the pack. Of course winning has never even crossed my mind!

When I finally crossed the finish line, I felt a big relief, and after I grabbed a drink, I started queuing up for my finisher T-shirt. Then I noticed that participants were able to get a printout of their respective results on the spot too. Accordingly, I requested for mine. My total racing time was 3:08:46, but I was shocked to note that my category position was shown as 13/15.

Although I felt like I was slow in this race, I thought it was enough to secure at least the top half within my category. That was why I was rather surprised that I finished 13th out of 15 participants in my category. In fact, I was almost the last! It made me think that I had to work really hard if I wanted to do this race again next year. Finally, my curiosity got the better of me. Because I knew the timing consultant personally, today I sent her a text message, asking about my result. She explained that my position was shown as "13/15" because when that result was printed out, only 15 participants in my category had crossed the finish line. But actually there were many other participants in my category. In fact, I was 13th out of 35 participants. Phew!...that was quite a pleasant surprise. That must have helped to bring down my blood pressure to normal level again. May I repeat, KIASUNISIS is a terrible disease!

So anyway, this was the medal I got for all the mental and physical stress!

Mia was also there in this race, but she finished much later; and as usually is the case for this organiser, there was no more size S finisher T-shirt left by the time she crossed the finish line, even though the size of the shirt had been duly stated in the registration details. I think the organiser should make it a point to brief the volunteers to pay close attention to the size of shirt as shown on the bib, and no exchange with other sizes should be allowed, because if no such briefing is done, that's why Mia now has ended up with an XL T-shirt. She will probably wear it as a pyjama. So far, she has collected 2 pyjamas from this organiser. We will be joining the 113 Sabah Triathlon of the same organiser in March. Let's see if Mia will increase her pyjamas to 3!

But anyway, on the whole, the Putrajaya Ultra Aquathlon was well-organised. The water stations for the run leg of the race were well-positioned at appropriate intervals. The volunteers, apart from those handling the T-shirts did an awesome job. In fact, I thought some of those cheering the runners were rather too excited! I would certainly recommend my friends to join this event next year.