This is my opening triathlon race for the 2011 season. Kenyir was the place where I started my 1st triathlon last 2 years. So here I am again doing triathlon here. The famous Kenyir triathlon’s tag line : “Malaysia’s toughest triathlon race”.

Breakfast stop at Gambang RnR on the way to Kenyir (photo by Julie)

Went there by car pool in Julie’s car, Hancik (Rusfarizal) on Saturday(9/4/2011) 5.30am. Arrived at Kenyir Lake Resort & Spa at 11.15am. Checked-in, registered & went for a delicious ikan patin lunch Heavy rain started to pour.

A unique way to do election campaign, somewhere near Ajil, Terengganu

The rain stop for a while in the evening, that’s when we took the chance to try swimming at the swim course. The water was quite warm, and a nice swim we had.

Ready for tomorrow action! Notice my racing number sticker, so hard to stick it neatly

After the dinner & race briefing, we prepared our race essentials for tomorrow morning. And the rain still pouring heavily. Wondering how the weather will be tomorrow morning.

As I wake up tomorrow, it’s still raining. Wow!!! This is gonna be a tough race!

There’s a bit delay on the race start because of the bad weather. Mr. Chan, the race director announced that there’s a stranded lorry, blocking half side of the road on the bike course. Waiting the confirmation from the police whether the road is safe or not, or else, it will be just swim and run only After a while, the police confirmed it safe to cycle there, then the race started at sharp 8.30am, in heavy rain. Yeahhhh!!! This is gonna be an exciting race!

With Jaja & Hancik, while waiting for the race to start (photo by Ah Yim)

The race is about to start. Notice the heavy rain. Everybody are shivering in the cold!

The usual chaos of the swim start

Started with a cold body, fear to get cramp in the water during swimming. but it all went well…
Quite a chaotic swim start as there were lotsa 1st timers. Kick and slap here and there, there’s also a panic women hold my hand tight as she struggle to float, i lead her to the buoy. Finished the swim in about 38mins.

Quenching my thirst after the 1.5km swim (photo by Ah Yim)

I really like the cycling course. It’s a new route this year. Its a rolling course. Except for a one long (about 800m long) steep uphill climb. I managed to crank just 3/4 of the climb, then push the bike laaa the remaining climb Very mental challenging! I loike!!! hahaha …

It was still raining heavily during the bike course. Some part of the road was covered with water and small rocks that are dangerous to the small bike tires. Have to be careful for not to puncture my tires this time.

Clocked about 1 hr 40 mins for the bike course.

The running course also has a slight change this time, and i love it!!! Mentally & physically challenging! Lotsa steep hill climb.
The best part of the running course was we get to run on the road on top of the Kenyir dam. The view from the top was very nice, a beautiful panoramic scene of the man-made lake. Stunning! I wish i had a camera that time…

The finishing line getting closer and closer. Suddenly heard somebody shouted my name, a familiar voice. Its Julie, “Go Fairul go!! Sprint to the finishing line, beat the other two triathlete!” hehehe. I took that challenge. I sprinted to the finishing line, side by side. I win!!! hahaha yeahhh!!! No laa… i won the sprint to the finishing line only

All in all, it was a great triathlon race. Clocked 3hrs 20mins (unofficial timing), probably a new PB for me! A new experience for me, doing a race in heavy rain from the start till the end. Nice experience i must say. The cold weather helps too for not getting too tired.

Alhamdulillah, i survived another triathlon in my life. 6th triathlon done! And Alhamdulillah i managed to overcome the fear to get cramp because of the cold weather.

A view of Lake Kenyir from my room, it's raining heavily

Another view of Lake Kenyir

• I highly recommend the Lake Kenyir Resort & Spa as an accommodation option if u are having holiday here. Nice, spacious & cozy room, big bathroom, nice lake view. For more info, click here>>

• My two other triathlete friends, Julie & Hancik are first time doing Kenyir triathlon. Glad to know that they enjoyed the race so much! They even did their PBs! Congrats guys!!! Extra congratulations to Julie also for the 6th placing in her age group, entitled her cash prize of RM400! Happy to tag along & carpool with them, and be the unofficial tour guide for them.. hehehe

• A friend of us, Ajis has DNFed the triathlon. He got panicked during early stage of the swim. He was pushed, kicked & swam over by faster swimmers as he started the swim at the front row. He felt can’t make it through the swim anymore.

The new course map

• After lunch on saturday, we surveyed the cycling route, according to my last 2 years experience racing here. But the route seems impossible to race as the road was too badly damaged. Potholes here and there. We decided that it will not be the bike course this time. Later on the nite at the race briefing, mr Chan showed the new race course. Phewww…

• We had a great lunch at Jeti Pengkalan Gawi. The “Ikan Patin” there was tasty & so fresh. Highly recommended! And after the race on our way back to KL, we reward ourselves with “Ikan Patin” again. This time was at Temerloh RnR that is famous with “Ikan Patin”. Slurppppppp!!! RM12 damaged

• It took nearly 6hours to get to Kenyir (with half an hour breakfast stop)

• Not much photo taken this time because of the wet weather, not dare to take out my camera phone to snap pix

 

Kenyir mission accomplished, had lunch, tired, loads of satisfaction.. time to sleep. See ya again next year, Kenyir (paparazzo: Julie)

The Young Endurance Athlete 2009 will be held in Putrajaya on the 17th and 18th October 2009.

Details are below:

Date: 17 & 18 October 2009
Venue : Kolam Renang Awam, Precinct 6, Putrajaya.

Tentative

17/10 – Triathlon Clinic (7.30am – 2.30pm)
18/10 – Race Day (7.00am – 12.00pm)

Age Categories

Boy
A : 7-9 yrs
B : 10-12 yrs
C : 13-15 yrs

Girl
A : 7-9 yrs
B : 10-12 yrs
C : 13-15 yrs

Closing Date: 7th October 2009

For more info, call:

Amir at 012-219 5552 or email at ybicycle [ at ] yahoo.com

Mejar Kalam at 019-271 2569 or email at kalampie [ at ] gmail.com

Julie at 017-332 3451 or email at missjewelz [ at ] gmail.com

Running in Chin Woo Biathlon 2008

Pagi tu mendung & sejuk sbb hujan renyai2 malam tadi. Sampai di Stadium Chin Woo, jumpa Alang & Along. Diorang sampai dulu. Alang bagitau, Mr Lesther called last nite, bleh muat lagi sorang. So Alang decided to take part.

We went straight to the pool. Registered ourselves. Get them to write our number on our body. Rasa mcm masuk triathlon plak. Tak sabar nak start my 1st tri next year.

The race will be ran 4 waves. I’m in the 4th wave(the last wave) & Alang in 3rd wave. The race started with 1st wave, the junior categories. Lots of cute kids took part. I was surprise, they’re very good & confident in swimming. Some are doing freestyle, and some doing breast stroke.

Kene tunggu setiap wave habis, barulah bleh start the next wave. Tunggu punya tunggu, akhirnya wave Alang pun tiba. Alang start slowly, breast stroke. While waiting for Alang’s wave to finish, I’m preparing all my transition stuff. Towel, running shoes, race belt & running necklace.

Put all my stuff at my swimming lane, and started jump into the water. Terkejut sbb my lane was the deepest part of the pool. Ahhh.. lantak. Tak kisah nyer. Cuma satu masalah, the pool floor takde lane markings. So susah nak swim straight nnti. Takut berlanggar dgn org satu lane. Done 100m of warm-up swim.

The race started. I swim slow & steady but maintain my pace till the end. Peserta beside me laju. He lead me about 100m camtu. Sebelum final lap, the time keeper knocked my head with the kickboard & shouted “Final lap!!!”. I swim faster. Wanna finish the swim fast, cos getting bored already.

Finished the swim, climbed up the pool, lap muka sket, wore my shoes, my necklace, drank some 100plus(thanks Along) & wore the race belt. Started the run slowly cos still have the dizzy feeling. “Mabuk air”.

Selepas 200m, the dizzy dah hilang. I have to do 3 loops of running, to make it 7km. Lotsa hill climb. But the feeling that morning was good. Maybe the weather was not hot & my tri-suit was still wet, made me comfortable during my run.

The 1st lap was good. Took my 1st band, & continue my 2nd lap. 2nd lap went very good. Manage to overtook some runners. Met Alang while doing his last lap. Took my 2nd band and continue to my last lap. Managed to maintain my pace from the start of the run. Managed to do a non-stop running also. Grabbed my 3rd band and headed back to Chin Woo. Try to sprint during the steep hill-climb at the Chin Woo, but can’t do it. Just maintain my pace. Finished the race in 1:02. 18 mins behind my target time (1:20).

That’s all for now.

Ni 1st time aku pegi situ. Sampai sana pukul 8pm sebab jalan jem giler org nak balik kg Raya Haji agak nyer. Bayaran masuk RM3. Lepas tukar pakaian, aku terus ke pool. Tengok tak ramai org. Bagus nih. Tak ler berlaga2 berebut lane. Memang betul kata bro Zulhassan, lampu floodlight kat situ malap je. Tak terang sgt. Tp takpe laa. Still bleh swim.

Ari tu pon aku try goggle yg baru aku beli. Brand View, kaler kuning. Terang benderang view aku. Best sehhh.. Selesa.

Warm up about 200m of swimming. Lepas tu swim about 600m lagi. Nak swim lama lagi tak sempat sbb aku pon sampai lambat. Dah nak close. So dpt ler aku swim dlm 25min jer. Tp puas ati gak aa dpt swim mlm tu. Next time bleh pegi lagi swim situ.

Sekian. Laporan training kali ni.