the day i felt like i could blackout

i have never hit the wall... not once, not even at Osim 2008 when i trudged myself out of water, crying into the transition zone, not even then.
But i have... right at Mt Faber.
So you know what... Mt Faber.... one day i will take my revenge... and conquer running you... a couple times over in that one day ! Watch out !

keeping myself sane...

In my daily life, whether at work or at play, i often meet people who are highly strung-out. There's always a fine line between obsession and treating it as something else. I find myself wondering if i will ever tip the line. For triathlon, I guess i keep telling myself it's a hobby, it's to occupy my time. And Mr. E truly thinks it's helping me stay sane, controls my emotions and how i feel. Sometimes, i wonder what keeps driving me to finish a triathlon. Is it the adrenaline? or is there an unseen force? Reeves once said to me "there's always something pushing you...". I thought about it... and i think the person is myself. What drives these people? What drives these triathletes? What drives you?

As the season is winding down, with just the Singapore Ironman70.3 which i have decided to bail out on, i find myself with fewer reasons to wake up on weekend mornings. I have sat out two weekends (one on my own accord, cos there's nothing to train on; the next weekend was i have to entertain my cousins, so if i head out, it means bad news the entire day). Oh, the joys of sleeping in :). And you can't deny the bed being extremely tempting, along with fluffy pillows, and blacked-out rooms.

Oh yes... but i do miss being marked down. The post-Osim tan....
Btw, the boys pooled money together to buy the number, but it didn't come out. bummer....

Osim Triathlon 2008 - OD

I was only left with two weeks to put forth a somewhat less-than-decent training plan for an OD triathlon. I wasn't exactly sweating it either. It was all in the mind. 1.5km swim, 40km cycle, 10km run... i can do it. Two days before the race... (friday), i was starting to get the jitters. On Saturday , when Pris got married, i was too busy to think about it. I'll wing it.

On race day, all i needed was to etch into my pea brain head the route i need to go through : 2 loops of 750m swim, 4 loops of 10km bike, and 2 loops of 5km run. At 10am on the day, just barely ten minutes to the race start, i was still smiling and beaming, and telling my friends "i should be able to do well." That thought lasted barely 10 minutes into the swim. The tide was fast changing, the water was very rough. Many heads and bodies were bobbing up and down the water. After loop 1, i was very ready to give up, but told myself to continue. At loop 2, i threw up in the water, got sea sick and struggled through the waters. I got out of the waters, eyes welled with tears and starting wailing away. I think i scared a good number of people. Heh :)

One thing for sure : Julian knew i wouldn't give up, and told me to walk to my bike at the transition zone. I slowly stopped crying and decided to proceed. Once i got on my bike, i just looked at the sunny blue sky, and prayed to God. Lord, give me strength and put me to loop 2! Of cos, greedy me didn't stop there, and continued praying for strength all down to loop 4.

The sun beat down on my body. I felt the heat, and that tense "i can barely breathe" feeling came back to me. Every step that my foot landed on that ground, i only felt myself going slower. I wasn't going to give up. I tried to move faster, but to no avail. At the second loop of the run, a storm came in, and now the raindrops felt like bullets on my skin. From a very very hot race, it has turned to something cold and very sad.

When i saw that finish line, i beamed. :) i have arrived. i finally finished a triathlon.
time : 3 hrs 45 mins.
I may be disappointed at my timing, could have always gone faster. But heck, i finished it!

Congrats to Philip & Priscilla... You guys are married! 12th July 2008

Congrats you guys... me and the girls have witnessed the courtship to hearing story of the proposal ( To set the record straight, Pris was the first in the group to get proposed to!), and now all i can say is "Congrats!"

The wedding reception... from the gatecrashing, to the church, to the dinner... was beautiful.
Pictures of the day's ongoings are available HERE.....