It is not the first time I join Trifactor but first time doing a longer than OD distance, although not by a lot. I was thinking that it could be a good chance to lead up to the Full Ironman coming up in September. Still not so confident with my bicycle leg.
The sign up was one which I chanced upon on Event brite. Looking at the dates, it was something more reasonable than the 113 in Desaru which Larry first suggested.
Signing Up
The tickets were sold on Eventbrite which was linked to their official Trifactor website. However, for this year, the event date had a change from Sunday 27 to 26 of July on a Sat, maybe they were considering about the World Aquatics Championships. The ticket cost about S$200 plus. It comes with the race, the goodie bag tee shirt and finisher medal.
Race Pack Collection
The Race Pack collection is at Geneos which is a new building at the Science Park. There is a large area in the centre of the open area where they set up the booth for the collection of the race pack. Every pack is in a black drawstring bag, there was the usual Tri items: Swim cap ( red ) for the long distance, bike stickers for the helmet and the bike seat, the time chip was to be collected on the day itself.
All was calm, the night before I just packed everything into the car and the morning I drove to ECP, originally I wanted to ride there but I was a bit lazy to grapple with the traffic. So I decided to just drive nearer to the race site and cycle over to the start line. There were many participants cycling over to the race site and carpark is limited at the lagoon which is the East Coast Park Hawker Centre area.
Race Day
I parked at car park D5, and cycled to the Lagoon Angsana Green, where the event was held. It was a short and fast ride. We had to put all stickers on and the swim tattoo too before entering the transition area. It was there I saw Oswald, he was doing some official duties and he kindly helped me with the tattoo thing.
The swim was 2.20km – 42 km bike -15km running. It was quite reasonable but all done in loops , 3 swim 7 bike and 3 run. Was quite calm at the start line but when the male standard caught up they got a bit rough. Other than that I felt the swim was enjoyable. At the first transition, I do not know why I took out the timing chip! And went into the cycling loop, then I realise everyone was wearing the time chip , I saw Oswald and ask him what to do, his officials friend just told me to continue and wear it back later. It was a real clown situation. The bike was a bit better than I expected, I managed to finish 90 min plus for this segment. But the run leg was not as expected I was hoping to run at 6:15min/km speed but did not manage. I wonder if it was because the weather was getting really hot or just that my legs are too tired especially with a recent new injury coming up on the left leg.
I think I was the last few Long distance ladies to come back. I was handed the medal and it was getting really hot as the race reached the afternoon 12pm in Singapore. The main tentage was already filled with many finishers of all distances and there was a protein shake booth giving out free shakes. Simply active was also there with the Pure gel and nutrition, I took one of their gels at the run leg, really loved their products as it is not too gluey. There were not many booths and games as this is quite a serious triathlon game compared to some other run events which is more of a fun and get active notion.
Recollection
As I cycled back to my car, I begin to think about the full Ironman coming up in September , I think the cycling is going to be quite a joke and it will probably drain out a lot of my energy making me wonder what will happen to my full marathon after that. For now, maybe I will not be too bothered by it and just go with as much training as I can!