Boon Pin's MR25 Ultra

i did something crazy yesterday: an ultra marathon at macritchie reservoir organised by mr25

the challenge: to run a minimum of 5 loops of 10.8km to qualify for a finisher tee shirt and cert

it was one of the toughest things i have ever done in endurance racing, possibly tougher than my experience for langkawi ironman

the race started at 7am and there was a fairly sizeable number who started - easily more than 100 runners

for me, i was doing the race with charles teng, a fellow triathlete from the group animiles, some of whom we met in langkawi

the first round was ok. legs were their freshest, of course, and we took about 1hr 10mins to complete the 10.8km loop

the second loop was also fine and we finished it a few minutes faster than the first loop, probably because the crowd of runners had thinned out from the first loop

the third loop was when my body started to protest against having to run on such undulating ground that was alternately rocky and softish

it was what i call the east coast syndrome: the 20+ to 30km stretch when the mind starts asking "why are you doing this??"

after resting for 7 minutes after the second loop, my morale hit rock bottom, pardon the pun, at having to tackle those rocky slopes again

all credit to charles who pushed and motivated me to keep going

but, it did not stop me from thinking repeatedly that i wanted to give up

so what, i thought. there's no shame in calling off a race when the body is suffering so

we managed to trudge through the third loop then started thr fourth loop when my stomach started going loopy

more specifically, i started to experience what i usually do in longer-distance events - i got all bloated and windy and that was mostly what i thought about throughout the fourth loop: going to the toilet

by this time, i was thinking seriously about giving up after the fourth loop: it was late morning and the sun had come out in full force

like an angel, anna from animiles appeared after our fourth loop with morale boosting food and drink. i had a date with the toilet and let go as much as i could

i was so wiped out by my stomach that i could barely eat a sausage, while charles enjoyed his chicken rice

nonetheless, our spirits were lifted after this lunch break and i felt good enough to carry on with a fifth loop

however, charles' old ITB injury was flaring up badly, so we decided to walk for most of the loop. in any case, it was almost impossible trying to catch up with any runners in front because there were hardly any left!

the fifth loop was the easiest, relatively speaking

it was also our slowest: about 1 hr 50mins, or as charles pointed out, slower than it would have taken us to run a normal half-marathon!

we ran our way to the finish line and completed the day's mission in abt 7hrs 30mins, or about 1.5hrs each round that we had planned

it was very slow but given our inexperience with offroad racing, i was glad i stuck it out for the nike finisher tee shirt. wahahahaha

having had this experience now, i would recommend hivelocity's sundown ultra instead. it sounds crazy having to do 84km instead of 5 x 10.8km, but trust me, it will be a more pleasant experience! :)

Written by boonpin

Future Saturday's ride

For future Saturday's ride, there will be up to three parts :

Part I : C2T Identity (just to retain your C2T membership)

- Usual 65k loop (Mandai-LCK-Bahar-West Coast-Clementi) or 70k (with Sembawang-Admiralty extension) with NTU hill.

Part II : C2T Supremacy (for IM readiness)

- Part I + 40k loop or Part I x 2 (RV at Caltex gas station along Dunearn Rd)

Part III : C2T Ultimatum (for IM lagi-readiness)

- Part II + 10k run up Rifle Range (RV at Ching Hong's gate and remember your shoes!)

So you can pick and choose as you like : Identity, Supremacy or Ultimatum - depending on your goal. We will always have our Identity ride, so no worries. When you respond, please also indicate your menu choice so that like-minded people can flock together.

Posted by

Terence Ng

10 reasons to drive to Langkawi IM race

10 reasons to drive to Langkawi IM race :

1. Cheaper
2. No worries about air tickets
3. Flexi timing of in and out
4. Can cancel anytime :-p
5. Want to experience driving to north part of Malaysia
6. Carbo loading at Penang (Yum!)
7. No airport jam
8. It's the journey, not the destination
9. Good way to taper
10. Get use to the speed of 140km/hr, so that you will find 35km/hr a crawl

Terence's SC Marathon race report

Boon Pin really gave new meaning to "Amazing race" and marathon. Will upload his report onto crazy2tri blog for archival.

I, too had my own magical moment. As I prepared for this year marathon, my target was to beat my last year's time of 5:06hr by breaking 5 hours. Frankly, I thought 5 hour was hard to beat because I ran quite hard last year and the weather was really cool. Beyond my wildest imagination, I clocked 4:33h. For me, the biggest satisfaction is not the timing but that of a mental block removed, with the surge of "you-can-do-anything-now" energy.

Unlike the previous two marathons (05 & 06), my game plan this time was to go at a pace at 6min/km for the first 30km and then get myself to the finish line, even if I have to risk stoning out after 30k.

My splits was 21km - 2:08h, 30km - 3:20h, 37km - 4h. At the half-marathon U-turn along Nicoll Highway, only 2 elite yellow-tags (half-marathoners) passed me (unlike previous years - rocks, man). 20-25k stretch : I found myself "clinging on" to this lady with a great running pose (chi-running?), going at 11km/h. Roger Chow passed me around 25km - he went on to beat his target of 4.5 hr (4:23h). The last 5km, after Stadium link, was PAIN, felt like I have legs of Transformer.

Mark Chang asked me for the training plan and I didn't really have one, roughly one 30k, one 25k, two 20k long runs and several short runs as fillers. Three weeks before the race, I bought the Chi-running book, read it and decided, against conventional wisdom, to adopt what I read for the race. I find the "steel and cotton" principle useful. The biblical truth for this is "His yoke is easy and His burden is light" which I meditated whenever my brain was "on".

By the way, "steel and cotton" means maintain your form with your core muscle and make your legs go "limp" or soft, so that you minimize the use of leg muscles and feel "light". Lean forward to go faster - let gravity does the work.

Another difference : due to lack of time, I didn't really taper this time. On the week leading to marathon, I ran on day 1-3-5, 7km, with average speed of 10km/h - my targetted pace.

Signing off.

(At Beijing, -2 degree C)

Boon Pin's SC Marathon race report

what a day this was!

it started when terence came to pick me up in his super spacious race mobile and got us to the race site in no time at all.

he lent me a spare tube and taught me how to use the hand pump which i've had on my bicycle all this while but never used. :p

we met bernard tay and his friends outside peninsula and chatted for a bit before i went off to SCC to meet Yuan Ping, my race partner.

though it was cumbersome to carry my floor pump, i was glad i did as i was able to pump up the tyres on her wheelchair properly for the first time (we have always been training on slightly soft tyres). cos Yuan Ping started to question me about not pumping the tyres too much in case they burst, i decided to err on the side of caution (even though her tyres said can pump to 145psi, the tyres felt pretty pumped by 70psi).

one thing l learnt here was that handicapped people can't use floor pumps like we do cos they can't stand on the base to pump.

we still some distance away from the start line when the gun went off so i panicked a little about losing time. but in the end, it was not too bad cos by the time we got to esplanade bridge, there was still a considerably-sized crowd walking forward to the start line cos there were so many people for the marathon.

as we had agreed with SSC, we waited till the bulk of the marathon participants had crossed the start line before we started ourselves. i think at least 15 minutes had lapsed by then...

we spent the bulk of our time in the first part of the marathon being hemmed in by the sheer size of the crowd and it was difficult to get into a rhythm. most of the time, it was jog-run-jog-run. i didn't mind so much cos i felt it was probably better to be forced to slow down than do a cheong-ing first half from all that adrenaline and then run out of gas in the second half.

what was very touching was that a lot of the runners would break out into spontaneous applause whenever they saw us. their cheers and kind words were very encouraging. we saw ivan at marina south and i introduced him to Yuan Ping.

i can't remember our split times very well but i vaguely remember we did the first 10km in about 1 hr 5mins. thank you, powerbar! at this point, we saw bernard tay.

more wild applause followed when we returned to esplanade bridge and the 10km runners were waiting to be flagged off.

by the time we got to mountbatten, i remembered feeling the onset of fatigue and wishing the 20km mark was a little closer. i think we were about 2hrs 7mins at the 20km mark.

when we entered east coast park, my throat was feeling parched though i had kind of been drinking regularly at the water stations. i felt the first twitches of a cramp but willed it to not overcome me while saying "Supernatural strength" to myself. :)

as i had expected, my pace dropped at east coast cos my legs were starting to feel a bit tired. still, i resisted getting some deep heat cos i wanted to see how long i could last this year without it.

we saw richard and CG at east coast when they shouted out to us. :)

shortly after the u-turn, we had to stop for a toilet break cos Yuan Ping had to go. then just as we were wheeling up the ramp to the handicapped toilet, one able-bodied runner went inside ahead of her. i asked him in a loud voice to use the normal toilet and he came out and apologised. heh

when we got to the seafood centre after the u-turn, i decided my legs had had enough and so, i slathered on some deep heat cream. it was niiiiiiice and my legs thanked me for it. :)

i think we reached the 30km mark at about 3hrs 27mins. at this point, i was thinking "wow, maybe we can wrap this up in under 5hrs". but at the same time, i was not sure because i was really feeling very hot from the sun and knew that it would take a lot to carry on cos my body was screaming out to "WALK! Relack!!".

then we saw joe waiting at the side and his smile lit us up to carry on. all of a sudden, chris appeared magically and we got a second wind, thanks to him.

he cleared the path in front of us by continually asking runners (most of whom were in a daze by this time) to give us some space to pass through. what we had to resort to earlier was shouting out "excuse me" to runners and then saying "thank you" when we passed them.

also, he would run ahead to get us cups of drink. before that, we always had to slow down, and then get close to the tables where the water was, all the while avoiding other runners who had also stopped to get water themselves.

his words of encouragement to Yuan Ping and I were also appropriate and it was then that i realised how invaluable his deciding to run with us for the last 10km was. from his actions, i learnt that it takes an athlete to know what another athlete needs to keep going. (hearing a volunteer screaming "c'mon, don't walk too much! the sun is very hot!" is not my idea of encouraging fatigued runners.)

when we got into stadium link, we saw michael. then after we exited kallang, we got a vehicle escort watching over us as we navigated the huge downslope and upslope near crawford, all the way to where the singapore explorer was. as a form of motivation, i pretended the vehicle was those which accompany podium contenders (wahlau, thick skin or what!).

chris was with us all the way till the last 200m, then shouted at us to take over and that this was our moment. what a guy! thank you, chris. we couldn't have pulled through the last 10km the way we did without you.

the time on my watch read 4hrs 46mins. gun time was 5hrs 1min, i think.

after the race when we were being interviewed, mike denoma from stanchart came over with wong ai-kwei to congratulate us. i thanked them profusely for sponsoring our wheelchair and they were very kind about the whole thing. just before he left, he said "next year, we get you an even better wheelchair". what a guy! i have read so much about his initiatives and his achievements that i was slightly awestruck meeting him in person. :)

Written by boonpin

To our future generation....

Contributed by Koh Ching Hong:

TO ALL THE THOSE WHO WERE BORN IN THE 50's and 60's...........



First, we survived with mothers who had no maids. They cooked /cleaned while taking care of us at the same time.

They took aspirin, candies floss,fizzy drinks, shaved ice with syrups and diabetes were rare. Salt added to Pepsi or Coke was remedy for fever.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention

As children, we would ride with our parents on bicycles/ motorcycles for 2 or 3. Richer ones in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a private taxi was a special treat.

We drank water from the tap and NOT from a bottle.

We would spend hours on the fields under bright sunlight flying our kites, without worrying about the UV ray which never seem to affect us.

We go to jungle to catch spiders without worries of Aedes mosquitoes.

With mere 5 pebbles (stones) would be a endless game. With a ball (tennis ball best) we boys would ran like crazy for hours.

We catch guppy in drains / canals and when it rain we swim there.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually worry about being unhygenic.

We ate salty, very sweet & oily food, candies,bread and real butter and drank very sweet soft sweet coffee/ tea, ice karang, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, till streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours repairing our old bicycles (not cervelo or argon) and wooden scooters out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem .

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, multiple channels on cable TV, DVD movies, no surround sound, no phones, no personal computers, no Internet.WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and we still continued the stunts.

There were never birthday parties till we are 21,

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and just yelled for them!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

Yet this generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 40years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

HOW TO

DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the government regulated our lives for our own good.

and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

PS: -The big type is because of Long-sightedness (or far-sightedness) at your age....

How was Batam ride?

• Date : 30 April 2007
• Place : Batam, 160-164km (depending on whose speedometer), good description of terrain here
  
• Weather : Fine, misty rain in morning, burning hot in afternoon
• Who : Koh Ching Hong, Ivan Sim, David Tan, Michael Tan, Joe Chua, Koh Kok Aun, Andrew Leong, Roger Chow, Jeffrey Foo, Mark Chang, Terence Ng
• Bikes : 5 x Cervelo, 4 x Argon, Orbea, David?
  

Post ride reviews :

Hot,hilly n long(160km)but beautiful scenary.Some say much tougher than Langkawi.Can't count how many hills we have climbed...but definately an ideal place to train for Ironman!! - Joe

The ride course (82km from ferry at Sekupang to Galang Bahru) is great ... the first 15km is rather dangerous as the roads are very busy and there are no traffic orders (you can have a car, bus, taxi just swerve in front of you and passengers alighting from right, left, and even from the back .... the buses swing out doors from the back !!).

So, total course ride is 164km (back and forth). after the major city areas, from 15km afterwards, the road clears up and in fact the last 50km there are hardly any cars - roads are paved and smooth ... with some stores dispersed thru the whole course (so you can buy drinks).

The sceneries are great ....lots of islands, water, hills to look down from ..... and some stretches of road, you can see just rolling hills continuously upwards !!!

It is relatively FLAT .... just many hills to climb and many hills to roll-down on .... so, overall it is flat ..... Langkawi's bike course is EASY compared to what we have in Batam .... even Desaru can be considered easy. It was tough for many of us as we have mostly laid off after langkawi .... and the 164km was abit too long.

It is one of the better rides we had, and one that we could do more often. The ferry ride is comfortable, and cost is not expensive (S$ 38 include bike charge). And the great thing about it, is that we chartered a taxi who followed us all the way back and forth. We put our bags, and lots of water into the taxi .... and a couple of us even took the taxi back. It is like riding in Tour de France with a car following you (hazard lights on). In Desaru, we are all left alone .... especially between Desaru and Sedili - no stores in sight. - chinghong

Next time we will bring a bike rack so more of us can take turns to relax in the taxi. We should also bring along an ice box so that we can have unlimited supply of ice. - Andrew

riding thru the town was definitely a challenge! when joe n i were riding back to sekupang, we dare not even look back as we're afraid we'll swerve out into the single lane heavy traffic

perhaps we could get beni (taxi driver) to get us a lorry to ferry us to and back from the starting point of the highway, so that we could avoid the hazardous town area. i rather pay S$5-10 for 2 way truck ferry rather than risk my life cycling thru town. if you worry about making up the total 30k of town miles, just turn around and go back up the h'way again lor...

and yes! its a great place for IM training....you get lobster fried rice at the turn around pt (80km) with beatiful scenery, and having nice looking waitresses serving us ice cold coke...they even have live seafood except we din have time to eat lah...

the course is definitely FLAT and very enjoyable to do....average speed 28km/h, max speed 60km/h haha

if you're lucky...you get to draft cute looking local girls :)

last but not least...i suggest we bring a decent first aid kit on our next overseas ride, just in case for bite (as in joe's case where the bee doesnt like him too much cos he was biking faster than the bee!)

so our next trip we should take the 1st ferry and return on the 5.45pm slot. else kana bar forever on visa cos cannot determine return ferry time haha

btw mark & mike had the best of all....relac at one corner on the 1st bridge and admire both scenery and people! i think they were the smartest among us!! - Jeffrey

Yes.. I totally agreed with Jeff.. the town's traffic was just too chaotic....

However, once we pass that .. the road shall I say is good and smooth amist some large pot holes. I was mostly riding alone when I couldn't catch up with Jeff whom I was drafting.. (his speed in consistant but fast)...I just couldn't carry on.... Finally when I reach the kelong... I was relieved..

Coming back was 'Siong" for me.. I developed cramps just about 3 km on the journey back. luckily.. David was with me.. (thanks for that)..I managed to 'shack' off the cramps but not for long when I start to climb.. In total myself and David struggled for about 30 odd km before giving in.. the taxi driver was diligently following us till we felt so 'pai seh'..... next is the challenge when we stop at the road side... how to squeeze in two bikes plus 2 people in the car...??

We trial and error until finally we managed to get it in including ourselves... we were amazed how far away we were from the pack.. You guys are real fast.... all "cheongsters" .... think got to do some training on the Roller like a Hamster in order to keep up next time round hee hee....

Finally we meet at a 'half way house' were we all had some drinks before heading back to the ferry terminal...

If you were to ask me... I enjoyed the ride although I DNF ... - Ivan

I had great time, Thanks to ChingHong for dropping back and pushing me up to the halfway house... that was the best pocari and ice water I have ever tasted...It was very hot on the way back, and I really bonked out about 20km after we started to cycle back. I agree with Andrew, an icebox with cold water will help alot. We should reload the ice and water at the kelong. definitely a good place to ride. Maybe we should hire a van or a pick up truck? more bikes and people can take turns to rest... - Kok Aun

The route was one of the most scenic one I have come across. The road was flat mostly. The food was great especially the lobster(great value for money)-should consider driving there for seafood next time. There was even sprinkle of water from mother nature to cool us down on the southward direction. During the ride, there were many supporters by the roadside and some on motor bikes cheering and encouraging us to push on.
And I remember there were photographers there, from which publications huh? And when they going to publish our ride. I enjoyed this tremendously even though the last leg from town to Ferry terminal seems to be endless. It was a race between my Quad muscle and the ferry terminal on who will prevail. - Roger

This is one of those ride that either tempt you to do an (or another) Ironman or convince you that enough is enough. When we were 5km from the turn-around point (at 80km), we thought (or tried to convince ourselves) that we have reached the end and that we should make a U-turn. I am glad we pushed on till there is no more tar and had our reward - the seafood fried rice and coke. After lunch, we had 3.5hr left to catch the ferry and we were skeptical. But, we made it! - Terence

Thanks to Ivan for organizing this trip....







At 80km, where the tar road meets the dirt. From here, we cycled off-road for a hundred meters or so to get to the seafood restaurant. Once in the "restaurant", we were treated with a serene view of clear blue water and a distance island.







This is the seafood restaurant. Someone mentioned lobster fried rice. Was he hallucinating?





We merried up with Mark and Michael on the way back.














Our eagles coming home. We make it back to the ferry terminal in time !

Relac, man! We are going home.

D Day : Langkawi Ironman

Swim : At 0715hr when the gun went off, my head was flushed with excitement. It was dark and I couldn't see the buoys. Keep to the left of the canoeists - I kept telling myself. At the U-turn (half-way point), my watch told me I have used up 45min. Great - if I continue at this pace, I can do it in 1.5hr, 30mins faster than I planned. I ended up finishing at 1hr 50 min which put me at the last 10% of the field.

Bike : There are many people ahead of me but what the heck, I just need to meet my planned 7 hour target. I knew I have three big hills ahead of me at Lisram highway, followed by three 40k loops and a final stretch of rolling hills. Take it easy, do the right pace, there is still of lot of distance ahead of me. There were two things that occupied my mind on the bike leg. The first was my left cycling shoe which was behaving oddly with large free-play. After the three big hills at Lisram highway, I decided to stop which on hindsight was a very important decision. I found that my cleat on my left shoe had become loose and if I had pedaled on, I might have lost the whole cleat and the retaining screws. That would have been disastrous. I stopped for a good 7-8 minutes to repair my shoe, surrounded by a bunch of kampung kids. My second pre-occupation was my stomach. Somewhere after about 40km on the bike, I developed a bad stomach cramp. My feed plan was one powergel every 30 to 40 minutes. Because of the stomach cramp, I started to feed at longer intervals and finally around 1500 hr, I stopped the feeds completely. I prayed for my stomach cramp to go away. It was making my breathing difficult and I could not go down on aero position for long. I was not sure what caused the cramp but I suspected it's the electrolyte pills which I was popping two at a time. As our training was always in the early morning, I had never tried out the electrolyte pills.

Run : 1630hr. The bike-run transition tent where I changed to my running gear was like an oven over 40 degrees celsius. There were a dozen or so very tired people in the tent, a couple of them flat out on the ground. Most unfortunately, my stomach cramp persisted. How am I going to run with a bad stitch? How am I going to cover 42km without fuel? Chris Oh told me not to give up before he took off for his run. I told Andrew that I might not be able to continue but he offered to walk with me. I was not about to give up at this stage. After a 16 minutes' transition, Andrew and I set off together. Based on my brick session, my original plan was to maintain a pace of 7 km/hour throughout the marathon. I stopped jogging after 200metres and lost the company of Andrew. As I walked into the main run course comprising of four loops of 10km, I was greeted by a busy sight of many tired runners, walkers and many children offering their tiny hands for a high-5. There was a great carnival atmosphere and I was enjoying the walk. My new Polar Rs800 running computer told me that I was walking at a pace of 6km/h. I figured out that if I could do a pace of 6.5km/h, I can finish before the cut-off time. I also noted that when I brisk-walked, my heart rate was around 110, purely in aerobic zone, which means I could get my fuel from my fats store. I was quite happy that my brain was still functioning for me to think of such plan. My theory worked - I survived on water diet for the first 20km. After 11km and earning my first color band, I felt comfortable enough to jog wherever there was a downhill. By 9pm (or 2 hour into the run), my stomach cramp left me and I started to feed on de-carbonated coke at every drink station and even ventured to take two pieces of bananas. By this time, I have gathered speed and with a quick mental calculation, I got ambitious and thought I could shoot for my original goal of 15 hours. On the last loop, I was doing a pace of 10.5km/h. I caught up with Andrew, Kok Aun, Lee Li, Shuan. I paced Andrew for a distance before he kicked off into darkness on the last 3km mark. The last 1km from Seaview Hotel to the finishing line appeared to last forever, though I was finally running! Emotion was high when I ran up the ramp of the finishing line - hey, they even kept the finishing ribbon for people like us.

D-1 day

0730h - Went for race curse tour in a bus. Got a second look at the route.
1030h - Race briefing. Two yellow cards n you are out. Can buy food at sarabat stalls, to Singaporean delight. Can track real time progress of athletes at www.ironmanlive.com . My bib no is 437. Cut off time : Swim 9.35am, bike 5.45pm. Bile special needs station : 10, 65, 120km. Expect the "unexpected". Traffic not closed - be careful :-(
1300h - Holy communion led by Ching Hong. Packing of transition bags and getting bike ready. 1530h - Checking in of bike n bags.
1800h - Hawker style dinner (more carbo loading)

D-2 day

Did registration this morning. Went for a ride on part of the bike course after wanton noodle lunch at hawker stall. The hills are pretty bad - got alot of people worried. Going for a dip in the pool then a carbo dinner at the pier (where the eagle statue is). No big fanfare - simple Msia style.

People met :
- Bernard Lew : did WA IM last Dec, going for Zurich IM. Using this as training
- Brian : started tri since 1989
- Eric : did WA IM last Dec, teaching Sec school
- Dex : did WA IM last Dec
- Kelvin Low, a swim coach

Well wishes .. 3 days to go

Hi Crazy2Tri friends
Just want to wish all of you a happy and prosperous golden pig year, and best wishes for the forthcoming Langkawi Ironman. I believe that finishing the IML is just a formality now with the amount of training and preparations you guys have poured in. Looking forward to photos of your experience, achievements and medals
+ stories.
All the best and take good care!
- Roger Chow

Hi all who is going for the Ironman in Langkawi,
Just like to wish you guys all the best and even before you guys done the Ironman race, you are all winners already…
Enjoy your Ironman race !!!!!!!
- Amos ng

Dear All,

I agree with Amos, I guess Ironman is a journey. The race is the reward for all the hardwork, sacrifices, time and effort.

To all those who toe the line on 7.15am Saturday morning in Kuah Jetty point, I salute you all. Have an enjoyable race!

See you guys in Langkawi!

Regards,

- Bernard

Chinese New Year

Today is Day 1 in the Lunar calendar. What a way to start the Chinese New Year - the looming Ironman occupying the centre of our mind. Are we ready? Did we do enough mileage? How are we going to make it for the swim?

Boon Pin just put up the mock-up of the crazy2tri website. It is RED HOT! Apt for the festive seasons. There is a big counter - countdown to milli-seconds to Langkawi Ironman 2007. 5 days, 17 hours, 2 mins, ... to go.

Happy carbo loading, guys. Stay away from bak kwah and other oily food. Don't be afraid.

6 Days to go...

Here's a greeting from Christopher Oh.

Have a blessed piggy lunar new year.

And what a way to start a year

with us suffering with fear

at the Langkawi Ironman 2007 year

Tough it shall be

we shall all be

at the end of it all

Ironmen we all

Happy New Year to all!

Mark bounced back!

With the Ironman race less than a month away, we are starting to wind down our mileage. Today we are doing 110km, followed by a 10k run (more like jog). Well, Mark is back with us - with his Mountain bike on sleek tire. He really bounced right back after his accident last Saturday which saw his bike broken in three places. Here is a picture of him riding along Lim Chu Kang around 6.40am. He is a Ironheart.

Monster ride 2

Today we covered 180km. 2 big loops plus another small loop of 40km. Around 10.20am, after 2 loops totalling 140km, Kok Chin and I were flagged down by Joe in his Sabura SUV. We got off at the Caltex kiosk outside Sian Tuan and learnt from Joe that Mark had an accident. Sure enough I found several missed calls and two sms from Michael at around 7am. Apparently Mark was knocked down by a motorcyclist at a traffic junction along Jalan Bahar. His Scott bike was broken to three pieces but miraculously he only suffered minor scratches. He was ambulanced to NUH and was under observation but discharged shortly.

Here's Ching Hong's update via email to the Crazy2tri group :

"Hi guys

Most of you have heard of Mark's encounter with a motorbike this morning at about 640am. The incident happened along Jalan Bahar intersection with the PIE ( towards Jurong Island) when a motorbike hit Mark broadside. Thankfully, Michael was behind and was able to render aid - no, he did not give mouth to mouth resuscitation to Mark - but was able to comfort Mark and call for ambulance and police.

Mark is okay albeit a few skin abrasins and muscle aches - praise Jesus. His bike, however, is a different sad story - broke into 3 pieces - i doubt any component could be salvaged too (Kane will take photo and share with us later). We are all amazed that Mark came out of that accident fully alright - and surely, God's goodness and mercy are upon Mark.

Whilst we exercise caution whilst cycling, danger still exists on the road - and certainly, we need to be more careful, and certainly, we need to rely on His protection and covering much more.

To everyone of you who were at NUH - thank you for your care/concerns, and for being there for Mark and his wife, Serene.

We will miss Mark - hopefully, he will find the courage to come back and join us again.

Mark - God bless you, and may your wounds healed completely.

Shalom

chinghong

Monster ride 1

Some call it the breakthrough session but I call it the monster ride. Today, we planned to do 180km, starting 5am. Due to time factor, many of us didn't do the full work. I managed to get 160km - at least it's a century - done by 11ish so that I could rush off to attend a church friends' wedding. My day was not without bumps - legs were getting cramps after 80km and had to slow down but I was glad to be able to recover.

In the evening, I had this SMS chat with one of my colleague who suggested a run tomorrow.
Me : "Won't join you guys tomorrow. Cycled 160km this morning since 5am. Need to recover tom."
LT : "Wow.. So impressed for the distance you should drive mah :-*"
Me : "But .. but my car can't take it"

Key session : Century ride

Today is key session day. Missed the 150km ride with the crazy2tri gang yesterday so it's make-up for me - all alone :( Woke up at 5.30am, put some carbo into my stomach and off I went. After almost 4 hr of saddle time and mostly zone 2-3 heartrate, I reached home finding my children having breakfast. Put on my running shoe and practice transitioning for another 15min or so. Okay, let's called it a day.

Welcome to 2007

Here's a note from our skipper, Koh Ching Hong :

Hello my Crazy2Tri friends ...

2006 has been an exciting and eventful year for us all .... we have so many things to be thankful for - our good health, our friendship, our families' support, our many training hours together, our many races together ... and much more. Crazy2Tri community is growing - it seems to attract like-minded crazy people ... and now from a simple cycling for fitness, it has turned from just try a sprint, then to Olympic Distance, to long Distance, to half ironman .... and now Ironman .... and already we have people thinking of Deca Ironman !!!

As we start a new year in 2007, I know it will bring more excitement for all of us, and everyone will reach a new level of fitness and capabilities - and i am also confident that one or two of us in the group may end up in Kona. The new year started with long ride (155km) in preparation for IM Langkawi (this was not even thought of 3 months back !! ... until an Eric started this domino of craze in Desaru) .... i know that our journey in triathlon will not end in IM Langkawi but that it will be a start of another journey for each of us.

I believe 2007 will see most of us taking part in IM Langkawi (Feb07), Aviva Bintan OD (May07), and definitely Aviva IM70.3(Sept07), plus either Standard Charted Marathon (Dec07) or Western Australia IM(Dec 07) ... i figured that if you intend to do marathon, then must has well do the WA IM ... it has a marathon in it already.

I thank you for your friendship and your contribution towards making the whole sports a fun and meaningful journey for me.

In this, I wish you, my friends, and decree the year 2007 brings you a blessed year (every day) of good health - of vigour, strength, and renewal of youth; a year of good success in your work, your family, your personal goals, your finances; a blessed year of peace, joy, protection; a year of goodness in everything you do and touch; and a year of personal best in every event you take part in.

Shalom and God bless, my friends

chinghong