D-1 day

Woke up (thank God!) around 8am. Last night, the hotel received a bus load of Thai tourist and this morning, they pretty much wiped out the breakfast buffet spread. Luan and I ate what was left.

Bella Vista (previously called Tiara Langkawi) sits on a prime spot in downtown Kuah, facing the bay. It's about 10 mins drive to the Jetty (Eagle Square) and the official Seaview Hotel. From where I was standing on the 3rd floor looking out to the bay, I could spot in the distance the buoys and the flags where we will be swimming alongside the next day. (See pic)

We headed to Seaview Hotel to get my race registration done. Drove past Bayview Hotel where the Crazy2tri stayed last year. Old memory came back. There were close to 20 of us and loads of fun doing our first ironman.

Seaview was bustling as expected. SMS Logan and Michael (or Mecca - his name was changed to reflect his new status as a Faris challenger). Mike and Roger is out in the recce bus. After the customary medical check, got my race barang and timing chip, we spotted Logan, Enrico, Halil, Ping and Jimmy (Ping's boyfriend)

Route recce
Time was 9.30am - one hour before the race briefing. Decided to go for the route recce in our rented car. Ping and Jimmy came with us. This was Ping's first ironman, so Lisram Highway naturally caused her jaw to drop. From Lisram, we turned into Padang Mat Sirat (a.k.a "PIE") which is the east-west highway connecting airport to Kuah. Along this stretch are the rolling hills, the biggest shown here, near the airport. Went through the two circles, passed the airport, u-turned back into "PIE". We then turned left into Ulu Malaka Rd ("CTE"), heading north towards Tanjung Rhu Beach. That's it, we have covered almost the entire one loop and it's time to rush back to the race briefing.

We checked in our bikes at 4pm, had early dinner and then headed back to hotel and condo for our attempt at "sleeping early". Of course, I was tossing and turning the whole night, filled with anxiety - as expected.

I reviewed my game plan in my head :
- Swim (from my coach, Bernard Tay) : make every pull count. Smooth rhymnic kick. Left shoulder roll more. Keep neck relax while sighting (look for 2-3 red flag). I will be relying purely on right technique I learnt in past 9 month to get my swim through as I have not swam beyond 1km since Aviva 70.3
- Bike : Spin at 100 rpm. Power = Force x cadence. Since I have not clocked more than 120km since my Batam ride in April last year, I have to rely on my aerobic engine to turn up the cadence.
- Run : Chi-running form. Form, form, form. High cadence (80-85).

No wonder I couldn't sleep...