Friday/ Saturday
The annual bus journey to Powerman race in Lumut, Perak began on Friday night. I missed the race last year, but otherwise, this would be my 3rd race there. We had a long and tedious routine of loading our beloved bicycles onto the coach buses and clearing immigration before we were finally on our way. It was close to midnight. We had the usual pit stop at Yong Peng, and I really wondered why the food there remained in the functional state after so many years and customer flows. Sigh.
We arrived at the Orient Star Hotel in Lumut around 8am. Sleepy and groggy, we unloaded our bicycles, collected the room keys and headed for breakfast. Then Melody came by for our race briefing and distribution of race packs. Next on the agenda was a sumptous lunch, a 8/9-course Chinese seafood lunch that was oh-so-filling. We stopped by the race site and Giant supermarket for some last minute shopping before returning to the hotel.
Sunday
Race morning, we checked out of the hotel at 6:15am and had a leisurely 8km ride to the race site. There was a light drizzle. Along the way, I spotted 2 packets of Gu gels on the road. I thought it could be Alber's because few people used Gu gels. So I headed back a little to retrieve them. True enough, they were his fallen ones!
I arrived at the race transition area with only about 5-10 min to set up my bicycle and gear. And then a mad dash to the washroom before making it to the start line, just in time for flag-off. Whew.
The first 11km run was ok. If past races were track records, then I would cramp on the second run and had to walk. So my strategy was simply to push a little harder when I still felt ok. I finished the run in about 59min.
The weather remained cool throughout. I went a little faster than usual on my first loop. The bridges and rolling slopes were not as steep as the ones in Langkawi. Or maybe it was my first loop and I was still fresh. The route was very straightforward, but mostly in bumpy conditions. It was difficult to overtake because the smoothest part of the road surface was within the roadside divider. I finished the first bike lap in 1:02h. The fatigue started to set in on the second loop, and my speed dropped a little. Oh well. The sun was starting to peek out now, argh, the run leg would be really hot. I made it back to the transition area and took my time to apply my 'Zheng Gu Jiu' - the Chinese medicinal muscle oil. Freddy used it on me during the recent TNF race and it worked like a charm to alleviate cramps. So I bought a small bottle for trial today. It was awesome, the menthol sensation beat all other muscle creams and sprays that I had ever tried (and I had tried a LOT).
I still had a little quad and hamstring cramp in the first 1km, but after soothing on more medicinal oil, I was ok and able to jog. In previous years, I would have limped the entire 5km! I managed to jog through the 10km, while polishing off two bananas. The sun was in full glory now and it was extremely hot. Luckily it was only 10km.
I made it back within the 5h cut-off mark. Not sure if my timing was any better than previous years, but well, it was always nice to complete a race. :)
Times:
Lap 1 run: 31min
Lap 2 run: 28min
Run 1: 59min
T1: 7min
Lap 1 bike: 1:02h
Lap 2 bike: 1:13h
Bike: 2:15h
T2: 7min
Lap 1 run: 36min
Lap 2 run: 37min
Run 2: 73min
Total: 4:42h
No comments:
Post a Comment