Near Death Experiences

Was popped the question for no apparent reason on Thursday.
"Have you had any near death experiences before?"

If you guys remembered the two bike accidents I had in 2007...
I won't call them near death experiences, but I think I experience what people does before death.

Twice during those accidents, memories from the past flashed through your mind...
Memories of your childhood (teens, marriage too, I think) just flashes through in nano seconds...
It is just like flipping through a mental photo album at light speed.

During my fateful first bike accident, I see this long dark tunnel with light at the end of it.
I guess it happens before the light goes out...

Sounds like something from the movies?
I guess the script writers had heard all these from people who had near death experiences....

Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore 2010

Keke.. easier to publish the full results. =)

2009 Results
Swim 1.9km - 58m 14s
T1 - 6m 41s
Bike 90km - 3h 21m 20s
T2 - 5m 29s
Run 21km - 3h 30m 12s
Overall - 8h 1m 59s

Significant improvement over my swim time.
Phew, think won't get scolding...

Did much better in T1, but worse in T2.
Toe socks, lacing, procrastination over gels and Metsal Cream din help at all. =D

What truly sucks is my bike time and run time.

Garmin was a major let-down too...
I set it up in multi-sports mode and press Enter , but the screen din change...
Actually press Enter a second time to confirm...
I assume that the screen will change later when I start the timer.
It did not... and I was left to guess my timing through the whole race.
It did run the timer in the background though, so no data lost, just no updates during the race.

Back to the race.

Did most of the swim in freestyle...
Swam in a zig-zag motion, no thanks to the organisers....
Where are the buoys!!!
With no inner lane rope on the first loop, everyone was left to guess where the next buoy is.
Looking in front did not help either.
The group was so spread out...
With the meter-high buoy (invisible for the first odd 100m) 350m away from you, with the sun in your face... you are literally swimming blind.
There is a lot more slapping around than I am getting used to. =D
Haha... I guess when you swim breaststroke, people tends to avoid you.
Swimming freestyle, you get whacked in all imaginable places.
Fun part? Swam over an ang-moh. Almost...
Painful part? Got kicked on the head by a breaststroker. =D

Managed to do a faster T1 than last year and it is out onto the bike.
The legs were so stiff, that I was not able to go fast out of T1.
Up Benjamin Sheares Bridge (BSB) for the first two loops, I was ready to throw in the towel...
No thanks to the limited amount of training that I have done.
A promise to Shannon just kept me going...twice...
Emotions welled up, there is no way I am going to disappoint my kid...

Things got easier when you crossed BSB.
I was surprised when I reached the U-turn point. This is it? That's 15km?
Ploughed through the next 75km...
First time up the reverse BSB (BSB towards Changi Airport), I see 3 riders walking up the bridge...
Gosh... their bikes look ok... I hope they are not pushing their bike up the ramp.
Anyway, this was the first and last time I seen riders walking up reverse BSB.

After 2 loops, I figured that BSB is not as tough as reverse BSB.
I seen and experienced more cyclists struggling up reverse BSB.
Hmm... maybe all of us get a bit energised from all the crowd support at Big Splash?
While the return leg... you have been out there alone for 25km (Almost an hour)...

Din do much on the aerobars, the crosswinds are threatening to sweep me off my bike...
Getting off my bike, I was rather pleased with myself...
I thought I have nailed it (3hours)....

Imagine my disappointment, when out on the run... Someone commented that it is already 12 noon.
What!!!
12noon meant I had spend 3:20 on my bike... but I thought I saw a 3:02h on the lap counter?

The strain on the inner left thigh hit me less than 500m into the run.
It had hit me during my last leg up reverse BSB, but this time round, it had came back with a vengeance.
It was so painful that I was surprised I managed to last through it for the next 2.5km till the pain wore off.
Keke... I think triathletes are built to last...
Again, a promise to a kid is a powerful motivating factor...

I drink a lot of water on the run leg that I kept going to the porta-a-loo wasting a lot of time...
But if I dun drink, I get headaches....
In short, I suffered through the worst 21km of my life....
The support near the Big Splash were wonderful though...
Thanks, guys...

Post mortem?
Glad to complete the race?
Kinda disappointed about the timing and individual legs....
Oh well.....

Daddy, You are Going to Win

While I was prepping the bike on Saturday,
Shannon come over and ask "Daddy, you are going to win the race, right?"
Being a straight talker, I told her flatly, "No, Shannon, Daddy is not going to win."
Guess it left her disappointed, cos she asked again "Daddy, you are going to win, right?"
Daddy : "No dear, Daddy is not going to win, but daddy is going to complete the race."
Shannon : "Daddy, you are not coming in last, right?"
Daddy : "Yes, Daddy is not coming in last"
Shannon : "Daddy, you are going to win"
Daddy (smilingly) : "Daddy promised you, Daddy will bring home the medal for you. Okay?"
Shannon : "Okay"

Time to Mend Bridges

To A and R, I'm sorry.

Sorry for all the nasty words that I had said.

I guess it took too long just to say these simple words of regret.

It took that long for this blockhead to realise that comments cannot pushed across.

I dun blame you for mis-understanding me.

I'm at fault.

Sorry...

Singapore Biathlon 2010 Official Results

Singapore Biathlon 2010 Official Results

Swim 1500m - 38m 09s
T1 + Run 10km - 1h 19m 47s
Overall Chip Timing - 1h 57m 55s

1033 / 1084 Men's Open Olympic Distance Biathlon Finishers (95.30%)

Hmm...
A PB for my Swim
A PB for my Singapore Biathlon
My run is the discipline that pulled the results down.
My placings are still as bad, meaning that everyone has improved. =)
Am I disappointed? Nah... I compete against myself. =)
Sub-2 was the target this year and I am glad to have achieve that. =)

Most importantly, I enjoyed myself during the race.
I had a good run... Something that I have not said for a awful long time.
(If you guys are on Facebook, you should know why. =D)
Haha... the term "I Hate Running" is not in my vocabulary anymore. =D

GodSpeed.

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Singapore Biathlon 2009 Official Results

Swim 1500m - 46m 56s
T1 + Run 10km - 1h 19m 05s
Overall Chip Timing - 2h 6m 1s

1193 / 1255 Men's Open Olympic Distance Biathlon Finishers (95.06%)

Singapore Biathlon 2008 Official Results

Swim - 0:44:50
T1 + Run - 1:16:12
Total - 2:01:01

Rank 802 / 1095 during the swim, that places me in the top 74% to finish the swim.
Ranked 1068 / 1095 during the swim, that places me in the last 2% to finish the run.
Ranked 1051 out of 1095, that places me in the last 4% of all Finishers.

Food for Thought

This is probably the most controversial blog entry I have written.

Having heard and seen many life lessons over the years, it is not difficult to see why marriages fail.

But what we usually did not see is the pitfalls of our own marriages.

Tell-tale signs are always there.
It is up to the individual/couple to identify/admit that these signs exist and make an effort to remediate it.

To be very frank, most if not all romance sizzle out after a few years.

The challenge is to keep the flames burning.

One thing I learnt lately is that it is the little things that count.
Yes, it is a phrase that we have heard countless times, but we dun usually apply.

Expectations has to be set.
One cannot expect the marriage to be exactly the way it was 5, 10 or 15 years before.

It is true that Love is the Greatest Gift of All.
But Love alone is not enough to sustain a relationship, much less a marriage.