This is my second Ironman 70.3 Bintan race in two consecutive years. I always have mix feelings about 70.3 Bintan race for it is an island paradise in itself providing picturesque beaches where the ocean floor is visible during the swim; a scenic landscape with lush, dense green forest and a few villages in its natural state that we meander through during the bike leg on smooth, wide road; a beautiful man-made lake of Lagoi bay to tranquilize the mind that is offered in the run leg; and most of all, it is my home turf and a doorstep away from Singapore.
Yet, the above description is incomplete without mentioning the high humidity and scorching hot weather that struck deep inside the skin in almost entire race duration.
Training
The saying “The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare” resonates well with the Ironman triathlon, which is arguably the toughest one-day sporting event. Thus, training plays an important part to me and to every other fellow Triathletes I know. After Hari Raya holiday, I had 9-week training window leading to IM70.3 Ironman Bintan 2017. Though it means 2 or 3 weeks short from ideal window, it was a memorable journey. Back in July, I had a fun-filled “Old Skool” mini Aquathlon race with Newbie Triathlete Sg group in Sentosa beach where our race official trisuit was the speedo swim pant (how more fun could it be? :-)). In addition, a few group ride sessions with fast fellow cyclists from Roadbrothers and group running session as well as Bintan Bike Recce with fun and cheerful triathletes from Triumphant and Yellowfish groups were all such remarkable experiences. Triathlon opened up opportunity to know and make friendship with so many people who are passionate with triathlon training and at the same time experience fun and happiness.
Athlete Check-In
A bike recce was done on Friday while athletes and bikes check-in was held on Saturday at the same venue where Expo was located. The check-in went smoothly as was always the case in every Ironman event I went so far. The Expo, however, lacked of interesting stuffs and merchandise that may disappoint many people but for a few like me, it was a perfect solution to avoid spending spree.
Race Start
Unfortunately, there were some issues with shuttle transportation from Bintan Lagoon Resort to the race venue at dawn. I spent around 45 minute just to queue up to board the shuttle and eventually reached transition area at 5.50am. By right, we should not be in transition area after 6am, but then were allowed to setup our transition space until 6.20 am before the first pro-athlete reached the transition area. There I was rushing to get the setup done quickly and only had 4 minutes left to reach swim start point as my age-group wave started at 6.24 am.
Swim
At 6.24 am sharp, my age group started to swim toward the sea. Due to the lack of warm-up, I could not swim comfortably for the first 900 m, but eventually found my swim rhythm afterwards. The swim course resembled the shape of a trapezoid with 4 buoys on the left side. The buoys were visible for almost entire swim duration, and occasionally the sea floor too. The calm water made it a great open water swim experience. I completed the 1.9 km swim in 00:40:37 which was 1 minute off-target. Yet, still happy with the swim result.
Bike
After 3:58 minutes at T1 which is also 1 minute off-target, I started cruising on my bike with moderate pace at the beginning, as planned. The sky was bright and clear, exposing us to the hot weather for many hours to come throughout the race. The bike course offers undulating rolling hills for the first 40 km with the views of lush, dense green forest and a few villages along the way. Then, we found ourselves cruising on the flat and fast road for the next 20 km towards the beachfront which I found the best part of my bike leg. The remaining course is once again rolling hills with max elevation gain at one of the steep hills is 60 meters that some friends called it in Bahasa as Tanjakan neraka :-). In the span of 90 km ride, we had over 700 meter total elevation gain.
I carefully prepared and executed my nutrition intakes during the bike leg which is a combination of bread, salt stick, water and electrolyte water. I didn’t take any single energy bar. It worked well as I could pace my bike leg consistently according to the plan yet still had sufficient energy in my tank to start the running leg after the 90 km bike. Besides, this time I stayed focus each mile not to crash with the road barriers as valuable lessons from IM70.3 Taiwan some months ago which ended up a disqualification result for me.
I completed the 90 km bike leg in 02:40:39 which met my target and could not be happier with the result given the bike course’s high elevation gain and relatively fresh legs.
Run
The mercury soared by the time I arrived at bike leg finish line. After 2:42 minutes spent at T2, off I went towards the T2 exit to comfortably run at moderate pace. I was then able to maintain pace 5:45 min/km average for the first 4km, as planned. Unfortunately, the heat finally took its toll on me when I started getting dizzy and having the feeling that the Sun was right above my head. I realized the bloody hot weather was actually hotter than I imagined. As such, I never missed any single Water Stations so I could pour some buckets full of ice blocks and water from head to toe. It helped cool down body temperature though the dizziness didn’t go away. Luckily, I bumped into my buddy at Newbie Triathlete, Abdul Khaliq Arshad at 6 km towards the finish line. We ran and chatted about anything that made us forget a bit about the pain we endured. We encouraged each other to keep the running pace stable towards the finish line. Thanks buddy 🙂
I completed 21.1 km run in 2:13:45 which was 20 minutes off-target
Finish
After a gruelling 05:41:37 hours of giving my all under the unforgiving hot Sun and the muscle pain, I finally crossed the finish line.
My timing of 05:41:37 at IM70.3 Bintan this year smashed last year’s timing in the same race by 1 hour, which indicated a good progress towards my A race this year @ IMWA 2017 Busselton.
What went right?
The nutrition intake strategy and good race pacing played a vital role on the outcome of my bike leg.
Secondly, a clean bike means a fast bike. I ensure clogs and dirt were removed prior to the race and a good amount of chain lubricants were applied during the transition setup.
Lastly, I followed training plan quite religiously by balancing out the high intensity and endurance training as well as recovery process while also avoiding over-training.
What went wrong?
You cannot control the uncontrollable. So I won’t blame the bloody hot weather on the race day, though admitted it influenced my running leg quite significantly.
I found later on that the cleat position was misaligned which probably caused swollen muscles above my right knee in the brick run.
Lastly, having missed warm-up prior to swim start impacted the swim performance. In future race, I should consider staying in a hotel nearest to the race venue to avoid similar experience related to shuttle service delay.