Tribob Sprint Duathlon – DONE.

March 14, 2010

I did it.

Sunday morning, I hauled my ass out of bed at 6 in the morning so my parents could help me bring the bike down to Sengkang for the Tribob duathlon. So I went, set up my bike and the usual nonsense, popped more Ibuprofen for my toe and knee, waited and then raced.

And holy shit, it was hard. But I finished the damned thing and didn’t die. Oh, and looked pretty good doing it, if I do say so myself, wearing my green running skort for it.

I could have done a few things smarter though. Like not riding 20km home from Sengkang after the duathlon. Yes, you heard me. My first duathlon, and I do such a thing. Should your first duathlon or triathlon take place half way across the island from your house, do the smart thing, arrange to crash at a friend’s hour nearby or arrange a ride home in a car. Trust me. Post-race, especially your first one, is no time to be riding half way across the island to get home on the busiest goddamned roads of Singapore on a Sunday. Somewhere by Upper Paya Lebar road, I was cursing at traffic and riding so slowly, I might actually have been a hazard to myself. By Kembagan, I was struggling to stay aware of the traffic. By Siglap, I was no longer aware of the traffic and not giving a flying fuck that I wasn’t aware of the traffic.

If you’ve also committed the folly of riding home halfway across the island fighting tiredness, bad traffic, hordes of people and the heat, you won’t be fit for civil human conversation until you’ve had a LONG nap, shower and tons of food. Ah, yes, food. Did I mention how fucking STARVING I am now?? Yes, absolutely starving.

Another smart thing I could have done was to check the height of my saddle before the race and tightened the quick release. Because my seat was really low and if your bike seat is too low, trying to pedal with a bad knee will aggravate the knee pain. Which leads me to the next thing.

Ibuprofen. Its your friend if you have a grated toe and a bad knee. For one, if you grated your toe on rough pavement barefoot running the day before your race (anyway, what are you doing barefoot running the day before a race, bodoh??), your toe will not appreciate being stuffed into a running shoe, then cycling shoe, then running shoe and made to run and cycle. No siree, it will not. And if you’ve managed to fuck your knee up so royally that it hurts all the damned time, I promise you, the pain will come back at the worst time possible. Like in the first lap of the bike leg. Demoralising and painful. In a time like that, you have to remember to bring the Ibuprofen with you on your bike. It will not be enough that you’ve popped two on waking and have more waiting in the transition area for you. When your instincts say to pack the Ibuprofen somewhere on your bike for the bike leg, do it. Because when the pain relief wears off and your knee sears and your toe revolts, you will want to bash yourself over the head for not listening to your instincts. Only, y’know, bashing self over the head leads to being knocked out and probably not finishing the race which you cannot possibly live with. In which case, may I suggest profanity?

Another thing that will be profane is your language as you begin on the second run leg and realise that your ass has cramped. Yes, seriously, my ass cramped as I started running my second leg. And because I find the words “My ass is cramping” so utterly ridiculous, I was afraid to stop running in case I might suddenly find the need to sit down and ask someone for one of those cramp relief spray things. So I just kept going and tried not to giggle manically at the idea that my ass is cramping. It would probably have not happened, if on Saturday when my boss asked me to attend a training session to learn core exercises to teach, I had refrained from actually doing any of those exercises in the session. Turns out, you do need your ass muscles to be daisy fresh and ready to run and ride hard. Really.

Honestly though, ass cramp. I’m gonna add that to my list of “Weirdest places I cramp in”.

Seriously, you start running the first leg and wonder “How the fuck will I finish this??” then the bike leg comes and your toe hurts and you think “Fuck me, am I actually gonna finish this?” and the second run leg starts for you and your ass cramps and you’re like “WHAT THE HELL WAS I SMOKING??!!” But you know what? You are gonna finish the damned thing. You can actually finish it. Seriously. Your body is not gonna want to stop even when your mind and other parts of your body is screaming at you to. Its like being possessed. You just keep going and going. Sure, maybe it gets slow to the point of ridicule at some points but you do keep on going. And going. And eventually, that last 400 meters across a grassy field lurks up to meet you. And you’re running on the grass! Which leads to the finish line! And then you’re done! FUCKING DONE!

Afterwhich you are going to decide “Hey, maybe I should find another duathlon to do this year and actually train hard for it.”

So to recap:

1. Technical checks. Extremely important.

2. Arrange for transport and whatever logistical needs way before hand.

3. Don’t injure yourself before the race.

4. You won’t think its possible but you can actually finish the goddamned thing. Honest.

Oh yeah, and its important to actually hang around until you’ve gotten all your timings or you’ll be waiting for the race organisers to put the results list up. Which will kill you because you don’t know the timing for your second run.