Aviva Ironman 70.3

It's all over in a blink of the eye. :)

1.9km swim

The women's wave was at 7.15am and the men started at 5-min intervals and the whole swarm of them just came behind and clobbered us women. I was kicked, pushed, and my goggles was smacked right out of my face. The waters weren't choppy that day so it was quite an enjoyable swim - minus the men.

After the swim, running towards T1.

90.1km bike

Had a puncture 6km into the bike leg. Was saying hi to coach when he was riding next to me and then all of a sudden, we heard a bang. I slowed down and coach shouted "Oh shit! Flat flat!" and I could still shout after him "whose tyre flat???" and he replied "YOURS!!!!" before whizzing away. (@*!()#*@(!)&$*!(#&@()! He said he owe me dinner this Sat for 'causing' the flat and not stopping to help. Anyway, I understand lah.. During a race, it's every man for himself. Was almost in tears, standing in the middle of the bike course, looking at bikes whizzing by and no one stopped to help and I couldn't walk 6km back to the starting point nor could I continue with the bike leg. I just stood there, holding my bike and not knowing what to do. Thought of George telling me before the race - "Never say you can't.", so I waited for the roving bike mechanic to come and fix my tyres. I had a bottle of Pit Stop with me but my inner tube was pinched so that wouldn't help. Waited for slightly more than half an hour before the mechanic came. He changed my inner tube, made sure that it wasn't pinched this time round and off I went! Spinned down the long slopes to make up for lost time - max speed was 68.1km/h. Lucky I didn't crash. Managed to overtake some of the ladies on the bike leg. Phew! Glad that I didn't give up.

At the U-turn

21.1km run

Run was really hot!!! Started having cramps a few km into the run. Had to slow jog/walk most of the way. Took 3 hours to complete my run!! Need to work on it...

Glad that I've signed up for the race and completed it. Helped keep my sanity. Hopefully I'll train harder for the next Aviva in Mar 09. :)

Someday, I might just go for the full ironman... :)