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Powerman Malaysia Duathlon 2019 Race Report: My longest race yet

The Powerman Malaysia is an ASTC (Asian Triathlon Confederation) Middle Distance Duathlon, and it's also the race for the Asia Championships. There is also Powerman Indonesia but that's for the world series. In any case, it's a good race for Singaporeans because it's nearby and we only need to take a bus up together with our bikes. This is my second time participating in the Powerman Malaysia! Last year, I took part in the short category (5-30-5) because it was my first ever duathlon and I just wanted to experience how it was like. This year, I decided to just go for the classic distance since the short would be well, too short for my current standard. The classic distance is a 10km run, 60km bike and another 10km run (10-60-10).

Pre-race training
I only started training for powerman seriously towards the end of December 2018, because I was recovering from a ligament sprain from the Asics Relay on 20 October 2018. Tee Wei (my other half and coach) and I were doing a mix of sprint intervals, tempo runs and long distance runs every week since January 2019. As a result of that, I managed to comfortably clock sub 60 min 10km runs, which was pretty awesome for me. Cycling came in more at the end of January, but I only did a couple of rides before the race (less than 10). We did 3 brick trainings - 20km ride and 5 km run 4 weeks prior, then a 5km-30km-5km 2 weeks prior, followed by a 7km-40km-7km a week before the actual race. We tapered after the last brick training, only clocking 2 light runs. Unfortunately, I came down with food poisoning on Wednesday before the race so I was pretty much out and I only recovered the day before. Even so, I still experienced mild cramping of the stomach, which sort of affected me during the race itself. I'll elaborate more later.

D-1 to race day
Reached Lavender car park at 5.30am to load the bicycles and left at 6am. We followed the Newbie triathletes up this year, based on recommendation by Tee Wei's army friend Jonathan Kang, who runs the Tricators group. The trip up this year was smooth, so really thank God for that since last year I had the nightmare experience of the bus breaking down and reaching late for bike check in. We reached our hotel at about 1pm, checked in and then had lunch. We even had time to go for the race expo to check out the booths! Gels there are cheap so if you intend to come for Powerman, don't bother bringing gels, just buy them at the race expo. My friends and I also went for a light ride around the area before checking in our bikes at about 5.15pm (cut off time is 6pm, don't check in too soon because it's really hot and your tires may explode). I went to bed at 10.30pm that night!

Race day morning
Woke up at 5am (I had at least 6 hours of sleep! Thank God because it's more than I ever had since I always get race jitters.) and went down for breakfast - I ate 5 mini pancakes with honey, a banana and some koko krunch, which I felt was a reasonable amount to eat before a run. However, I didn't take into account the fact that my body was severely under-nutritioned the past few days as I was having diarrhoea, up till race morning. That cost me on the first run sigh. Anyway, we went to set up our stuff at the transition area at 6am and did some light jogs to warm up before the flag off, which was at 7am.

First run leg
I felt good for the first 3km or so, overtaking many people and pacing some. I was doing a 6 min/km pace, which was okay for me since I had to conserve my energy for the next 2 legs of the race. Then the pain started to come after the 3km mark. I started to feel slight amounts of hunger and pain in my stomach area. I was a bit worried because though it was tolerable then, it threatened to escalate further, which it did, till about a 4 or 5/10. I prayed and asked God for help, and successfully managed to complete the 10km with the pain. I still clocked a 6:06 min/km average but I was a little disappointed because I could have done better.


First transition
I ate the salted caramel gel and some energy jelly to combat my hunger pangs. Drank a bit of 100 plus and water and I was off onto my bike leg.

Bike leg
I felt good at the start of the bike leg, thanks to the gel and the jelly. Also, after the first run, Tee Wei waited for me at the transition area so we were going to do the rest of the race together (him at my pace obviously). The bike course was hilly, which was rather painful on the legs for the up slope. Interestingly, I was able to overtake people on the up slope but they would overtake me on the down slope - I think after my 2 crashes last year, I'm a lot more hesitant to go too quickly on the bike. In any case, I thought that the route was alright, except for this one lane area that stretched about 5km to and fro. It was more like a dirt road, with 2 roundabouts and I felt that it was rather dangerous because people were overtaking on a one lane road and there were some who stopped at the roundabouts to rest. It felt like a disaster crash waiting to happen. Each bike loop was 30km, so we had to do that twice. After that single lane area on my second loop, I completely lost momentum and for the remaining 15km or so, I just couldn't seem to get it back anymore. As a result, my bike leg was 20 min off my target timing. Then again, I had only clocked 2 rides over 60km in my life prior to that, so it was also expected that after the 45km mark, I lost the endurance on my bike. I was grateful to be off the bike at the second transition.

Second transition
I ate my caramel macchiato gel and the rest of the energy jelly. I chose to take caramel macchiato in the second transition because I knew that I needed the extra caffeine kick. Sprayed some sunblock on and I was off.

Second run leg
We managed to clock at 6:06 min/km pace for the first 2km. I was rather impressed with myself because I felt good, even after the slow bike leg due to fatigue. That didn't last long. After the 3rd km, the shade from the buildings and trees disappeared and we were out in the hot sun at 11am. I rejected all the water stations previously as I felt that I didn't need it at that point in time and was intending to take water at the 5km mark. However, I didn't know that my body was going to severely over heat and I was extremely dehydrated and feeling feverish at the 4km mark. I pressed on, till the sun got even hotter and I couldn't take it eventually. Slightly before the 5km mark, I had to walk in order not to let my body over heat. I was rather depressed at that point because I wanted to complete the entire race without walking. I prayed and asked God for strength to continue the second half of the run. We made it to the 5km water point and I downed water, 100 plus and poured multiple cups of water on my body, which cooled it down significantly. We continued running after that and I felt alright. From then on, I drank water/100 plus and wet my body with sponge periodically at every water station. Thankfully I was running with Tee Wei, who asked for the 1.5L water bottle and carried it with him from the 7km water point onwards, because that was the last water station. We used the water to cool our bodies down in the shadeless portions of the run and that enabled me to last till the end of the race. My shoes were water-logged as a result but I couldn't care less at that point.

The photographer said "You pretty lah, chantek" after he took this shot. I was too tired to respond at that point in time but I was quite happy hehe.

Final timing
I clocked 4:46:52 according to the race result, 9th in my age category. It isn't good, but I tried my best! Also, this is the first time I'm trying out the race so I'm also getting a feel of it. I will continue to train my runs - my aim is to get it down to a 55 min pace for 10km this year. I definitely need more work on the bike and I need to do more round island rides and climb more hills, train stand up paddling, work on my glutes more and continue to build up my core strength even more. I will come back next year and aim to do better!

I definitely would not have been able to do this race without relying on strength from God to pull me through the toughest moments. I'm also thankful to Tee Wei who ensured my well being during the race, since we saw more than 5 ambulances cart people off the race course.