So many!

I had never had so many of my pictures taken at a race, and considering this Chin Woo Biathlon distance would only take about 45 minutes, I'm really delighted with the picture coverage! Thanks, Mr Tey for the wonderful photos!

Barely 10 hours after I arrived in KL International Airport, my family and I were already at the Chin Woo Stadium... with myself, brother, sister and dad taking part. Mum was our faithful caddy cum cheerleader!

I skipped quite a few of my pre race rituals as I opted to give myself more sleep instead. However on hindsight, I could have done them after all, as there were many waves before mine with the younger children and veterans doing their swim first.

I did a rookie's error by bringing the wrong set of goggles, good thing dad was able to lend him mine. My wave started about 8.45am, 75 minutes past the first wave's start time. The Powerbar Performance bar I ate at 7am would most likely not give me any more power for the race!

I was in lane 6, sharing with Kevin Chan, brother of national triathlete Eugene Chan. My main rival for this event is our representative to the recent SEA Games, Ah Wei. He was in lane 18, so I couldn't see much of him from my end.

I managed to overtake Kevin Chan by a full lap in the 800m swim. Transition was pretty smooth, the secret is to not tie your shoelaces too tight! But mum was yelling that Ah Wei had just left the transition. My total swim time including transition was 12 minutes.

After climbing the steps out from the swim pool, I headed out for the 3 loop 7km run, and saw Ah Wei just about 50-100 metres ahead of me. The run route was around the Chin Woo Stadium. I'm so not used to running near vehicle traffic, inhaling exhaust fumes and risk getting knocked down at the same time.

Towards the end of the first loop, I met Doc Ray, Tomato Ray, and Ultra Yip manning the drinks and ribbon stations.

Fatigue got the better of me on the second and third loop, I gave up chasing Ah Wei and he got further and further. I was worried that someone would catch me from behind. But I was lucky, I reached the final hill and ran to my 2nd place position with a run time of 30.12 and total finishing time of 42.13, about 40 seconds after Ah Wei.

Kevin Chan just pipped Andy for third placing. While Sue, Andy's wife had a tussle with Eugene for the finishing. Sue came in first for the women category.

We stayed for the prize presentations and lucky draws, which finished at 11.15am. It was a good outing. Finally meeting the people whose blogs I have been stalking! And sharing this racing experience with my family. My brother won his category and also gave the boys in the older age category, who competed at ITU events, a run for their money. His average time per lap was also quicker than mine... the lil' rascal!

While my sister who never swam so far before in a swim pool, managed to come in 2nd in her category despite coming out 3rd last from the water.

See you all at the Malakoff 12km run this Sunday!