Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Busy busy day of 3 Sept

Pasir Panjang Heritage Trail

Woke up early to get to Harbourfront to take the shuttle bus to Kent Ridge Park for the Pasir Panjang Heritage Trail with some of my Sri Lanka YEP (aka Project Chelonia) team mate ;) Alamak...got there early 'cos I missed out some of the emails..wasn't aware the meeting time is 830am instead of 8am...decided go walk ard Harbourfront Center...nothing to see at this time actually...hehe...

San San, Jacqueline and I took the shuttle bus together to Kent Ridge Park...the driver brought us to the wrong car park but it was great for me 'cos at least now I have an idea how far I have to walk to get to the nearest bus stop when I have to leave for the aquathlon...quite far leh...

When we got to the right car park...there were some guides and participants of the walk there liao...but no one from our team...hmmm...where's everyone?? Merey came by at abt 9am...then we started out walk w/o Zul who was still on his way...he'll have to catch up with us later...

There were 2 guides leading us...Airani and...oops...forgot the guy's name...
Airani is really chatty and bubbly...hehe...she's really into guiding!! We walked from car park A...towards the pond...then to the board walk...towards Bukit Chandu...where I had to leave liao :( Missed the skit on world war II...

New Balance Aquathlon

On my walk down from Bukit Chandu to the bus stop, I decided to sms Muggs to check on my registration...apparently I'm not registered!!! WAT?!!! Dun tell me I left the trail walk early for nothing!!!

Anyway, decided to go on to Sentosa and see wat's happening...as usual Murphy's Law strike...could take 4 out of 6 buses at that bus stop...but the first THREE buses were those I couldn't take...yup...one of them was a repeat!!! And on the way there...most the traffic lights had to be red...ARRGGHHH...

Finally I got to Siloso Beach...rushed to the registration booth...dunno where are the sgrunner's...no time to go find them and I doubt most of them have h/p with them when the race is starting soon...oh ya...I met Elaine at the bus interchange while waiting for the Sentosa shuttle bus...hehe...she's late too...same wave as me...but she's the runner in a relay with Jayce...

At the registration booth, I explained to them abt my situation...payment made but can't seem to find my name anywhere (just confirmed the payment made from my debit card statement yesterday)...they were actually ready with additional bibs and chips...so at least I can participate and still get proper timing etc...not like some other race I have participated b4 early this year...hehe...

After registration, went into the transition area to get ready for the race...where's Jayce??!! Haha...she's using her lunch time for this race...she'll get here at the last minute...in time to swim and leave b4 her lunch time is up...but unfortunately she din get back in time...hehe...all thanx to the rain!!!

YES...it rained...halfway after my wave started!!! I think my wave is the most affected my the rain...everyone was just swimming halfway...I swam abt 500m when I saw the canoeist asking ppl to leave the water...DAMN! We got out of the water...and I rushed to get my stuff from the transition area which is now soaking wet!!! Then headed to Sapphire Hall where I finally met up with the sgrunners...shld have left my stuff with them...Muggs actually helped to move everyone's stuff into the hall when it started raining :)

We waited and waited...while I was thinking "damn, I rushed here for this??!!!...might as well take my own sweet time...stay on longer at Bukit Chandu"...oh well...u never know...

After a while the rain stopped, the organizers announced that we can either restart the race or discontinue...sianz...obviously we can continue from where we left off...somewhere in the middle of the sea?? Oh ya...we have a wet start for this event...so actually have to tread water before starting...Jayce and I took our own sweet time...wait till they are gg to start us off...then only start swimming towards the starting line...hehe...why waste energy treading water?

The swim here was pretty easy...got floats in the center to guide my direction...so I had a pretty straight swim...not the usual zigzagging when I swim in the sea not able to see which direction I'm able to see...

After I got out of the water I managed to smile to the camera before I run off to the transition area...where took a drink, put on my shorts, singlet, shades, cap, socks and shoes...then my bib...and off I go...it was a pretty slow run with plenty of walking breaks while I'm taking a drink...hehe...slacker...

Finally after 2 rounds of wat the organizer claims to be 5km each but all of us know it can't be...I'm done!! I kept seeing TLR while running...and he was there waiting for us at the finishing...maybe distracted some ppl as the ran towards the u-turn...for a 3rd round?...instead of the finishing line...oops...

After the race, I went to take a shower...hang around for a short while...then headed to SAFRA Mount Faber to collect my AHM race pack with Evan and Elaine...Jayce has gone back to work...very late...she owes her colleagues a meal now...haha...oh ya..Jayce and Elaine got 3rd placings in the women's relay...haha...3rd of 3 teams...next time I shld participate in such category lah...maybe a triathlon, I swim, Jayce cycle, Elaine run :D

After collecting my race pack, I took a bus back to Harbourfront to take train home...decided to have dinner first...went to Subway and found Eunice there too...hehe...had dinner with her ;)

Back home...it's study study study...
At night I decided that I have too much work to do...so din go for Mizuno Wave Run the next morning...just went to collect goodie bag and meet up with sgrunners for a short while ;) haha pay to get the t-shirt only...shld have joined fun run...save money...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

penguin,

saw ur timing result for the aquathlon event..
ur swimming is pretty fast...
even faster than phishy... wow

so it is penguin faster than fish...
or fish is faster than penguin...

:)

penguin said...

hmm...penguin swim fast but short legs go very slowly...haha...excuses...slack lah ;)
phishy run very fast leh...fish dun even have legs??!!

Anonymous said...

hey penguin,

it was nice mtg u at the aquathlon! And u sure look good on all the photos! :p