my very first duathlon, well cycling event as well. i was super nervous - mostly because i had no biking experience-and i really mean zero. the most i had cycled was for 10km around my housing area, then i got bored. so yes nervous and scared perfectly described my feelings towards this duathlon.
my alarm rang at 330am today. in my mind, all i could think was - i'm having a bad headache from viper. i am super deprived of sleep. my body is super-duper tired from viper, why the heck am i awake at this hour again. i seriously questioned my sanity. but i pulled myself together, got dressed, packed my stuffs, and hopped onto the car.
mucho gracias to my uncle (he is 19) who offered to drive me down to portdickson in the early hours. i hopped on the car, fell asleep, and awakened in pd. we got there about 5 ish. he helped me fix the bike up (thankfully he came along).
i really was like a lost puppy. i had no idea how to rack the bike. i had no idea how transition worked, luckily daryl helped me with the racking and taught me how to. oh and did i mention i wore the helmet the wrong way. if he did not point that out when i tried the helmet on, well i would have a dangerous biking experience. so we racked the bike. then i placed a bottle of water, a small towel, my cycling pants and a big towel in my transition basket.
i really was like a lost puppy. i had no idea how to rack the bike. i had no idea how transition worked, luckily daryl helped me with the racking and taught me how to. oh and did i mention i wore the helmet the wrong way. if he did not point that out when i tried the helmet on, well i would have a dangerous biking experience. so we racked the bike. then i placed a bottle of water, a small towel, my cycling pants and a big towel in my transition basket.
so i just raced like a blur kid. before i knew it, it was flagoff. the 5km run was a breeze for me since i am afterall a runner - not the best runner, but still a runner. then came transition. the initial plan was to use the towel to wrap around my waist, like a sarong, to change into my cycling pants. a friend of mine said this to me 'don't crazy, wait you cause lots of accidents'. so at transition, i thought it might be a little crazy so i just pulled my cycling pants over my running pants. i unracked the bike, and ran towards the mounting line. and off i went to cycle.
the bike course was super duper hilly. it was definitely difficult for me. i paddled and huffed and puffed. i thought to myself, hmm i'm doing such a great job and i'm pretty tired i must have covered quite a distance already, then i stared down at the speedometre and saw i only travelled 3.95km out of the 30km. that was barely 20 per cent. that was when i went damn. i went slowly and steadily up and down the hills. but having a massive amount of people pass me on the bike course was pretty demotivating - really really demotivating. i felt like i was super crap at the bike course. but then again, it was something expected, afterall i have no training, no experience, what did i expect. but there were moments when i had funny thoughts like 'you wait, i'll pass you on the run course' when people passed me on the bike course. i was so glad when biking was done.
after getting off the bike, i felt my legs go jelly. it took me some time to get into the running mode. but i managed to pass a number of people on the run course, as vowed haha. i managed to complete the course in 2 hours and 24 minutes. i was gunning for a 2h 30 minutes time. my ideal time would have been 2 h 15 minutes. just have to train harder next time.
all in all - a great experience. no regrets. much thanks to my support team=)
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