I have taken part in both events before and honestly, I was gunning for a double podium on this occasion and I am really glad that God did bless me with the right conditions to be able to earn it. I had raced Metasprint (Sprint) category in 2013 under NUS and that was my first publicly-organised multi-sport race, which comprised of a 750m swim+5km run along Sentosa (technically the same route as this year) and was happy with a 4th positioning. I had raced Surf & Sweat on several occasions as well, once with Justin Sim (4th) and last year with Johanna (which she paddled), which we won 1st.
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| Post-race 2013 - Metasprint |
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| Inexperienced me |
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| Girls team Metasprint 2013 - So much larger than 2014 |
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| Metasprint 2013 team photo! :) |
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| SurfNSweat with the aqua girls |
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| 1st for women's doubles 2013 - SurfNSweat |
Well, I don't mean to say I'm very experienced this year but having done the races before makes pre-race jitters a lot lesser. Just that I didn't know my competitors initially at all, which does scares me, but I was determined to put that aside and race to the best of my ability. This year was a little different too - I picked the Discovery Series for Metasprint & Women's Doubles SurfNSweat (with me paddling instead of running) as it was 1) Cheaper (now that I'm self-funded) 2) Higher chances of podium given the limited training time I have 3) Later start time which translates to longer time to sleep in. hahahas..It was pretty exciting because both events were held on the same day as well.
One important note: I realised pro-athletes (not me) like to race multiple events on a single day - Vanja raced Metasprint Elite, SurfNSweat Women Individual & later, Lovers Challenge; while Nuoshi & Sweehong did SurfNSweat Women Individual & Doubles :x
I travelled up to Sentosa with John and was really thankful for his advice/pre-race plan, which we did stick to quite well. It did wonders to calm the jitters! Basically (also going out to race-noobs like me), we went to get body marking first, then set up transition, put our bags down, last minute toilet break & warm up before the event. Please do a last minute check on the race route too! Thank goodness time flew and soon it was time for our races. John was flagged off first before myself and soon, I found myself in a ready position on the start line.
I must say the race went pretty smoothly, I was trying my hardest to keep up with the front girl on the swim, which was my race plan since the swim leg was so short, so that I can catch her on the run. It was a pretty furious swim though, because I wanted to stick to the lane ropes and draft to reduce my timing, which I managed to (proud of myself) and I was 3rd from my swim. Transition area was a whizz (I took about 1:15min) and I didn't realised I was first out of transition - which did create problems as I was unsure if I took the correct route because it felt so short. Thankfully I did and managed at 9:47 for the 2.5km run (although I think the distance was shorter).
However, when I got back, I was disappointed to learn that John (& couple of others) took the wrong race route, which cost them their podium :( I felt soooo terrible as I was the one who told him the route :(( I had really hoped to get a podium positioning with him. Moral of the story: Mind your own business. Yet another painful lesson learnt. And it's not the first..It was partially the route marshal's fault too, being small kids, I wasnt surprised that they confused the participants from Metasprint & SurfNSweat.
Oh well..I tried to eat a matcha-jelly ice cream to cheer myself up but :(
Thank goodness that issue was off my mind when I had to worry about Anne getting to Sentosa on time for registration for SurfNSweat. And the next thing was to worry about our competitors - Nuoshi & Sweehong..hahahs..I knew my paddling would be better than 2 years ago with Justin but probably not as good as Nuoshi.
I really gave it my best shot. Although I went offcourse & was overtaken by the girls, I tried to paddle to catch up and I really did :) Then in order to pace Anne, I rushed to grab my running shoes to look for Anne. It was a good race and we managed a 1st, ahead of the 2 NTU girls :D
Overall, I thought that both races were pretty well organised, with Metasprint having very good time management but SurfNSweat, despite some delays, did manage the whole event in good timing.
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| 1st for SurfNSweat - Heavy Hamper! |
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| Team at Metasprint! |
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| First for Discovery |
