Singapore Sprint Series (Aquathlon) Race Report

This has to be the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life. To start off with, I spent the night before freaking out about the numerous injuries I would have after the swim leg. I've obviously heard too many stories about bloodied noses and black eyes to be able to even have a nice, peaceful night's sleep before the race. Needless to say, like all the other races, I woke up at about 4am thinking I was late. I should just come to terms with the fact that I will always be doing this in future.

There were no hiccups all the way till the start of the race, minus a few moments of shock when G (my rockstar race buddy) and I realised that a 750m swim was a lot less further than we imagined. But G and I had a game plan. In order not to be kicked in the face, we decided to start at the back, way back, essentially as far back as one could possibly get. It was a stupid stupid game plan and I realised that as soon as I started the swim leg. Good gawd, I can't even remember being kicked that many times before by my own fair sex. And because I was at the back, I was stuck with a whole bunch of breast-strokers, which meant more kicking. My goggles got kicked off halfway through, resulting in me treading water and trying to get the water out; I got completely winded when I got a foot in my chest; and one evil b***h tried shoving me down.

I have never felt so out of my depth before. I didn't think I was the fastest swimmer in the world, but I always thought I was a rather strong (which again, doesn't mean fast) swimmer, but the number of times I had to tell myself not to panic was unbelievable. And forget about clear waters blah blah, Sentosa's waters are every bit as crap as the waters at East Coast, minus the garbage floating around you. Half the time I was veering too far right or too far left and because of my need to stick near the buoys, I kept swimming into in. Real clever, huh.

With the swim leg, because of length of the lagoon, we had to swim to one end, run round a cone and swim back again. R, who had come down to give me some moral support, said he witnessed me physically sigh at the start of the lap back. Well, it felt like hell knowing that there was still some more torture to go, so I wasn't all too surprised.

Swim leg was done and I stumbled out of the sea to the transition area, where frankly all I wanted then was for the whole thing to end. I was tired, wet, uncoordinated, thirsty and I had spent what felt like forever in the sea mentally encouraging myself. Somehow though, I stumbled along for the run. Along the way, I saw my best girl pal and CH, who had also come down to cheer me on, bless their souls, and it picked me up a little. G had come out of the water a little behind me and she had caught up with me by now. Thank the good Lord for her, because I swear, without her, I would probably have just walked the entire run leg. So plod through we did and at the end I had to ditch her for the last 100m and just make a wild dash through. It was the 'the faster I get to the finish line, the sooner this will all be over' logic that you almost instantly regret as soon as you make that dash.

Overall, it was a good feeling finishing it, not because I felt the race was fun at any point of time, but because it was so insanely difficult that to complete it felt like I had unlocked some part of my brain...I know it all sounds very abstract but I just can't think of any other way to describe it. The best part about the race though was seeing those friendly faces at the end, that my best friends were there to go through my moment of torture with me, made me feel all fluffy and warm inside.

Race results:
Swim (750m) 23:02mins
Transition 1:40mins (I was really dreading leaving the transition area)
Run (5k) 33:46mins
Overall time 58:29mins

I finished 36 out of 42 for my category, which is crap, but hell, it's my first bi-athlon and I'm really thrilled I finished it under an hour without drowning!