Bintan Triathlon quest for glory falls flat
Flat Spoke Media's Alan Grant has attended all 14 editions of the Bintan Triathlon and participated in all but one, missing one race due to injury. He's had a wee bit of age group and relay success over the years and went into the 2018 race looking for more. But things don't always go to plan.
May 18, 2018
I went into the 2018 Bintan Triathlon feeling fairly confident I’d get on the 50-54 AG podium in the Olympic Distance contest, maybe even win it. I’d been in fine form the past few months, picking up a few gongs here in there in multisport and bike racing events.
Sure, I had underdone the run training a bit to concentrate on the cycling for the Tour of Friendship stage race in Thailand, but the Bintan Tri only involved a 10km run, and with my cycling in such good nick and swimming consistently better than it had ever been, I had hoped to have a nice buffer after the first two legs of the swim/bike/run contest.
My wife Ruth and I arrived at the Nirwana Gardens race HQ around 3pm on the Friday afternoon, about two hours before the Bintan Sunset Classic Swim 1000m was due to splash off. While my swimming has improved, I had no illusions about placing high in the Sunset Classic, I just wanted to help support the event, and besides, I thought a 1,000m hit out the evening before the big race would be good training.
Sure enough, I ended up mid-pack fodder, but the time of 18 minutes for the 1km was pretty good considering I didn’t feel like I was swimming very fast and I hadn’t worn my skinsuit. I was also weaving all over the place for much of the last half of the weirdly shaped course as I couldn’t see the buoys. Doing a sunset swim race for an auld bloke with dodgy eyesight maybe isn’t the best idea as I struggled similarly at the Open Swim Stars Sunset 3km race last year.
I went into the 2018 Bintan Triathlon feeling fairly confident I’d get on the 50-54 AG podium in the Olympic Distance contest, maybe even win it. I’d been in fine form the past few months, picking up a few gongs here in there in multisport and bike racing events.
Sure, I had underdone the run training a bit to concentrate on the cycling for the Tour of Friendship stage race in Thailand, but the Bintan Tri only involved a 10km run, and with my cycling in such good nick and swimming consistently better than it had ever been, I had hoped to have a nice buffer after the first two legs of the swim/bike/run contest.
My wife Ruth and I arrived at the Nirwana Gardens race HQ around 3pm on the Friday afternoon, about two hours before the Bintan Sunset Classic Swim 1000m was due to splash off. While my swimming has improved, I had no illusions about placing high in the Sunset Classic, I just wanted to help support the event, and besides, I thought a 1,000m hit out the evening before the big race would be good training.
Sure enough, I ended up mid-pack fodder, but the time of 18 minutes for the 1km was pretty good considering I didn’t feel like I was swimming very fast and I hadn’t worn my skinsuit. I was also weaving all over the place for much of the last half of the weirdly shaped course as I couldn’t see the buoys. Doing a sunset swim race for an auld bloke with dodgy eyesight maybe isn’t the best idea as I struggled similarly at the Open Swim Stars Sunset 3km race last year.
Looking good at the swim beach turn
Anyway, it was a good laugh and post-race Ruth and I enjoyed a few beers chewing the fat with among others the one-and-only Pete Murray, Gus Wippell and his family, and the professional triathlete race ambassadors Kate Bevilaqua and Guy Crawford. The Nirwana Gardens beach at the Sea Sports Centre really is an agreeable spot.
After dinner I got most of my kit sorted then went to bed fairly early. I even charged the Di2 on the ViAS overnight, just in case ... ha ha ha.
Bintan Triathlon Saturday always stars with the Sprint Distance race in the morning. I’d competed in that the previous two years, finishing third overall and winning the 50+ age group last year. I was tempted to just race that again this year, but having done a half and a full Ironman last year, I thought I’d better step back up to the OD.
The ViAS hadn’t been shifting into the small chain ring for a few weeks, but that hadn’t been a problem as I didn’t really need it in flat Singapore. As the Di2 battery hadn’t been playing up, I assumed the problem was down to the front D taking a knock on the ferry back from Tour de Bintan a few weeks previously. I hadn’t gotten round to taking it to a mechanic back in Singapore, but as Bike School Asia were on hand providing an official race service, I thought I’d take it down to them to have a look.
I felt like a bit of a fool when as soon as they touched the Di2 buttons the shifting between big and small was faultless. Ah well, no harm done. I figured giving it a full overnight charge had done the trick.
I took the bike back along the beach to our nicely renovated chalet at the Mayang Sari section of Nirwana, and then strolled over just in time for the start of the sprint race. It was fun watching various friends competing, and then about 10:45am I headed back to the room to prepare for my race, which was due to start at 1:40pm. Plenty of time to chill for a bit in the aircon and then take my time getting ready. Or so I thought.
The first thing I did when I got back was try to exchange the rear Roval CLX 64 wheel for Ned Boy’s trusty Zipp disc wheel which I’ve had for a few years now since my old pal “retired” from triathlon ... don’t rush back pal. It’s best to be in the small chain ring when removing/fitting a rear wheel, but to my incredulity, the bloody shifting was playing up again and it wouldn’t go into the small ring. No matter, it can still be done in the big ring, but when I tried to shift down the rear cassette I found to my horror that the rear shifting wasn’t working either! Performing the continuous hold on the right shifter confirmed that the charge was at zero as the dreaded red light was flashing!
After dinner I got most of my kit sorted then went to bed fairly early. I even charged the Di2 on the ViAS overnight, just in case ... ha ha ha.
Bintan Triathlon Saturday always stars with the Sprint Distance race in the morning. I’d competed in that the previous two years, finishing third overall and winning the 50+ age group last year. I was tempted to just race that again this year, but having done a half and a full Ironman last year, I thought I’d better step back up to the OD.
The ViAS hadn’t been shifting into the small chain ring for a few weeks, but that hadn’t been a problem as I didn’t really need it in flat Singapore. As the Di2 battery hadn’t been playing up, I assumed the problem was down to the front D taking a knock on the ferry back from Tour de Bintan a few weeks previously. I hadn’t gotten round to taking it to a mechanic back in Singapore, but as Bike School Asia were on hand providing an official race service, I thought I’d take it down to them to have a look.
I felt like a bit of a fool when as soon as they touched the Di2 buttons the shifting between big and small was faultless. Ah well, no harm done. I figured giving it a full overnight charge had done the trick.
I took the bike back along the beach to our nicely renovated chalet at the Mayang Sari section of Nirwana, and then strolled over just in time for the start of the sprint race. It was fun watching various friends competing, and then about 10:45am I headed back to the room to prepare for my race, which was due to start at 1:40pm. Plenty of time to chill for a bit in the aircon and then take my time getting ready. Or so I thought.
The first thing I did when I got back was try to exchange the rear Roval CLX 64 wheel for Ned Boy’s trusty Zipp disc wheel which I’ve had for a few years now since my old pal “retired” from triathlon ... don’t rush back pal. It’s best to be in the small chain ring when removing/fitting a rear wheel, but to my incredulity, the bloody shifting was playing up again and it wouldn’t go into the small ring. No matter, it can still be done in the big ring, but when I tried to shift down the rear cassette I found to my horror that the rear shifting wasn’t working either! Performing the continuous hold on the right shifter confirmed that the charge was at zero as the dreaded red light was flashing!
Swim done, feeling great
Of course I had the charger with me, so I quickly plugged it back in, but by now I probably knew it was curtains for that bike and so I started exploring options. Ruth’s old-school Venge was the obvious answer as it lay right in front of my eyes and she wasn’t racing. It’s a size 54 which can be made to fit me with a longer stem (I ride size 56). Obviously we didn’t have that with us, nor did we have clip-on aero bars, but if the worst came to the worst, I could still at least race, and I surely wouldn’t lose more than a couple of minutes.
I headed back to the transition and spoke with race director Matthe to see if it would be OK to perform a bike change if after the swim my VIAS’s battery was flat again. He confirmed I could do this, and even suggested I get a spare number tag for the seat post to put on the Venge, which I did.
Back to the room and the ViAS was now fully charged again, so I fitted the disc and got on with the rest of race prep. I thought it best to have a little spin to make sure the shifting was fine after the wheel change, and when it was, with a solid green light showing a full charge, I was good to go ... except the battery was flashing red again by the time I got back to the room!
By now it was 12:40 and I really needed to get dressed, rack a bike, any bike, have a warm-up swim, get body marked, etc. So I had to make a decision. And that was to ride Ruth’s bike. Better to have a slightly small bike with no aero bars than end up mid-course with one gear on my own super-slick race machine.
I didn’t feel too bad about the decision, it was what it was. But time was running out and I was beginning to panic a little. Hurry up! I got to transition and discovered that I’d forgotten my transition entry wrist band, my timing chip and my swim cap. My forgetfulness wasn’t the end of the world as the extremely calm and helpful Bronwyn at the MetaSport info desk provided me with replacements ... but it would have been easier if I discovered my missing items all in one go, rather than one at time, which saw me making three walks of shame to see Bronwyn rather than one.
I finally got to the water for my warm-up just as MC Pete was announcing that there were only a few minutes left before we had to line up for the pre-race cultural dances, national anthem, etc. I managed to squeeze in five minutes, but I’ve discovered in recent years that having a 10-15 minute warm up makes a huge difference for me. By again, it was what it was.
Onto the beach and it was good to be standing there with about 40 blokes instead of the usual hundreds. The good folks at MetaSport had introduced a “qualifiers” wave, for men who had done an OD in under 2 hours, 30 minutes. This was a great thing for me as the swim is my weakest of the three disciplines and I always get knocked about senseless in the first 500m of mass starts by the big blokes that can swim really well for a few hundreds metres before their lack of endurance kicks in.
So I was looking forward to clear water all the way. Wrong again. Even with a much reduced field, the dash to the first turning buoy was as mad as ever. Maybe I’d just got better and so was keeping up with the stronger swimmers, but it was annoying.
It eventually thinned out a bit and I found myself swimming in a mini pack with three or four other blokes. We hit the beach for the turn around and I discovered that one of them was Trent Standen, historically a far greater swimmer than me, and better still my main age group rival, Andreas the Greek, was just re-entering the water, so only 20 seconds or so ahead.
The second part of the swim was a dream as I had clear water the whole way and I felt like I was gliding through the sea. I even managed to drop most of my wee group and pass loads of other swimmers.
A glance at my watch as I hit the beach revealed a time of 27 and something, a split I was fairly happy with. I struggled for about three seconds with my skinsuit zip until it came down just enough for me to get out it. My T1 wasn’t great, as without functioning tri shoes (the sole on the pair I had came away recently and I didn’t want to buy another pair) I was forced to take a few extra secs to tighten the dials on my Specialized Expert road shoes, but I was soon heading out hot on the heels of Kona James. I actually beat him in the swim but his transitioning skills are so much better than mine.
I headed back to the transition and spoke with race director Matthe to see if it would be OK to perform a bike change if after the swim my VIAS’s battery was flat again. He confirmed I could do this, and even suggested I get a spare number tag for the seat post to put on the Venge, which I did.
Back to the room and the ViAS was now fully charged again, so I fitted the disc and got on with the rest of race prep. I thought it best to have a little spin to make sure the shifting was fine after the wheel change, and when it was, with a solid green light showing a full charge, I was good to go ... except the battery was flashing red again by the time I got back to the room!
By now it was 12:40 and I really needed to get dressed, rack a bike, any bike, have a warm-up swim, get body marked, etc. So I had to make a decision. And that was to ride Ruth’s bike. Better to have a slightly small bike with no aero bars than end up mid-course with one gear on my own super-slick race machine.
I didn’t feel too bad about the decision, it was what it was. But time was running out and I was beginning to panic a little. Hurry up! I got to transition and discovered that I’d forgotten my transition entry wrist band, my timing chip and my swim cap. My forgetfulness wasn’t the end of the world as the extremely calm and helpful Bronwyn at the MetaSport info desk provided me with replacements ... but it would have been easier if I discovered my missing items all in one go, rather than one at time, which saw me making three walks of shame to see Bronwyn rather than one.
I finally got to the water for my warm-up just as MC Pete was announcing that there were only a few minutes left before we had to line up for the pre-race cultural dances, national anthem, etc. I managed to squeeze in five minutes, but I’ve discovered in recent years that having a 10-15 minute warm up makes a huge difference for me. By again, it was what it was.
Onto the beach and it was good to be standing there with about 40 blokes instead of the usual hundreds. The good folks at MetaSport had introduced a “qualifiers” wave, for men who had done an OD in under 2 hours, 30 minutes. This was a great thing for me as the swim is my weakest of the three disciplines and I always get knocked about senseless in the first 500m of mass starts by the big blokes that can swim really well for a few hundreds metres before their lack of endurance kicks in.
So I was looking forward to clear water all the way. Wrong again. Even with a much reduced field, the dash to the first turning buoy was as mad as ever. Maybe I’d just got better and so was keeping up with the stronger swimmers, but it was annoying.
It eventually thinned out a bit and I found myself swimming in a mini pack with three or four other blokes. We hit the beach for the turn around and I discovered that one of them was Trent Standen, historically a far greater swimmer than me, and better still my main age group rival, Andreas the Greek, was just re-entering the water, so only 20 seconds or so ahead.
The second part of the swim was a dream as I had clear water the whole way and I felt like I was gliding through the sea. I even managed to drop most of my wee group and pass loads of other swimmers.
A glance at my watch as I hit the beach revealed a time of 27 and something, a split I was fairly happy with. I struggled for about three seconds with my skinsuit zip until it came down just enough for me to get out it. My T1 wasn’t great, as without functioning tri shoes (the sole on the pair I had came away recently and I didn’t want to buy another pair) I was forced to take a few extra secs to tighten the dials on my Specialized Expert road shoes, but I was soon heading out hot on the heels of Kona James. I actually beat him in the swim but his transitioning skills are so much better than mine.
Look ma, I got my feet out of my shoes!
Still, the plan was to chase after him and hopefully keep him in sight. If I’m on a good day we’re roughly the same level of cyclist.
But he was clean gone even before I could get up the first hill out of transition. I really struggled even in the small chain ring and I got passed by two or three blokes. And it quickly got worse as I hit the rollers on the road out of the resort. Normally at this race I’ll already be dropping people like flies as I quickly get into my stride, but another two riders passed me on the downhill past the bike shed. My legs felt so heavy that I even stopped and got off the bike to make sure the brake pads weren’t rubbing on the wheels, something that Ruth often complains about with her bike. But no, there was no problem there, it was all me!
I just had to ride as hard as I could. I caught some of the guys that had passed me earlier. I was still relatively faster on the up slopes, but without the aero bars I was getting recaptured and passed on the flats. Frustrating to say the least.
The hills in the Ria Bintan section of the course come around the 14km mark and lasting for some 7km always suit me and as I passed a string of riders my spirits were lifted, but countering that positivity was the fact my back was killing me and sporadic shooting pains were traversing my left leg. The gloom darkened further when looking at the speedo around the half way mark I calculated that I was heading for a 70-minute split. Damn, I usually go low 60s and my aim has always been to try and break the hour. Not today!
I could tell it was really going pear-shaped when Jeremy Snoad passed me about the half way mark. Now Jezza is a strong triathlete and a fine cyclist, but I’m normally faster on the bike. But I couldn’t stay with him as he passed me right at the start of the long, straight return section of the course. I managed to keep him and a bloke called Frik in sight but only just.
The real low point of the ride come just before the left turn into the wee village section with about 12km to go when another bloke came hurtling by me. I had no idea who he was, but it really annoyed me and triggered something within as I soon repassed this guy and then left him for dead. With only 10km to go, it was just the kick up the ass I needed. Soon the gap to Jezza and his mate Frik was closing too and I was feeling a bit better mentally.
I didn’t quite catch them, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a group of some 10 riders going the other way as I approached the roundabout marking 500 metres to go in the bike leg.
I even managed to get out of my bike shoes and do the fancy dismount thing down the hill and soon I was entering a basically empty transition with only a handful of bikes already racked. My split for the 40km was 1:09:27, so I beat the 1:10 I thought I was heading for ... but I was a full 9 minutes slower than my PR for the course!
On the upside, my T2 was much faster than my T1 (even as I sat down to put socks on!!) and I was off on the run and feeling good. I even caught Jezza at the first aid station just before the 1km marker, and I decided to slot behind and just follow for a while. That lasted about 100m before I started to struggle.
Everything felt tight; my legs, my lower back, my upper back and I’d gone from running to shuffling, all within the space of a few hundred metres. Worse, I was about to hit the “fan zone”. The 5km Bintan Tri run course is well designed in that it comes back past transition about 1.3km into the loop allowing family and friends a chance to cheer the athletes on, not once, but twice thanks to two-loop format. Coming just before a steep hill, the encouragement really gives with the runners a lift. The slope is no more than 100 metres long but its steep and with legs still tired from the 40km bike effort, it can be punishing.
As well as Ruth, I heard a few familiar voices cheering me on, but on this occasion those words of encouragement didn’t have the desired effect. I even stopped momentarily right in front of the crowd in a moment of mental weakness. I got going again, but it was hard. I honestly wanted to stop and thought back to my five-hour ordeal in Langkawi in November where I had promised myself that I’d never again put myself through the mental ordeal of finishing a run if I was really struggling.
But he was clean gone even before I could get up the first hill out of transition. I really struggled even in the small chain ring and I got passed by two or three blokes. And it quickly got worse as I hit the rollers on the road out of the resort. Normally at this race I’ll already be dropping people like flies as I quickly get into my stride, but another two riders passed me on the downhill past the bike shed. My legs felt so heavy that I even stopped and got off the bike to make sure the brake pads weren’t rubbing on the wheels, something that Ruth often complains about with her bike. But no, there was no problem there, it was all me!
I just had to ride as hard as I could. I caught some of the guys that had passed me earlier. I was still relatively faster on the up slopes, but without the aero bars I was getting recaptured and passed on the flats. Frustrating to say the least.
The hills in the Ria Bintan section of the course come around the 14km mark and lasting for some 7km always suit me and as I passed a string of riders my spirits were lifted, but countering that positivity was the fact my back was killing me and sporadic shooting pains were traversing my left leg. The gloom darkened further when looking at the speedo around the half way mark I calculated that I was heading for a 70-minute split. Damn, I usually go low 60s and my aim has always been to try and break the hour. Not today!
I could tell it was really going pear-shaped when Jeremy Snoad passed me about the half way mark. Now Jezza is a strong triathlete and a fine cyclist, but I’m normally faster on the bike. But I couldn’t stay with him as he passed me right at the start of the long, straight return section of the course. I managed to keep him and a bloke called Frik in sight but only just.
The real low point of the ride come just before the left turn into the wee village section with about 12km to go when another bloke came hurtling by me. I had no idea who he was, but it really annoyed me and triggered something within as I soon repassed this guy and then left him for dead. With only 10km to go, it was just the kick up the ass I needed. Soon the gap to Jezza and his mate Frik was closing too and I was feeling a bit better mentally.
I didn’t quite catch them, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a group of some 10 riders going the other way as I approached the roundabout marking 500 metres to go in the bike leg.
I even managed to get out of my bike shoes and do the fancy dismount thing down the hill and soon I was entering a basically empty transition with only a handful of bikes already racked. My split for the 40km was 1:09:27, so I beat the 1:10 I thought I was heading for ... but I was a full 9 minutes slower than my PR for the course!
On the upside, my T2 was much faster than my T1 (even as I sat down to put socks on!!) and I was off on the run and feeling good. I even caught Jezza at the first aid station just before the 1km marker, and I decided to slot behind and just follow for a while. That lasted about 100m before I started to struggle.
Everything felt tight; my legs, my lower back, my upper back and I’d gone from running to shuffling, all within the space of a few hundred metres. Worse, I was about to hit the “fan zone”. The 5km Bintan Tri run course is well designed in that it comes back past transition about 1.3km into the loop allowing family and friends a chance to cheer the athletes on, not once, but twice thanks to two-loop format. Coming just before a steep hill, the encouragement really gives with the runners a lift. The slope is no more than 100 metres long but its steep and with legs still tired from the 40km bike effort, it can be punishing.
As well as Ruth, I heard a few familiar voices cheering me on, but on this occasion those words of encouragement didn’t have the desired effect. I even stopped momentarily right in front of the crowd in a moment of mental weakness. I got going again, but it was hard. I honestly wanted to stop and thought back to my five-hour ordeal in Langkawi in November where I had promised myself that I’d never again put myself through the mental ordeal of finishing a run if I was really struggling.
Suffer Rambu, suffer
But I figured that vow was referring to an Ironman and this was just a wee 10km run, so there was nothing for it but to shuffle on. I dreaded the beep of the watch at every KM marker and sure enough the opening 4:58 was followed by a series of 5:50s. I really was trying to go harder but I just couldn’t. I had eaten a whole tube of Clif Shot Bloks as soon as the travails began, but even those 300 calories didn’t seem to have any effect.
Amazingly, though, as I approached transition at the end of my first lap, not that many people had passed me and I figured I was probably still running second in my age group. Andreas was up front, but there was still no sign of Christophe Leger, a far better runner than me.
So I plodded on in the hope that I’d find some speed from somewhere. I got a break when the skies opened at the 6km mark and I instantly felt better, even if the course soon resembled a muddy river in most places. But obviously not that much better as when Christophe passed me with 3km to go I couldn’t follow him.
Not long after, another “old” bloke passed me. I figured he was in my age group but when my attempted lift in pace to go with him didn’t work, I then pathetically clutched at the straw he was in the AG above. He wasn’t, I later found out.
Typically I finally found a bit of pace over the past 1.5km, but by then it was too late and I crossed the line with a run split of 54:39 for a total time of 2:33:57, my worst showing in an Olympic Distance triathlon in a long, long time, perhaps indeed since my first ever race, which was at the inaugural Bintan Tri in 2005. My PB is 2:14:41, which I set in 2013 while running a 44:03.
I should have been gutted, but strangely I wasn’t. I figured it just wasn’t my day and I accepted that and just got on with helping my friends celebrate their fine performances. Andreas was delighted with his win in the 50-54 AG, as was 55-59 powerhouse Big Gav. I’m glad I’m not in his age group :-).
The best of the lot was my mate and fellow Mav Liam WInston, who put in a storming performance to place third overall and second in his age group against the mighty James Middleditch, who he couldn’t quite run down in the finale.
I’ll live to fight another day, but not for a while as with Ramadan upon us there are no local or regional races coming up. Which is probably just as well as I’ve backed up from Bintan with a bit of a hip injury. There had been a niggle there for a while and racing that not-quite-right bike had obviously tipped it over the edge. It’s a pesky nerve pain ailment which will hopefully take no more than a week to settle down. When it does, it’s time to get back to lots of core and leg strength work in the gym before attempting to run again.
A final reflection on the race is that I reckon I was just on a bad day, maybe a case of a race too far after the packed schedule of the last two months. Sure, I’d have gone a bit quicker had I been on my own bike and my body wouldn’t have been so tired on the run, but the signs were there on my two last-minute training runs before Bintan that I wasn’t in race shape. There was also a chunk of mental weakness, though. I’ve got to relearn how to tough it out when I’m struggling on the run.
Looking ahead, post-race I had ruled out Bintan 70.3 in August, but having had a few days of taking it easy I’ll put that decision back on the fence.
The next race is the Singapore ITT Nationals on July 1, and I fancy a tilt at winning that in the Super Masters cat. That’ll be tough as I’m not getting any younger and each year a few newly minted 45-year-olds enter the division, but I’ll have a go.
There might be some other mystery challenge between then and now too.
Read the real 2018 Bintan Triathlon race report here.
Amazingly, though, as I approached transition at the end of my first lap, not that many people had passed me and I figured I was probably still running second in my age group. Andreas was up front, but there was still no sign of Christophe Leger, a far better runner than me.
So I plodded on in the hope that I’d find some speed from somewhere. I got a break when the skies opened at the 6km mark and I instantly felt better, even if the course soon resembled a muddy river in most places. But obviously not that much better as when Christophe passed me with 3km to go I couldn’t follow him.
Not long after, another “old” bloke passed me. I figured he was in my age group but when my attempted lift in pace to go with him didn’t work, I then pathetically clutched at the straw he was in the AG above. He wasn’t, I later found out.
Typically I finally found a bit of pace over the past 1.5km, but by then it was too late and I crossed the line with a run split of 54:39 for a total time of 2:33:57, my worst showing in an Olympic Distance triathlon in a long, long time, perhaps indeed since my first ever race, which was at the inaugural Bintan Tri in 2005. My PB is 2:14:41, which I set in 2013 while running a 44:03.
I should have been gutted, but strangely I wasn’t. I figured it just wasn’t my day and I accepted that and just got on with helping my friends celebrate their fine performances. Andreas was delighted with his win in the 50-54 AG, as was 55-59 powerhouse Big Gav. I’m glad I’m not in his age group :-).
The best of the lot was my mate and fellow Mav Liam WInston, who put in a storming performance to place third overall and second in his age group against the mighty James Middleditch, who he couldn’t quite run down in the finale.
I’ll live to fight another day, but not for a while as with Ramadan upon us there are no local or regional races coming up. Which is probably just as well as I’ve backed up from Bintan with a bit of a hip injury. There had been a niggle there for a while and racing that not-quite-right bike had obviously tipped it over the edge. It’s a pesky nerve pain ailment which will hopefully take no more than a week to settle down. When it does, it’s time to get back to lots of core and leg strength work in the gym before attempting to run again.
A final reflection on the race is that I reckon I was just on a bad day, maybe a case of a race too far after the packed schedule of the last two months. Sure, I’d have gone a bit quicker had I been on my own bike and my body wouldn’t have been so tired on the run, but the signs were there on my two last-minute training runs before Bintan that I wasn’t in race shape. There was also a chunk of mental weakness, though. I’ve got to relearn how to tough it out when I’m struggling on the run.
Looking ahead, post-race I had ruled out Bintan 70.3 in August, but having had a few days of taking it easy I’ll put that decision back on the fence.
The next race is the Singapore ITT Nationals on July 1, and I fancy a tilt at winning that in the Super Masters cat. That’ll be tough as I’m not getting any younger and each year a few newly minted 45-year-olds enter the division, but I’ll have a go.
There might be some other mystery challenge between then and now too.
Read the real 2018 Bintan Triathlon race report here.