It was indeed an expected race of the best would turn out on Sunday ago, very tough and challenging. I woke up at 5 am to get myself ready for the race, as during the briefing they mentioned that we had to be at the race site by 6 a.m. Then it was to our surprise that by 6:30 am the organizers haven't set up anything as they still had to give away briefing for those who did not turn out on Saturday morning, so it was a long wait indeed. Initially when I first sign up in the registration booth there were only 11 of us in the Men's Open Category, but who knew it would be 40 of us instead on the race day, it was nerve-wrecking at some point as only the best were there. I met my friend Yaap, from Brunei, and I was stunned when I saw him because I didn't expect him to be there. But it was after all to have him around, as were talking the whole morning while waiting for the race to start.
The race was schedule to start at 7 am for the Under 12's category, and 7:30 am for the 13-17's category and the 18 and above's category. When it was already 7 am, everybody was still relaxing and talking because obviously the organizers were not ready yet. So Yaap and I were saying if only we knew it would be this late we could have slept for another hour instead for wasting our time waiting here, and I didn't do my warm up not till after 7:30a.m. The weather was perfectly fine, sunny and very light breeze, but we could see the strong current moving underneath the water as there were current drift and swells. The water felt cold, really cold, when I went down for a warm up but it wasn't that salty after all so it was a perfect condition to swim in. As were ready for the swim, we still had to wait for the Datuk to flag off, so it was a long wait2. Then, the race was about to start at 8:30a.m.
Yaap and Nen Ching were standing beside me, as we were standing behind the crowd at the starting line. We didn't wanna stand on the front line because everybody would rush and run into the water like a herd of bulls. "Jack, why are we doing this?" asked Yaap, as he was feeling quite nervous and so did I. It was our first time to swim a 5.4km cross-channel swim and never had any experience in it, so we totally set our mind to "just finish it". I gave Yaap a laugh back and told him I didn't know why I was there to suffer, I really felt blank and empty that moment because the only thing in my mind was just swim. So off it went the horn, everybody rushed into the water, while a few of us took a slow walk. As I entered the water I could see many people were struggling to get out from the starting pack because it was just too crowded. So Yaap, Nen Ching and I were quite lucky to start from the back and over took them from the side. Nen Ching was the one, who sprinted away first, and I swam at my own pace and Yaap got left behind as I couldn't see him anymore. Just about 300m after the start, everybody started to spread into the channel, you could nearly see as if people were being scattered into the water. The buoys were supposed to be a guideline for us as well as the kayaks, but the buoys somehow were drifted away by the current and the kayaks were not enough to escort everybody. So I told myself, "You're on your own now, nobody is here to save you, so it's a survival mode", that somehow reminded be the Ball breaker challenge I did back in 2004 as I ran for 7 and half hours in the jungle without any help. After a 1km, I started to realize the buoys went even further and I thought I was swimming off course. But I could a kayak in front of me, about 200m away, so I started to chase the kayak. As I was chasing the kayak, 50m away from my right were 2 swimmers so that gave me an idea I was swimming in the right direction as I didn't have to lift my head forward the whole time. But it got tougher as I swam further because the current was pushing me off from the course and I didn't realize, because I couldn't see any buoys anymore. The only thing in my mind in that moment was whether I could finish or not, and I started to wonder how I could finish. But I kept going as I didn't wanna give up as I was there to finish the race. I also did tell myself how I wish Kath was there to tell me how to get a good sleep the night before the race because I didn’t have a good sleep at all. Many thoughts went through my mind as I was swimming alone. Yet I was lucky because I saw swimmer was coming up quite fast from behind and in the end I found myself a partner to tag along and pace with for the whole journey. The both of us were quite competitive as I didn't wanna let him overtake me and he didn't wanna let me overtake him, so instead of maintaining a steady pace towards the island I was somehow sprinting against this guy to the island. When I felt the wave got stronger, I lifted my head up to see there was a boat beside us and there was a camera man onboard to video us throughout the whole way to the island, thanks to the boat for the wave!!!!! As we were getting close to the island, we couldn't see where the turning point was. So the guy was asking me where the turning point was and I told him lets just swim to the shore and find out. We were not allow to rest by holding onto the buoys or the kayaks because we would be disqualified, so the only way to rest is to swim backstroke or breaststroke. But it was really nice as we were approaching the island as I could see the corals beneath me, it was beautiful. But I kept myself focus and not to be carried away by the beautiful corals as it was very tempting to dive down to touch them. So I swam to the shore, so did that guy, and we found out we were 100m away from the turning point. So we ran as fast as we could to go to the turning point and headed back into the water. As we were entering the water, that guy and I agreed to pace each other in order to swim back, so we were watching each other's back. It was so funny because whenever we realize we were going into the wrong direction, we would tap each other's back to acknowledge the right direction. We gave no time to rest as we were swimming as fast as we could to try to catch the people in front and to head back. It was really bothering when we passed by two workboats, as we hardly breathe because of the diesel fumes from the boats, it was smelly. The sun was getting hotter as I could feel my back started to feel the burning sensation, but it was that bad because the water was cool enough. Hence, we went off course again while we were not far away from the finish line as the current was getting stronger. Then I heard some kayakers were shouting to tell us we were in the wrong direction, I realized that too as I saw the buoy was far to my left. Thus, I told that guy to hurry up as he was already exhausted and could really catch up anymore. But I told him we can make him as we were really getting closer. Thus, he gave his full strength and I gave mine to sprint towards the finish point. I crossed the finish line with a smile and a heart of honor.
I felt unbelievable the moment I finished the swim, as I have never done it before. It felt great! I had to sign in just to let the judges I was out alive, and I could see I was in the top 10. I felt really happy to know as there was a lady whispering to her friend saying I got 6th, so I double check again after the shower and I got 7th out of 40 guys in the group. I felt really satisfy and most of all very relief. I have never swam such a long distance race throughout my life and yet I did it this time, I didn't expect myself to win anything but just gotta get through the challenge as that what I was born to do, the feeling of achieving in overcoming such challenge still dwells in me and it gives a drive to encounter more as I know I can do it as long as I set my mind to. I’m really that I scored a 7th placed and got an Rm300 cash prize too, felt good about it though. I told myself that I will definitely be back next year for it, and I know what to do next time. It's gonna be better, tougher, and stronger in 2009!
The race was schedule to start at 7 am for the Under 12's category, and 7:30 am for the 13-17's category and the 18 and above's category. When it was already 7 am, everybody was still relaxing and talking because obviously the organizers were not ready yet. So Yaap and I were saying if only we knew it would be this late we could have slept for another hour instead for wasting our time waiting here, and I didn't do my warm up not till after 7:30a.m. The weather was perfectly fine, sunny and very light breeze, but we could see the strong current moving underneath the water as there were current drift and swells. The water felt cold, really cold, when I went down for a warm up but it wasn't that salty after all so it was a perfect condition to swim in. As were ready for the swim, we still had to wait for the Datuk to flag off, so it was a long wait2. Then, the race was about to start at 8:30a.m.
Yaap and Nen Ching were standing beside me, as we were standing behind the crowd at the starting line. We didn't wanna stand on the front line because everybody would rush and run into the water like a herd of bulls. "Jack, why are we doing this?" asked Yaap, as he was feeling quite nervous and so did I. It was our first time to swim a 5.4km cross-channel swim and never had any experience in it, so we totally set our mind to "just finish it". I gave Yaap a laugh back and told him I didn't know why I was there to suffer, I really felt blank and empty that moment because the only thing in my mind was just swim. So off it went the horn, everybody rushed into the water, while a few of us took a slow walk. As I entered the water I could see many people were struggling to get out from the starting pack because it was just too crowded. So Yaap, Nen Ching and I were quite lucky to start from the back and over took them from the side. Nen Ching was the one, who sprinted away first, and I swam at my own pace and Yaap got left behind as I couldn't see him anymore. Just about 300m after the start, everybody started to spread into the channel, you could nearly see as if people were being scattered into the water. The buoys were supposed to be a guideline for us as well as the kayaks, but the buoys somehow were drifted away by the current and the kayaks were not enough to escort everybody. So I told myself, "You're on your own now, nobody is here to save you, so it's a survival mode", that somehow reminded be the Ball breaker challenge I did back in 2004 as I ran for 7 and half hours in the jungle without any help. After a 1km, I started to realize the buoys went even further and I thought I was swimming off course. But I could a kayak in front of me, about 200m away, so I started to chase the kayak. As I was chasing the kayak, 50m away from my right were 2 swimmers so that gave me an idea I was swimming in the right direction as I didn't have to lift my head forward the whole time. But it got tougher as I swam further because the current was pushing me off from the course and I didn't realize, because I couldn't see any buoys anymore. The only thing in my mind in that moment was whether I could finish or not, and I started to wonder how I could finish. But I kept going as I didn't wanna give up as I was there to finish the race. I also did tell myself how I wish Kath was there to tell me how to get a good sleep the night before the race because I didn’t have a good sleep at all. Many thoughts went through my mind as I was swimming alone. Yet I was lucky because I saw swimmer was coming up quite fast from behind and in the end I found myself a partner to tag along and pace with for the whole journey. The both of us were quite competitive as I didn't wanna let him overtake me and he didn't wanna let me overtake him, so instead of maintaining a steady pace towards the island I was somehow sprinting against this guy to the island. When I felt the wave got stronger, I lifted my head up to see there was a boat beside us and there was a camera man onboard to video us throughout the whole way to the island, thanks to the boat for the wave!!!!! As we were getting close to the island, we couldn't see where the turning point was. So the guy was asking me where the turning point was and I told him lets just swim to the shore and find out. We were not allow to rest by holding onto the buoys or the kayaks because we would be disqualified, so the only way to rest is to swim backstroke or breaststroke. But it was really nice as we were approaching the island as I could see the corals beneath me, it was beautiful. But I kept myself focus and not to be carried away by the beautiful corals as it was very tempting to dive down to touch them. So I swam to the shore, so did that guy, and we found out we were 100m away from the turning point. So we ran as fast as we could to go to the turning point and headed back into the water. As we were entering the water, that guy and I agreed to pace each other in order to swim back, so we were watching each other's back. It was so funny because whenever we realize we were going into the wrong direction, we would tap each other's back to acknowledge the right direction. We gave no time to rest as we were swimming as fast as we could to try to catch the people in front and to head back. It was really bothering when we passed by two workboats, as we hardly breathe because of the diesel fumes from the boats, it was smelly. The sun was getting hotter as I could feel my back started to feel the burning sensation, but it was that bad because the water was cool enough. Hence, we went off course again while we were not far away from the finish line as the current was getting stronger. Then I heard some kayakers were shouting to tell us we were in the wrong direction, I realized that too as I saw the buoy was far to my left. Thus, I told that guy to hurry up as he was already exhausted and could really catch up anymore. But I told him we can make him as we were really getting closer. Thus, he gave his full strength and I gave mine to sprint towards the finish point. I crossed the finish line with a smile and a heart of honor.
I felt unbelievable the moment I finished the swim, as I have never done it before. It felt great! I had to sign in just to let the judges I was out alive, and I could see I was in the top 10. I felt really happy to know as there was a lady whispering to her friend saying I got 6th, so I double check again after the shower and I got 7th out of 40 guys in the group. I felt really satisfy and most of all very relief. I have never swam such a long distance race throughout my life and yet I did it this time, I didn't expect myself to win anything but just gotta get through the challenge as that what I was born to do, the feeling of achieving in overcoming such challenge still dwells in me and it gives a drive to encounter more as I know I can do it as long as I set my mind to. I’m really that I scored a 7th placed and got an Rm300 cash prize too, felt good about it though. I told myself that I will definitely be back next year for it, and I know what to do next time. It's gonna be better, tougher, and stronger in 2009!
1 comment:
Hi ^^
Nice to meet you.
I'm Michele from Labuan, studying at Curtin too.
I remembered I saw you there joining too =D
*as I was there joining too*
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