Gold Coast ITU World Championships 2009 – Race Day

Race day; it is the day that I have trained for, the day that I have been dreaming of, the day that I have been waiting to compete in for all my life in triathlon. I spent all my life swimming, cycling and running where it all came down to this very day, the biggest day of my life. I didn’t come here to lose or win, but I came to do my best with all that I have.

I woke up quite early in the morning to get myself ready for the race, as the bus shuttle leaves at 5am. Everyone seemed very nervous that morning in the bus; everyone was just keeping quiet and focused well ahead. So as I, kept my mind to my music and what will be ahead of me is a day of pride. I didn’t feel nervous for the first time in my life, never had I raced before in such mood as I always feel nervous and often had sleepless nights. But this time, it feels nothing and just plain freedom.

It was a very cold morning; I had to be in 3 layers of clothing to keep warm, but still cold I felt. So when I got to the transition area to get everything, as the sun came out, it was a good sign which was gonna be a good day. The ITU official announced the water temperature was 20˚C and so it had to be a wetsuit swim, I was feeling lucky with the wetsuit I bought.

The night before the race; I spoke to Kim and she told me about swimming and racing in wetsuit, the rush of lactic acid. I remember Kim told me how she felt during her race in the Commonwealth Games, it was in Gold Coast as well…the same condition. Then, I knew I was gonna encounter the same problems as she did back then.

I was never trained in wetsuit, and never wore one before. As I put on my wetsuit to get to the start, it felt really tight and hard to breathe as I could feel my chest was being tightened. But the water was too cold so I had no choice but to swim in the wetsuit. The start of my wave was at 8:20a.m; and everyone around me was really feeling intense, felt like a war in this age-group (25-29) as it is the toughest group. Yet I kept telling myself no matter what happens just go with the flow.

The sun was just right up ahead, shining brightly and could feel the wetsuit absorbing the heat which felt good. I took a few deep breath 30s into the race, as the clock ticks away I could feel the time has slowly die down…and slowly, I could not hear anything else but my breath and heartbeat. Nothing else matters now, slowly I felt alone in this world…and nothing on my shoulder.

“Hoooonnnnkkkk!” the race has kicked off as precise as the honk was sounded. We all ran into the water and with less than 10m the swim started. It was very crowded and everybody was struggling to swim away or over each other. The moment I got into the water, I could feel that coldness rushed into the skin of my face, hands and feet. And each breath I took felt icy cold, so I swam as fast as I could. In awhile, I could feel somebody touching my feet then the next minute hard kick into my eye where it was filled with water. So I quickly had it proper again in a matter of seconds. The 1500m swim felt really tough, as I was really struggling with the cold and the wetsuit. I was trying so hard to swim at race pace like how I did back in the tropics, but the more I try the stiffer it became. The cold just set in as distance per distance went by.

As I was approaching the end of the swim, it felt relief to get out of the cold. But I didn’t know what was gonna happen is the worst I would have ever experience; the moment I got out of water, I felt unstable as I ran towards the transition area. It took me about 15s to take my cap and goggle off, and I was struggling to get the wetsuit off as well as my hands were numbed. I wasn’t running straight into the transition area, I was running sideways instead. I felt very dizzy and I couldn’t see properly, I was breathing deeply and desperately for air. I found it difficult to coordinate where I was going, for awhile I couldn’t think right. I heard nothing but only my breathing, and as I was approaching my bike I nearly fell onto the ground as I couldn’t stand still. It was so dizzy that I couldn’t do anything right at that time, I was holding onto my bike in order not to fall to the ground as I know I would faint if I do so. I was gasping for more air to get my body back to normal.

When I finally got off from the wetsuit, it all felt much better when I was exiting with my bike into the 2nd leg. At that moment, I finally understood how lactic acid rushes in blood vessel feels like in the blood vein…first time I experienced this and it just felt so horrible. And I finally knew what Kim has to go through in her first world championship as well.

The bike leg was a non-drafting format, so it was like a time trial. I felt good and strong on the bike as soon as I recovered from the lactic acid rush. My legs felt fresh and I was going on a very consistent RPM, 35km/hr on average speed. But tough luck happened when I got caught in a group of about 40 triathletes. I almost knocked the corn on the road side so I eventually slowly moved myself out of that danger zone towards the right side. And, as I was riding outside and trying to get stable the ITU official was on the motorbike and chased after me. Then he gave me a whistle and shouted my number “1027 you are to stop right now by the penalty of drafting!” He gave me a yellow card luckily as a warning of the stop-and-go penalty. I was very pissed because of all the people in such a big group yet I was the one that get caught.

After I stop and jumped back onto the bike again, I was all alone again of course. But then, though the group was not too far away from me I heard the ITU official whistle at someone from the same group. I guess he was too busy calling people for drafting. Overall, I lost about 10mins from the bike leg and that’s a lot yet I feel grateful there was not a red card so at least I still finished the race without disqualification.

As I got off from the bike, my legs were still feeling as fresh as ever. I never felt like this before, but perhaps it is the cold weather here that didn’t get my body heated. When I got my shoes on and ran out of the transition area, I could hit race pace as soon as I was on the road. And, for the first time I ran a 15mins for 5km which I was really happy. But on the 2nd loop of the run, I was struggling with the cold again as I was wet from drinking water. That cold just really dragged me down; my hands were numbed again and my chest was feeling really cold. My legs started to feel the cold and it felt like getting stiffer, that was quite hard to run. So in the end, the run turn out to be a 41mins 10km where the loss time was around 6mins.

Throughout the race, I was basically struggling and battling against the cold. Now, I finally really understand how it feels like to race in cold climate. I finished the race with a time of 2hrs:26mins and placed 105th out of 115, and 742th out of more than 2000 triathletes from around the world. I know that many people back home do expect me to win this; but this is a world championship, it’s not any easy peasy race or fun race like what we have back in Malaysia as this is seriously a world championship that only the best gets to compete. Everybody is fit and strong in their own, and of course they take triathlon seriously and not just for fun. I saw many triathletes who are highly sponsored, and majority of them carried names of many. After all, it is one competitive field beyond anyone can ever imagine because you will only understand how it feels when you have done it.

First of all, I would like to thank my coach and a good friend, Ainsley Laing, who have always been helping all these years to achieve this and it would have been impossible without her. I would like to thank Curtin University of Technology Australia and Miri, Sarawak for their generous sponsorships, and also great thanks to the EAFU Program which gave me convenient to train even harder. And also, great thanks to Sarawak Triathlon Association, Awang Hashim, for giving me this chance to compete at world championship.

Truly, I have finally fulfilled my dream. It’s been a dream come true to compete here at world championship. It is the very day that I have dream of; from all the hard work I have made, all the tough times I’ve had in training, all the pain and struggle it is now worth living the life I have chosen. For my dream has come true, and doing what I do best in my life…this is my first world championship, and it is just the beginning of everything. Nothing is impossible, and you can do whatever you set your mind to.

by Jack Ho