Today I DNSed for runNUS. No point going there to walk right? haha.

Yup, it happened due to yesterday's 'Ironman 50.0'. Thanks to Kevin for giving the chance to join in his SAFSA training =). It was really quite a blast.

The lead up to the event was less than ideal, with me sleeping like 3 hrs plus and having to time trial for 45mins down to race registration. Breakfast was eaten ON the bike, consisting of sneakers and some red bean bread. An ironically every one was even later than me. Crap.

The swim was expectedly bad due to lack of practice. Poor technique and nobody to ride wash. Navigation wasn't that bad going out although coming back was a bit poor for me. At least there were still a good number of bikes as I got to the transition.

I had to cycle with sand in my shoes but it was fine. Had problems with my rhythm at the start of the bike, feeling kinda full perhaps from the late breakfast. And I was positively irritated with some guy drafting me. I mean, I didn't really feel like giving a stranger a free ride when I was feeling less than ideal... What I did next was kinda extreme, an act just out of pride perhaps.... I simply sat up, and practically stopped pedalling, and let him past me, following which I followed him at about 5 bike lengths back. After catching my breath and seeing a drop in his pace, I put in an attack to 'dislodge' him for good. Seems like guys here love to draft, when Ironman 70.3 is a non-drafting race. Had to ration my powergels in case i run out for the actual event. I had to make a few stops for water too, as the race proved quite long. In the end I just could not catch a pair of riders up ahead, as they were doing a 2 man TTT. My right inner thigh cramped at one point and my speed plunged to 31kmh. It refused to go away when I slowed, so I had to just force my strokes back up to pace. In the end moving forward on the saddle proved to be the trick. This happened at around the 40 km mark, which proved similar to my experience at last year's race. In the end I rode conservatively back to the transition area.

What happened next was just funny. As I took out my feet from my bike shoes, my entire left hamstring cramped with my whole leg out stretched. I just could NOT move my leg, and was forced to take the last corner in a weird position. I even skate scootered my bike in, as I simply could not pedal. Following which, I stopped and just stood there for about 30s. The marshals stared at me and I stared at them. Hur hur. I even stared at other partipants coming in, putting on their shoes and running out -_-''

The run was just agonising and boring. 2 loops. I simply just kept a slow pace that would not lead to cramps. And it was over.