pierreo.com – Join me on my journey

pierreo July 31st, 2008

Do not be surprised if you start seeing some changes to pierreo.com and this blog.

With the guidance of David, I have been progressing with modifications I wanted to do a long time ago – just never had (or wanted to take) the time necessary.

I have already upgraded the version of WordPress that I use and will soon learn (by trial and error I am sure) how to modify the theme and look of the blog.  You will probably not notice a lot of the changes I am making, unless you bother to ‘explore’ my sites – yes, sites with an ‘s’.  Here is what I have so far:

PIERREO.COM – the main site and home for all the other.  Also the home for this blog.  The main purpose of this bolg will remain ME!  This is a way to share my life with you the reader.

PIERREO.BE – There have been time when I have wanted to react to world events and solicit ideas and opinions from others on the subject.  I always hesitated to do this in MY blog, and therefore I will set-up a separate bolg where I can be more provocative and, hopefully, get some interesting debates going

TWIMPG.NET – This will be my travel site.  I will gradually include there photos from the trips I have taken over the years (I am already working hard on Japan).  Maybe, after I get more ambitious, and certainly more familiar with the INTERNET, this may also become a general forum where people can share information and advise on various destinations.

LES-LAVES.COM – I have not yet decided what to do with this one.  As I Learn more using the ones above, maybe something will come to me.  I just wanted to reserve the name, just in case.

Please (and I mean this) let me have your comments, ideas and suggestions.  You can comment directly to this post if you are not shy about having everybody see what you say, or drop me a note if you want to do so privately.  Thanks in advance for your help in this endeavour.

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pierreo July 19th, 2008

The verdict is in and it may have taken me 50 years to learn this but now I know: I am mad!

Actually I am probably too harsh on myself – I did not have deep enough thoughts to consider madness for the first few years of my life and therefore it probably only took me 46 or 47 years to learn this.  In any case, I am a slow learner, but you must agree with me that it is not easy to admit something like this.

So what finally triggered this revelation?  The week-end of 12 and 13 July! And of course a lot of things that happened before that.

It all started one day in June 1957 – but I will skip a few episodes to 2006 and an innocent proposal from a friend:  “Pierre, would you like to run in the JP Morgan Run – it is only 5.6 km?”  I said yes and he is still my friend – I do not blame him for what happened after that.

I actually enjoyed the run, and the competition and wanted more.  I than agreed to run the 1/2 marathon in December 2006.  Than another friend talked about a ‘biathlon’ (swim than run) and I completed my first one in March 2007 and enjoyed that.  Here I am coming out of the water during that event.

Than I found out about the Singapore Triathlon, and I was doomed!

In 2007, I signed up and trained really hard for 2 months.  On the day of the competition, I was ready, but the weather was not.  After swimming 1.5 km in a sea that looked more like a washing machine and cycling 10 km in a driving rain, the organisers called the race off because it was getting dangerous.  I was devastated, and compensated that day by winning the silver medal in a local charity Dragon Boat race with Papillon.

I was determined to do better this year.

I set up a rigorous training program in May and June to prepare: Monday – swim, occasionally followed by run or cycle; Tuesday – Gym; Wednesday – Run; Thursday – rest; Friday – Cycle; Saturday – Dragon Boat; Sunday – Cycle and Run, or Swim and Cycle.

All was going well until I was faced with a decision – actually a series of decisions.

My week end started early on Saturday 12 July.  I had to organise paddles, life jackets and the all important ‘butt protectors’ as well as drinks for Papillon as we were competing in the Corporate Community Games that day.  This has become a very important competition for us as last year, this was the first time that we won anything as a team.  We won the bronze medal in the mixed competition when few expected us to do that well.  Read all about it in my entry of July last year.  This was the picture of us with our first medal.

I arrived at Bedok Reservoir early enough to see the completion of the Men’s competition. ExxonMobil Teams took 2nd and 3rd place behind Citibank.  A much better result than last year when no medals were won.

The mixed competition was tougher with 18 teams entered.  I did not row for the heat and we came in first with a good lead over … the other ExxonMobil Team – Roaring Lillies.  This meant that both teams went directly into the semi-finals.

Here is the whole group before our respective semi finals.

Fortunately our two teams were in different semi-finals.  Papillon went first and the finish was very, very close.  I had taken my usual place at the back of the boat with Ben (the two ‘mountains’ were back together again) and I knew we were not first as OCBC was clearly a little in front of us, but Citibank was very close and I could not tell who was second and who was third.  However, we were reassured when we saw the EM fans on the docks jumping up and down holding up two fingers.  Only the top two teams from each semi made it to the finals!  We were in but, as we found out later, with the worst qualifying time.

The final was a blurr to me.  There was a false start, the first I can ever remember.  We shot out quickly and had a small lead but OCBC was coming back slowly.  The finish between OCBC and ourselves was again very close and this time, we were not so happy when our friends held out TWO FINGERS.  We did one better than last year, but maybe not as good as what we could have done.  There is always room for improvement.

As we did last year, we ended up celebrating the medal at my apartment.  Only this time, I had asked everybody to leave around 10 PM as I needed rest.  The Singapore Airforce celebrated with us with a fantastic aerobatics display – this was one of the final rehearsals for the National Day Parade that will take place on 9 August.  The food took forever to get here, but we had fun and did not really care, other than the hunger we all felt.  We listened to music – no Queens this time – and talked and relaxed.  At about 10:15, without any prompting on my part, some one said “Let’s go” and within 5 minutes the apartment was clean and everybody had left.

On Sunday – It was Triathlon Time!  And it did not go all that well.  The swim was OK – it was difficult and it took me 40 minutes to complete the 1.5 km (my usual time is about 30 minutes) but I was 6th out of the water in the ’50 and over’ category.  Here is the start – I am to the left of middle, starting my stopwatch and wearing the orange cap and the red and white top

  The cycling went OK as well.  I completed the 40 km in a little over 1h20m, about the time I was hoping for.  However, as soon as I started running, I knew I was in trouble.  After 2 km, I could barely run.  After 3 km I started walking and I knew that I would  not complete the event.  I had no energy left, was dehydrated and could not drink enough to feel better.

So my second Triathlon ended with DNF!

Did the events of the day before contribute to this?  Probably not the ideal preparation for a 3-hour endurance race.

Would I do it again? Without a second of hesitation – YES! 

That’ why I am MAD!

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pierreo July 6th, 2008

Last year, Papillon lost in the heats to a team called NewUrbanMale (NUM) by only 0.5s after a nearly 5 minute race.  I never got over it – most of us did not.

See post on the subject in July 2007

This year, our goal was: 1) make it to the semis and 2) Beat NewUrbanMale!

Once again, there is no Inter-Corporate Mixed competition so Papillon is entered in the open division together with EM Ace, EM Roaring Forties (our veterans) and EM Refinery.  EM Sea Blades is in Inter-business clubs and houses and EM Tiger Lillies is entered in the Inter-Corporate Ladies. A full house as last year.

Just as a reminder, this is one of the largest Dragon Boat competitions in Singapore and is definitely the longest at 800 m.  This may not seem like much to you, but 4 1/2 minutes of hard rowing is a grueling race.  Most of the other events we will enter are run over 250 or 300 m.

Papillon is drawn in the fourth heat, against Manulife, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Shell, and Health Science Authority – no NUM.

The start is delayed as two of the teams are having problems setting up. They have a new starting ‘method’ for this year with a pontoon and the boats are held in position.  It is much easier once you are in place, but a little more difficult to get in position, especially since the wind is strong and against us.  We wait patiently, breath deep and concentrate.

The start is good, with our new strategy of 30 hard strokes propelling us into the lead.  Very quickly, it is a two boat race, between ourselves and RBS – all the others are far behind.  After our hard-10, we are even with RBS, but they do a hard-10 and take a 1 or 2 seat lead.  Patrick, our coach, is thinking for all of us, and does not call for a second hard-10.  He also does an abbreviated charge of only 50 m.  The rules are simple – the top two teams in each heat qualify for the semi finals – no point in wasting energy now.

We come in second to RBS with an excellent time of 4 m 51 s, slower than last year, but we were rowing against a very strong wind.  The other teams in our heat are very far behind.  Here are the results:

Most of the teams in the other heats have times above 5 minutes.  A lot of the top teams do not go all out in the heats, true, but we have a time in the top 10 which is not too bad considering that we are competing against all male teams and we have 2 (very good) ladies rowing with us.

Our first objective is met.

Sunday – we are in the first semi-final, with HP (who had the best time in the heats), our old friends NUM, UBS, Citibank and National Health Care.  Three other EM Teams are qualified for the semi-finals – a better result than last year. 

Earlier in the morning, the Tiger Lillies had their semi-final (only 12 teams signed up) and qualified in third place for the final.

We know our task is difficult.  Only the top two teams in each semi-final will qualify for the final.  HP is probably untouchable so once again, it looks like NUM, and our performance against them, will be the deciding factor.  In the heats, NUM Had a slower time than we did, but, as I said earlier, this is not always a good indication of the potential of a team.  We board the boat near the finishing line and therefore use the 800 m to the starting point as a final tune-up and warm-up.

We have a good start.  Since I am on the left side of our boat, I can glance at HP and NUM and we are even with them.  After 200 m HP starts to draw ahead with a faster maintenance pace than we can maintain.  NUM draws ahead as well, but our hard-10 brings us back closer.  After 400 m, the race is essentially decided.  HP and NUM are stronger than we are and slowly draw away from us.  One more hard-10 brings us closer, but not close enough to challenge.  In the end, we are close third, beaten again by NUM!

The advantage of being part of a larger Dragon Boat family is immediately obvious.  We are clearly disappointed not to have advanced to the final but when we return to the ExxonMobil tent, we are greeted with applause and pats on the back by all, dragon boaters and fans alike.  Just what we needed to realise that what we did was an achievement after all.

Unfortunately, none of the other EM men’s team qualified for the finals.  The Lillies did quite well, coming in 5 th place overall.  HP won both the men and the ladies competitions!

Just as a point of comparison, the top 10-men competition is the Inter-business houses and clubs.  Their time is 10-20 seconds faster than we can do.

And the national final for 20-men boats is more than a minute quicker …

We have a long way to go before we can compete at these levels.

Overall, we had a lot of fun … we took this photo of the ‘happy’ family at the end of the day.

Coming up: Corporate Community Games on 12 July and the Jurong Island Races on 26 July (which I will unfortunately miss).  We are ready as both of these are true mixed competitions where we have a better chance of success.

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